"Good luck." Neville said solemnly, as he began to walk down the marble steps to the ground floor.
Harry nodded in recognition "Thanks. Remember, we're counting on you."
"I won't let you down." With that, the round faced boy began sprinting down the staircase, taking the steps two at a time. Harry watched him for a moment, wincing as the child stumbled for a moment before recovering. It wouldn't do to have his messenger crack his head open on the marble steps.
"Alright, you two." Harry said with a renewed sense of urgency. "Stick behind me. Behind the door there's a Cerberus. Don't panic, just start singing "Mary had a Little Lamb and we'll be fine."
Ron smiled weakly at his jest. "Do we need to do any dancing as well?"
"I'm serious, Ron. It'll probably have been put to sleep by Quirrell, but if it hasn't, do what I say, when I say it."
"Cerberuses are lulled to sleep by music, Ron." Hermione explained, managing the herculean task of only sounding slightly patronising. "But, speaking of Quirrell, are you sure he is trying to steal this.. Philosopher's Stone? If you're wrong, we could be in really big trouble."
"Besides," Ron added. "How could Quirrell steal anything? He can barely finish a sentence!"
"Because I reckon Quirrell's been possessed by You-Know-Who." Harry said impatiently, as he began walking up the stairs, taking them two at a time.
Ron and Hermione stopped mid stride. They exchanged a look as Harry's steps echoed through the cavernous space. "How…How would you know that?" Hermione asked quietly.
"The scar!" Ron answered triumphantly, flashing a grin at the girl. "He can sense You-Know-Who with it, right Harry?"
Harry looked back at the two, who were trailing behind him. "Yes, that's right, very clever Ron." He said in a tone that suggested it was the opposite. "Now come on, we don't have time to waste."
"Wait, you mean we're going to try to stop You-Know-Who ourselves? We can't do that, we're only first years! We have to go back and find Dumbledore!" Hermione quailed, her voice rising in panic.
Ron looked nervously at her for a moment, and then at the fleeing back of Harry, who was now a little ahead of them, and didn't seem to be slowing his pace to let them catch up. He smiled unsurely at Hermione. "Harry beat him once though, yeah? He can do it again." He said, trying to sound reassuring.
Hermione looked at him for a moment, searching his face for a hint of doubt. After a moment, she gave a satisfied nod, although her face remained pale. "Well…let's make sure he doesn't have to do it alone."
Harry, his compatriots just behind, pushed the door open gently, waiting for the telltale growling and gnashing of teeth. There was none. Instead, there was a low intake of breath, followed by a snort. Another breath. Another snort. Harry nodded happily as he left the cover of the doorframe, stepping into the darkened room. On the other side, a sleeping, three-headed, oversized canine was snoring as an enchanted harp tinkled prettily.
"Alright, it's asleep. Quickly, through the trapdoor. Remember, don't panic when you hit the Snare." He whispered, before stealing over to the trapdoor. Ron and Hermione followed soon after, each muffled footstep making Harry wince.
Ron grabbed the trapdoor, and pulled it up and back. It swung open, revealing a pitch black hole. He looked up at Harry nervously. "You're sure it's not too far, right?"
Harry nodded with a confidence he did not feel. "Yep. Follow me." With that, he heaved himself over the lip.
His heart started beating madly as he fell into the inky blackness, his mind rushing through all the ways he could have miscalculated. What if the snare wasn't in place yet? What if the room had been changed before he and Draco went through its trials? What if-
He landed with a soft fwump on the cold, damp 'floor', his hand immediately going for his wand.
"Harry are you alright down there?" An anxious girl's voice called down to him from the small hole of light above.
"Yeah, I'm fine!" He said, as he grasped his wand with a sigh of relief.
Suddenly, there was a girlish scream from above, followed by a loud roar.
"It's awake!" Ron screamed, before the light the hole up above was obscured for a moment by a shadow.
Harry dove to his right as a body plummeted down the shaft and into the room with him, landed with a muffled thump and the whoomp of air being driven from the lungs.
"Who's that, what's going on?" Harry demanded quickly at the blackness.
Another loud roar from above, followed by a startled cry of pain. Once again, the light was obscured as a shadow jumped from the higher room. As it fell, there was a wordless exclamation of terror that echoed throughout the chamber before it was abruptly halted with an echoing thump in the darkness.
"Lumos." Harry muttered, holding his wand out in front of him.
His wand lit up with an arcane glow, revealing a small, green room. Ron and Hermione were on the ground, tendrils already curling around their arms and legs as they looked at him with wide, frightened eyes. Immediately, Harry's gaze was drawn to the three deep gashes running down Ron's left leg, already leaking blood. As his spell lit up the room, he could feel the green vines recoiling from his ankles, slinking away to the other darkened parts of the room.
He ran over to the bound children, his Lumos brightening further as he pushed more power into the incantation. The insidious green tentacles retreated from their prey, recoiling from the almost blinding light.
Ron, his face scrunched up and teary, clutched his bleeding leg, looking up at Harry pleadingly. Hermione just stared at the blood pooling on the cobblestones in shock, her face white with shock and her hand clasped over her mouth.
"Hermione, help me get him to the door!" Harry shouted as he leant down on one knee to help Ron to his good leg.
"S'okay, Harry. I..I think I can walk on it." Ron groaned, clasping Harry's hand firmly. Swiftly, he was back on his feet, albeit with one leg being favoured over the other.
With that problem dealt with, Harry turned his attention to his other compatriot. "Hermione?" He asked gently, looking at the frozen girl, who stared back at him with wide, scared eyes. "We really have to go." He explained, using his most calming tone of voice.
Hermione nodded, her eyes still fixed on the claw marks in her housemate's leg. Almost reluctantly, she pulled herself away from the scene, and not a moment too soon.
The Devil's Snare, beginning to adjust to the new light, started to creep back, its serpentine green appendages casting shadows on the walls. As one, the trio rushed towards the door, Ron almost skipping as he tried to put as little weight as possible on his wounded leg. Harry brought up the rear, brightening his spell further to compensate for the Snare's adaption.
Hermione wrenched open the creaky wooden door, nearly hitting herself with it in her blind panic. As she held it open, Ron rushed through, his leg dripping blood onto the cobblestones. Hermione went through a moment after, immediately putting her back under Ron's shoulder as a makeshift crutch for the injured boy. Finally, Harry backed his way through as his spell started to falter. As the Snare marshalled its courage for one last assault, he kicked close the heavy wooden door. Trial two, complete.
Exhausted, he rested his body on the wall, letting his body recharge as Ron went to the floor behind him. It really was pathetic how far his magical core had deteriorated since he arrived. Less than six months ago, he would have been able to hold that spell, even at that intensity, for days. Now he'd been barely able to hold it for thirty seconds.
"Harry?" Hermione asked timidly from behind him, rudely interrupting his self-loathing. "Ron's bleeding."
"Well thanks for pointing out the obvious, Granger." Harry said acridly as he pushed himself off the wall to take stock of the situation. Immediately, he regretted his words. Hermione's lip trembled, and her face was white with fear. Her eyes twitched to and fro, betraying her rising panic. Great.
Harry adjusted the rims of his glasses for a moment, taking comfort from the familiar feeling of the black plastic in his hands. He looked up, taking in the sight of a thousand winged keys diving and flying around the upper half of the room. One of them, assuming nothing had changed since last time, was the key.
"Harry?" Hermione prompted, looking nervously at a rapidly-whitening Ron.
Right. One thing at a time. Harry looked down at his wounded friend, his eyes examining the blood blossoming from the rips in the skin. Already, his trousers were becoming stained with a crimson tide.
"It looks worse than it." Harry said, trying and failing to sound comforting. "Give me a sec, and you'll be good as new."
"But..how?" Hermione interjected, her natural curiosity overpowering her panic for a moment.
"We'll need to cut it off." Harry said coolly, his wand whipping up to the ready.
Ron and Hermione simultaneously let out a wordless shriek of protest, before noticing the slight smile on the Boy-Who-Lived's face.
"I'm kidding. Obviously. Just give me a moment." With that, he lowered his wand at the wounds, ignoring the angry looks on Hermione's face as she absorbed the untimely joke.
"Vulnera Sanentur." Harry chanted, his body tensing as his child's core tried to summon the power required to complete the spell.
"Vulnera Sanentur" Harry chanted again, as the deep gashes began to close, the flesh knitting itself together. But it did not come without a cost. Harry could feel the edges of his vision slowly blurring, and he was almost swaying on his feet.
"Vulnera…Sanent…ugh.." As he chanted the words for a third and final time, he felt a sudden release, as if the weight of the world was lifted from his shoulders. As his vision blackened, and his exhausted body thankfully began to sink to the floor, he felt two weak arms loop around his chest. Then, his world went dark.