Summary: AU. This is a wrong-boy-who-lived story.
Warnings: This story may contain child abuse, violence, gore, coarse language, and homicidal and suicidal thoughts and actions. More may be added to future chapters.
Rated: T. I may raise it later, and tell me if you think it should be raised.
Disclaimer: All characters and places belong to J.K. Rowling. I own nothing.
Chapter 6
It was at the end of the first week when Hermione was approached by her cousin, Draco Malfoy.
"Are you Bellatrix & Rodulphus' daughter" he asked bluntly.
"Not very subtle are you and for that matter, it is not concern of yours who are my parents" said Hermione in a hard tone.
"I just wanted to know if we were family" stated Draco.
"Listen, when or if I tell you will be up to me and so for now leave me alone and stay out of my way" said Hermione walking away from him.
"So what did Malfoy want" asked Harry.
"If we were family or not" Hermione said simply.
"Did you tell him" asked Harry.
"No as I saw it as none of his business if we are related or not. It not like it matter to him or his family before. They never looked for me or cared what happened to me before. In my opinion I only have one family member and that is you" said Hermione.
Harry dropped the subject as he knew it wouldn't go over well trying to ask her anything else.
Thursday of the next week was flying lessons. Harry was left wondering what idiot thought it was a good idea to have all four houses together for one lesson, especially Gryffindors and Slytherins.
Hermione and Harry had arrived early to get the best brooms and noticed Neville had came early as well. He was very nervous. They were lucky to be the first ones to arrive.
"Neville, you will be alright but you need to not be so nervous. We will be by you if something happen. Just relax" said Harry.
Harry was giving him a few instructions and actually got Neville on a broom before the class arrived so that he was more comfortable. Neville's real problem was nerves.
When the class arrived, Madame Hooch came out and instructed everyone what they needed to do. Harry and Hermione made sure to stay close to Neville encase something went wrong but Neville ended up okay. It was Brian Dunstan that had problems. It wasn't his flying skills but the old broken down brooms that was the problem. It malfunction and caused him to lose control of his broom and ended up breaking his wrist. While Harry realize Brian needed medical attention, he wondered why a teacher would leave a class full of eleven years alone with brooms was stupid in Harry's opinion. Especially when she could have easily had one of the students take him to the infirmary but witches and wizards did lack logic on many things.
No sooner was the teacher out of earshot when Draco Malfoy started laughing and he was joined by his housemates.
"Did you see his face, the great lump!" exclaimed Malfoy.
"Shut up, Malfoy" said Jake. Harry just rolled his eyes. Leave it to Jake to act like a hero.
"Oh, I am so scared" said Draco faking shudders of terror. Malfoy noticed Brian's Remembrall on the ground. "If the idiot had used this he might have remembered how to stop"
"Give that back, Malfoy" shouted Jake.
"Or what?" said Malfoy. "I think will just leave it somewhere he can find it– – – how about a tree."
"Give it" said Jake approaching Malfoy but he hopped on his broom and began flying. Jake did the same thing but with less style than Malfoy. Jake flew after Malfoy until he threw the Remembrall and got back on the ground. In a kind of clumsy manner, Jake caught it before it hit the ground and tumbled off his broom.
"Mr. Potter, I hope you felt your foolish attempt of flying was worth the trouble you are in" said Prof. Snape as he walked over to them. "Come with me now"
Jake looked like he was about to faint but followed. The Slytherins just sniggered about it. Harry silently prayed that Jake would get into trouble for once in his life.
Later that evening when Hermione and Harry overheard Ron and Jake talking about how he had made the Quidditch them.
"So instead of punishing Jake for flying, Prof. McGonagall gave him the position of Seeker." said Hermione angrily. I was a breech of school rules and unfair to the other students.
"If the headmaster okayed it he can and I doubt he would deny his golden boy a chance like that" said Harry.
"But they shouldn't be favoring him like that" said Hermione.
"He is the boy-who-lived so the rules don't apply to him" spat Harry bitterly. It was the story of his life. Everyone always made an exception for Jake and Harry was sick and tired of it.
At dinner that night, Jake was there eating with his friends and looked rather smug. Harry looked up at the staff table and noticed that Prof. Snape was fuming about it and the fact he was glaring at Jake spoke volumes. He also noticed that Prof. McGonagall looked rather smug as well.
Harry was having a hard time controlling his emotions and that would mean disaster. Noticing Harry's struggle, Hermione decided to distract him.
"Hey look at the newspaper" said Hermione shoving the paper at Harry. She rather not think about the unfairness of school politics. Harry read the article that Hermione was talking about. It was another article about the break-in at Gringotts.
"I thought Gringotts was the safest place in the world beside's Hogwarts" said Harry.
"Yeah but someone broke in" said Harry.
"They had to be very desperate" said Hermione.
"I wonder who would do it." said Harry.
"I don't know but I feel that it has something to do with what is on the third floor" said Hermione.
"But that is very stupid to bring something like that to a school full of children. If they were willing to break-in to Gringotts, what to say they wouldn't do the same at Hogwarts. He is endanger the lives of innocent students" said Harry.
"Yeah, I logical thinking person would know that but remember the school is being ran by a Gryffindor" said Hermione and that answered Harry's question. He lived with Gryffindors and on several occasions wondered if they were dumb.
The next day, Hermione and Harry were heading to the library when they passed Jake and Ron. They overheard them talking about something.
'I can't believe that rat faced Malfoy stood us up' complained Jake.
'He is afraid of you. That is why he couldn't face you and sent Filch instead' said Ron.
'Yeah and we nearly got killed because of that giant three headed dog on the Third Flood' was the last they heard of the conversation.
"That sounded like a Cerberus. They are used to guard things and it most be very important if they use something like that" said Hermione once they were in the library.
"Yes, and they must have set up more than one form of protection but that doesn't help us figure out what it is" said Harry.
"Well it does tell us it is of great importance. We just have to do more research into his friends as if it was his he would already had it at the school" said Hermione.
Time went by rather quickly because Halloween seemed to have snuck up on them. They were busy feeling their days with much learning and discovery. They were enjoying their studies especially Potions with Prof. Snape. The class held much intrigue and they couldn't wait until they would get into the harder stuff. They even made a few friends and two of them were Fred and George Weasley. They were okay in their books as they were a little different a bit of misfits in their own way.
As Hermione and Harry were making their way down to the Great Hall for the feast, when someone set off smoke bombs on the stairs. It was a bit difficult to see because of the smoke so they go a little confused. When they were able to see again, they were inside an unfamiliar corridor and tried to find their way out. They opened a door and walking inside it was dark. It took a few moments before they thought to use their wands and said a lighting spell. They got the scare of their life when they were face-to-face with a three headed Cerberus and realized they were on the third floor.
Thinking quickly, Hermione realize they were too far away from the door to make it when she noticed that they were standing by a trapdoor and open it. She pulled Harry inside with her. They fell a long ways down until they landed on something soft that felt plant-like.
They quickly got up and realize that the plant wanted them to stay but they were quicker. Lighting their wands, they noticed that it was devil's snare. It liked damp and dark places as sunlight harmed it.
"What are we going to do" asked Hermione.
"We can't go back the way we came so, I suggest we just keep going and hope we find a way out of here" asked Harry.
"We feel a long ways down and we could be all the way in the dungeons or possibly below them" said Hermione.
"Probably right but we need to move forward" said Harry.
As they walked on, they went through a passageway sloped downward, and it reminded Harry of Gringotts. With an unpleasant jolt of the heart, he remembered the dragons that were suppose to guard their vaults. If they met a dragon, Harry doubted they would survive.
The passageway lead to a lit chamber, its ceiling arching high above them. It was full of small, jewel-bright birds, fluttering and tumbling all around the room. On the opposite side of the chamber was a heavy wooden door. Two brooms appeared out of nowhere beside them.
"Harry, those are not birds" said Hermione.
"They are keys" said Harry. "I think we are suppose to fly up and retrieve the key that unlocks that door. It sound most likely be different from the others. It probably is silver like the door handle and old-fashion looking"
"No, it would be best if we summoned them to us" said Hermione.
Focusing on the key they wanted, they said the spell and it flew at them. Jumping out of its way, they barely kept from getting struck by it but thankfully it hit the wall behind.
Picking up the key, they place it in the lock and turned it. They left that room but not before taking the brooms with them.
Then next chamber was so dark that they couldn't see anything at all. As they stepped into it, light suddenly flooded the room to reveal a huge chessboard. 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 black stone. Facing them, way across the chamber, were the white pieces. Harry and Hermione shivered slightly - the towering white chessmen had no faces.
"Seeing as there are three missing pieces, it would seem that they want us to play across" said Hermione.
"I don't think that would be a good idea as I feel this would be like wizard chess" said Harry.
"As I don't think we could just walk across, we should fly across" said Hermione.
"That is what we should do. We have brooms" said Harry.
"You are kidding right" hoped Hermione.
"No" said Harry.
Both hopped on their brooms and flew over the board. They noticed a door on the wall behind the white pieces and flew to it. They had just made it to the door, when a noise alert them to something happening behind them. Turning around, they saw the white queen just as she threw her sword at them. They were able to fly out of the way and it broke through the door. Still on their brooms, they flew threw the broken door and was shock to see a dead mountain troll. It had been killed by the sword the white queen threw at them.
Another doorway was open and they flew through it. Landing their brooms, they saw a table at its center with seven different shaped potion phials lined up. Sensing no real danger in the room, they walked over to the potion. A second later purple fire sprang up on the doorway behind them and black fire covered the doorway in front of them. They were trapped.
Walking over to the table, they instantly noticed a piece of parchment with writing on it.
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 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 right on the right
Are twins once you taste them, though different at first sight.
Hermione let out a great sigh and Harry, amazed, saw that she was smiling, the very last thing he felt like doing.
"Brilliant," said Hermione. "This isn't magic- it's logic- a puzzle. A lot of the greatest wizards haven't got an ounce of logic, they'd be stuck in here forever."
"So can you figure it out" asked Harry.
"Listen up" said Hermione. "Everything we need is here on this paper. Seven bottles: three are poison; two are wine; one will get us safely through the black fire and one will get us back through the purple fire."
"But how will we know which to drink?" asked Harry.
"Give me a minute."
Hermione read over the paper several times. She studied each potion until at last she figured it out.
"Got it," she said showing him the two phials. "This one will get us through the black fire and this one will get us through the purple fire.
"So which one are we going to do go through the black fire or back through the purple fire" said Harry. "Since we already went this far, we could just keep going on"
"I agree but we will have to leave the brooms here as the fire would burn them up" said Hermione.
"Okay" said Harry. They each drank a third of the potion that would get them through the black fire and immediately felt as if their bodies even their insides were soaked in ice.
Taking a deep breath, they walked through the black flames and was rather surprised when they came out unharmed. Moments later, they were inside another chamber that only held a large mirror.
Harry walked in front of it and saw himself. Then his mirror self winked at him and pulled a blood-red stone out of his pocket before placing it back in his pocket. Harry instantly felt a weight in his pocket.
Turning his glaze from the mirror, Harry placed his hand in his pocket and pulled out the red stone for Hermione and himself to see.
"How did you get that" asked Hermione and Harry described what happened. "It must have been some enchantment. Lets just get out of here okay"
Walking back through the black fire, they re-entered the room and took the potion for the purple-fire but not before grabbing their brooms. They flew pass the other challenges and even pass the Cerberus, who was oddly distracted. They decided to go back to their dorm and stash the stone when they noticed that their house was making their way back into the dorm. They overheard the other Ravenclaws talking about how Quirrell had ran into the Great Hall screaming about a Troll before fainting.
Hermione and Harry found that a little suspicious as Prof. Quirrell's specialized in Trolls and should have been able to handled the troll. They had been a little suspicious of him when they noticed that his stuttering pattern was off. Also Harry would get strange headaches his lesson that he didn't associate with the garlic at all.
A/N: I promised more glimpses of the Harry's and Hermione's life pre-Hogwarts.