CHAPTER 11
Hermione's POV

Professor McGonagall explained to us where Charlotte had gone, and that she probably wouldn't be back for several days, if at all. Her mother had just died, and she needed to mourn with her family. I felt awful for her.

Although we were all still confused as to why the newspaper clipping had fallen from Lottie's envelope.

It was in the afternoon of Lottie's departure that we finally figured out most of the mystery of the Philosopher's Stone. We'd been lying in the shade of a tree by the lake, when Harry came to a sudden realisation. He didn't tell us what he thought of, but instead led us towards Hagrid's. "Don't you think it's odd," he shouted over his shoulder. "That what Hagrid wants more than anything is a dragon, and a stranger just happens to have one?"

At Hagrid's hut, Harry interrogated him about that night in the pub. Under pressure, Hagrid let a few, unfortunate facts through, and everything began to fall into place. It was also unfortunate, because if we could get these facts out of him this easily, I didn't doubt someone else could get them out of him too, especially when he was probably drunk and very happy about a dragon egg. On the plus side though, we now knew how to get past Fluffy.

After saying a hurried and panicked farewell to Hagrid, Harry led us up to the castle. He said something about talking to Professor Dumbledore, but it came out as a bit of a garbled mess in his excitement. However, we never got as far as the Professor's office, as we bumped into Professor McGonagall on the way. None of us seemed particularly pleased about the encounter, and it only resulted in us getting mildly told off and McGonagall aware of our knowledge of the Stone. Also from the conversation, Harry managed to guess that Snape would steal the Stone tonight.

In order to try and stop Snape, we came up with a plan. Ron and Harry would wait outside the third-floor corridor, and I would wait outside the staffroom. Unfortunately, our plan failed on both parts: Ron and Harry came across Professor McGonagall again, and were nearly given detention (again). I was also stopped. When Snape left the staffroom, he asked what I was doing. I panicked, and responded by saying I was waiting for Professor Flitwick. I was forced to wait after that, and forced to talk with Professor Flitwick, meaning I wasn't able to keep an eye on Snape. As soon as I was able to leave, I did, and went running to the Gryffindor common room, where I found Ron and Harry waiting.

I quickly explained what had happened at the staffroom. They also explained what had happened on the third floor, and we descended into an awkward silence. Harry broke the silence first, "I'm going down the trapdoor. Tonight."

Both Ron and I were shocked. "What! You can't do that! You'll get EXPELLED!" I exclaimed.

"Hermione, don't you get it? This is no longer just about school! If Snape gets the Stone and gives it to Voldemort, then the whole world is doomed! It doesn't matter about grades, or house points, or Quidditch anymore! None of that's important," Harry argued angrily.

There was a pause. "I'll use my invisibility cloak, and the flute Hagrid got me for Christmas, and I'll go down the trapdoor tonight," Harry explained quietly.

But Ron and I couldn't just let him kill himself. Not on his own. "Well, we're coming with you then," Ron demanded, and I nodded in agreement. Harry didn't even try to argue.

We stayed in the common room until at least midnight, waiting for everyone else to leave. When the common room was finally empty, we got up to leave when a voice came from the far side of the room, "Where are you going?" Neville appeared from around an armchair.

Harry tried to reassure him by saying that we weren't doing anything. Neville, however, knew us too well, "You're going out again. You're going to make us lose more points," he stuttered. "I won't let you. I'll - I'll fight you."

As Ron tried to hopelessly argue with him, Harry desperately whispered to me, "Do something." So, I racked my brains to come up with a suitable spell.

"Sorry Neville," I said. "Petrificus Totalus." Neville instantly stiffened up like a board, and fell over onto his back. We then covered ourselves in the invisibility cloak and slipped out the portrait hole.

At the third floor, we were greeted with the sight of a self-playing harp, and a sleeping Fluffy, with all three heads snoring peacefully. We managed to move one of the dog's paws to reveal the trapdoor. We heaved open the door and looked down into the seemingly never-ending drop below. We didn't know what was down there, and so I was surprised when Ron offered to jump down first. When I heard him shout up saying it was ok, I jumped, closely followed by Harry.

At the bottom of the shaft, we landed in a soft and slightly slimy pile of ropes. I thought they seemed rather a lot like plants. As Harry landed, Ron mentioned how far under the school we must be. Harry said it was lucky this plant thing was here to catch our fall. I didn't think it was as lucky as he said, because when I looked at the boys, vines were stretching over their legs and stomachs, holding them down. I told them as such, and they instantly panicked, just as they shouldn't have. I had identified the plant as Devil's Snare, which squeezes its victims to their death. I told the boys to relax, doing so myself. In a relaxed state, I slid through the vines, and ended up landing in a cavernous room.

I shouted up to the two boys that they needed to relax, but only Harry listened. He fell down beside me, before he too shouted up at Ron. He also asked me to do something (again), so I racked brains for anything that might help. Then it came to me: Devil's Snare hated sunlight and loved the damp and the dark. "That's it! I need to make a fire! But I don't have any wood!" In my panic, I forgot the basic principles of being a witch.

Luckily, Ron came to my aid, "ARE YOU A WITCH OR NOT!?"

That shook me out of my confusion, and I charmed a few bluebell flames to appear. The Devil's snare reacted accordingly and promptly dropped Ron.

"Good thing no one panicked," he said as he dusted himself off.

We quickly walked towards the next room, not wanting to waste any more time than necessary. An odd buzzing, sort of like birds, was coming from behind the door, and I was intrigued as to what we would have to face. Inside the room, we saw hundreds of what appeared to be birds. The boys wondered if they would attack us if we crossed the room, and Harry decided to run across the room to check, covering his face and eyes with his arms. When he wasn't attacked, Ron and I followed, and all three of us then tried push and pull open the door, with no luck.

I looked around the room in desperation: how were we meant to retrieve the Stone if we couldn't even get out of the second. In my search, I looked more closely at the birds (maybe they would be of help) and noticed they were glittering. Glittering. In fact, they weren't birds at all, but instead winged keys. The other two had also noticed this, and also that there was a broomstick resting in the middle of the floor. Harry came to a conclusion of what we had to do quicker than I did: "We've got to use the broom to catch the right one!"

I didn't like the sound of this, "But there are hundreds there!"

Ron examined the handle intently, "Well, it's got to be big, and probably old-fashioned and silver too, like the handle."

Harry seized the broomstick and flew into the air, looking for a key that would suit the description. He circled for a bit, before Ron called out, "That one, with the crumpled wing!" Harry quickly spotted the key in question, and chased after it for a second, before eventually catching it. He flew with it down to us, and I pushed the key through the key hole, opening the way into the next room.

At first, the room was shrouded in darkness, with shadows lurking inside. However, as soon as we stepped, torches on the walls lit, revealing a giant, life-sized chess board. The shadows I had been able to distinguish earlier were in fact massive chess pieces, made even scarier as none of the white pieces had any faces. I didn't know what the point of this obstacle was, but luckily Harry spoke it for me. Ron answered, "Well, I think we've got to play our way across the board. And, no offence, since neither of you are particularly good at chess -"

He trailed off, but Harry cut him off anyway, "We're not offended, just tell us what to do."

Ron told me to become a castle, and Harry to become a Bishop, while he became a knight. Ron took charge quite comfortably, darting round the board when possible to get a better view, and for tactical advantage. Our first major shock was when the white queen took our black knight (not Ron) and turned it into smashed smithereens, just like in Wizard's Chess. That was when we realised the seriousness of the game. Ron then continued moving round the board, taking as many white pieces as they took black. Eventually, he started muttering to himself, saying, "Yes... it's the only way... I've got to be taken..."

Both Harry and I protested, but Ron was adamant, "That's chess! You've got to make sacrifices! I'll move, so the queen will take me, which leaves you free to checkmate the king, Harry! It's the only way!" Ron wouldn't let Harry argue, and moved to his final position. As he planned, the white queen took him, sending him flying across the room, where he landed, unconscious. I very nearly lost my cool and ran after him, but Harry stopped me just in time. The game wasn't over yet.

Harry moved, check-mating the king, and ending the game. We then both ran over to Ron, to check he was alright. After being reassured, we quickly walked to the doorway, and passed through into the next room.

This room was the worst smelling one so far, and after looking in the corner, we noticed why. A big mountain troll was in the corner, similar to the one we fought on Halloween. Luckily, this one was already unconscious, having already been fought be Snape, and meant we could just pass through.

The next room held only a table, with seven potion bottles sat on top. A piece of parchment lay next to them. When we stepped over the threshold of the room, purple flames shot up behind us in the doorway, and black flames sprouted in the other doorway before us. As we were now in the room, we were able to get a closer look at the table, and saw that the parchment had a riddle on it, telling us how to escape the room:

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 stay here for evermore,
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 are your friend;
Third, as you see clearly, all are different size,
Neither dwarf nor giant holds death on their insides;
Fourth, the second left and the second on the right
Are twins once you taste them, though different at first sight.

I knew that this task was one I would be most capable at solving. It was interesting it had been put as a challenge, as many wizards may be great at spells and duelling, but most were terribly lacking in the intellectual and logical fortes. Almost unknowingly, I started pacing up and down, whispering and muttering to myself. A few moments later though, I clapped my hands and told Harry which bottles we should drink. "The smallest bottle will get us through the black fire," I explained. "And the one at the end will get us through the purple."

"But there's only enough in that for one of us to get through the black flames!" he protested.

I thought fast, "Well then, I'll go back and get Ron, and we can use the broom from the flying key room to get out the trap door and get help, and - oh! -" A wave of emotion swept over me, and I threw myself at Harry, wrapping my arms round him. I whispered to him, "You're a great wizard, you know that, Harry?" I then told him to be careful, before taking a large gulp of the right potion. I then walked straight through the purple flames, not wanting to look back at Harry behind me.

I then ran over to Ron by the chess board, and gently shook him, wanting to wake him. I wasn't sure what else to do, and was relieved and surprised when he groaned and opened an eyelid several moments later. I then briefly explained what had happened and the vague plan. That woke him up the rest of the way, and he quickly leapt to his feet, saying there was no time to loose.

We then collected the broom from the flying key room, and rose from the ground, slightly shaky as we weren't sure if the old and rickety broom could hold the weight of two people. Luckily it did, and we flew much faster around the Devil's Snare and up the trapdoor. We dismounted as soon as we were past Fluffy (I hated flying with a passion), and started running to the Owlery in order to owl Professor Dumbledore. However, we never got that far, as we bumped into him on the way. He only spoke a few words, "Harry's done after him, hasn't he?" before swiftly moving past us back in the direction we had just come from. We were then left standing aimlessly, but when Ron started swaying slightly, I decided to escort him to the hospital wing.

We probably both needed it.

Another Saturday, so another update. This was a long one. Thank you again to all those who have taken the time to view this, and then favourite and follow this story, as well as to review it! They mean a lot to me.

See you all again next week.