Alex felt like his heart was racing faster than a golden snitch could flutter. As they made their way to the forbidden corridor on the third floor underneath Harry's invisibility cloak, none of them even dared to whisper. They were all thinking about what terrible things could possibly be in the forbidden corridor and what could possibly happen to them. But they also knew that the consequences of Voldemort getting his hands on the stone would be worse, for everyone.
Alex clutched the small flute that Ron borrowed (though without asking) from his brother Percy with a shaking hand. He could feel Hermione shaking beside him and Ron's shallow breathing. The hall was poorly lit and they found it hard to walk without tripping on each other or on the cloak.
When they came to the familiar rusting door, Hermione brought out her wand and pointed it towards the lock. "Alohomora."
The door unlocked and was pulled open by a draft. The draft was strong enough to blow off the invisibility cloak. Alex watched Harry quickly shove the cloak into his bag; Harry was reluctant to lose it again anytime soon. Lying in front of them was Fluffy with all three heads in a silent slumber. One of the heads started to sniff and opened its eyes. Before Alex could bring the small flute to his mouth, the whole beast was awake and started barking wildly. If it wasn't for the large chain that acted as a leash, Alex was sure that they would all be devoured.
"Alex!" Ron yelled frantically over the sound of beastly snarling, "Play something!"
Alex was almost too frozen in fear to bring the flute to his mouth. He was elected to play as he was the only one of them to have been given some instrumental lessons (although Uncle Ian preferred Alex to be involved with sports). He picked Greensleeves as it was his favourite song to play. He began to blow.
Surely enough, the beast began to quieten and become sluggish until it eventually fell to the floor, barely leaving the trap door exposed. They quickly made a break for it, jumping through the trap door without a second thought.
That would be a foolish mistake. They landed in the dark and on what felt to Alex like a pile of worms but on second glance, it was clear that they had landed on vines. It was terrifying. Harry, Ron and himself began to scream and thrash around. Hermione, on the other hand, was silent and still though tense.
"Hermione? What's wrong with you? This thing is going to strangle you!"
"Stop moving!" Hermione called, "It's Devil's Snare."
"Oh, I'm so glad we know what it's called, that's a great help." Ron replied sarcastically.
"Shut up, I'm trying to remember how to kill it!"
"Well, hurry up, I can't breathe!"
"Just wait. If you struggle, it'll only pull tighter. If we keep still it will let us down. Relax."
Soon after she said this, she began to sink and fell to the floor beneath with a thud.
"It's ok. Just keep still."
Alex froze still. It took all of his willpower to keep still; the wriggling was going to drive him mad. But slowly, he felt the vines begin to relent and he began to sink, slowly, onto the unseen floor below him. Alex fell to the floor with a thud, glad to be rid of the vines. However, the feel of the vines around him lingered on his skin for some time. Harry fell to the floor shortly after.
However, Ron was still finding it hard to relax. He kept on struggling despite what Hermione had told them.
"It's ok, Ron," Hermione reassured, "Just relax."
"He's not going to relax." He told Hermione shaking his head slightly.
"How can I?! This thing is strangling me to death!" Ron yelled.
Hermione began to recite to herself, "Devil's Snare, Devil's Snare, its deadly fun but will sulk in the sun. That's it! Devil's Snare hates sunlight!"
Hermione aimed her wand at the vines, "Lumos soleum!"
A jet of light erupted from Hermione's wand and touched the vines surrounding Ron. The vines made a vile snarling, hissing sound then withered, releasing Ron and allowing him to fall to the ground.
"Thankfully, we're alright." Ron said as he brushed himself off.
"Thankfully, Hermione pays attention in Herbology." Harry corrected.
They entered the next room with no time to spare. It was dusty and clustered. They could hear fluttering of wings, Alex looked up to see hundreds of birds – no, keys with wings - flying all around the room. There was also broomstick in the middle of the room. On the other side of the room there was a door.
Hermione rushed to the door and cast 'alohomora', to no effect.
"I presume we're going to have to find and catch the key that fits into the lock." Hermione stated glumly.
Ron groaned. Alex and Harry looked around at the keys he noticed a particular one that was older looking, bigger and had a chipped wing.
"Maybe it's that old one over there." Harry said, pointing to the key in question, "Surely that old key would fit into that old lock. If not, we'll be here all night."
"I'm assuming one of us is going to have to fly up there?" Ron stated.
Alex picked up the lock and looked at it closely. He hoped that wouldn't be too hard to pick a lock that was so rusted and old. He knew that the lock was most probably protected through magic and picking the lock would probably not work but it was worth a shot at this time.
"Let's see if I can pick it." Alex told them, "I've done it dozens of times. Uncle Ian showed me how to do it as a kid."
"It probably won't work, Alex" Harry said, "But you can try it if you want to."
"Your Uncle showed you that?" Hermione asked with her eyebrows raised.
Alex wasn't bothered. He took the pick and tension wrench out of the kit and put them in place. He half expected the pieces to burn to bits inside the lock but after a few minutes of fiddling, the lock clicked and he pushed the door open. They didn't need to bother flying up and catching the key after all. He was lucky to have brought the lock picking kit that Uncle Ian gave him. Alex was thankful that Uncle Ian suggested that he got into the habit of having it with him whenever he expected trouble. It amused Alex that they had not bothered to protect the lock from non-magical tampering.
"I haven't seen that before," Ron exclaimed, "My dad has always had a soft spot for muggle magic tricks. That's cool!"
"It's not a magic trick, Ron," Hermione corrected as only Hermione could typically do, "it's called lock picking and it's something that muggle criminals often do."
"It's really cool though." Harry added.
Alex smiled, "Thanks guys."
They turned around to see a giant chessboard. The pieces were made of beautiful marble, black on their side while white on the other. There were four empty places, one for a queen, one for a king, one for a bishop and one for a knight to sit on a black marble horse.
"Woah!" Harry exclaimed, "I assume that we're going to have to play to get to the other side."
Hermione tried to walk over to the other side, the pawns all brought out their swords to block any way though. Flames erupted on the other side. There was obviously no way in hell that they were going to get through any other way.
"I was just checking," Hermione said, clearly embarrassed.
"Hmm…. What's going to happen if we lose?" Harry wondered with a frown.
"We're not going to lose Harry," Ron said, "I've been playing wizarding chess ever since I was young. Guys, we've been versing each other against Theodore all year who is the biggest chess genius I've ever come across. If we can't get through this then we can't play wizarding chess at all. Besides, we need to protect that stone! Harry, you can be a king. Alex, you can be the bishop. Hermione, you're a queen. As for me, I'm a knight."
Alex, knowing that they had no choice, went to stand in the place designated for the bishop. Between the four of them, they all argued where each piece was going to go before every move was made. It ended up being more arguing that actual chess but they were eventually getting through. Eventually, pawns, castles, bishops, knights and other pieces were all but gone on both sides leaving the four of them, the white queen and the white king.
"There's only one more move to make. You see it, don't you guys? Once I make my move, the Queen will take me. Harry, you'll be free to check the king."
"No, Ron you can't!" Harry called.
"What is it?" Hermione asked.
"He's going to sacrifice himself!" He explained. Alex knew wizarding chess well enough, even if he had only been playing over a year, to know where this was going.
"Ron, stop! There must be another way."
"Hermione," Ron exclaimed glumly, "There is no other way. We need to do this. Do you want the stone to be in you-know-who's hands?"
Hermione just stared back stunned. Harry nodded his head solemnly.
Ron closed his eyes and took a deep breath, "Knight to H3."
Ron and his horse advanced to the next square, Alex felt the hairs on the back of his neck stick up. The white Queen turned, advanced slowly towards Ron, then drew her sword and plunged it into Ron's horse, throwing him violently to the ground. Ron wasn't moving.
"Ron!" Harry yelled.
Hermione looked as though she was about to run over to him.
"No, Hermione – don't move. We need to finish the game."
Harry moved three squares diagonally to his left and then turned to face the King.
"Checkmate."
The white king's sword fell to the ground with an ear-splitting thud. Ron jolted but did not get up. For a moment, Alex allowed himself feel relief although it was far from over yet. The flames on the other side vanished, leaving them to cross. They sprinted over to Ron who was wailing in pain.
"I'm awake." Ron muttered with a painful groan, "But I don't think I can get up. I think my leg is broken."
"That's ok." Alex said, "Hermione and Harry, you guys can go into the next room alone. I'll look after Ron."
"Are you sure, Alex?"
"I'm sure."
She looked at him understandingly, "Just look out for yourself. You're a great wizard, Alex."
"You're a great witch. We couldn't have made it this far if it wasn't for your brains…"
"Books and cleverness," Hermione shook her head, "There are more important things in this world, like friendship and hope…"
"Can't you just get a move on already," Ron said impatiently, "Save all the heart-warming stuff for after we save the stone. We're not done yet."
"Shut it, Ron. What are we ever going to do with you?" Harry said jokingly, "I'll be back before you know it."
So Alex stayed with Ron for what felt like forever. When Hermione eventually came back and told them about the potions puzzle, Alex decided to try and find help.
"So Alex," Tracey asked with a smile, "You'll have to explain to me again later how you pick locks. I've always wanted to know. Of course, I'm only curious."
Alex had finished explaining what had happened that night for at least the third time, this time to Tracey, Lisa and Theodore. He didn't see any harm in telling them about what had happened. The whole school knew by now anyway or at least their version of what happened, there was no point in keeping secrets from his other friends - even Tracey who had a tendency to gossip. While Lisa was only relieved that they had survived the ordeal, Tracey was disappointed that she hadn't taken part in any of the action. In comparison to them both, Theodore only shook his head as he still considered what they had done to be foolish and irresponsible. However, he was well and truly use to the antics of Gryffindors by now.
"Well, it was a good thing that you could find Dumbledore in time," Lisa said.
"Yeah, funny that…" Theodore added.
"What do you mean?" Alex asked. He understood that many Slytherins were naturally distrusting of their Headmaster. Alex presumed that it was because Dumbledore had been a Gryffindore.
"You just happened to bump into Dumbledore on the way to his office?"
"He must have been on patrol duty. Why are you Slytherins so distrustful of Dumbledore?"
"It's not that we are distrustful." Theodore began to explain, "We're a closed-knit house and we usually come from strong wizarding families – so we don't forget things as easily or as readily as other houses. Dumbledore has a habit of being on the sidelines when important things are happening. It's been going on for far too long to be coincidence. He has a habit of manipulating people for what seems to be the greater good. Luckily nobody's been hurt in the process so far– not seriously at least."
"I can't say it's not true, Alex," Tracey added, "I've heard some of the stories."
"But putting four eleven-twelve year olds at serious risk seems barbaric." Lisa defended.
Theodore just shrugged, "I don't know, Lisa. We don't know. There are lots of things that we don't know about Dumbledore as a person."
Alex frowned; it was only now that he regretted that they went in there. Although things might not have turned out well if he had not been there to help them. Maybe things would have been fine if they had left the responsibility to their professors. Maybe there was no real danger at all.
"Well," Alex said, he was eager to change the subject, "You'll have to wait for Harry to wake up in the hospital wing for the rest of the story."
Harry, who had been injured in his encounter in the last chamber where he had apparently come into contact with Quirrell who was possessed (or something like it) by Voldemort, was still in the hospital wing unconscious. Lots of admirers had brought him gifts and lollies with the hopes that he would get better soon. Tracey called it 'one of the benefits of being famous' and lamented that he 'didn't exercise this perk to its full advantage'. The rest of them thought the gestures were a little shallow, even if they did mean well. They knew Harry would only really appreciate gifts from friends.
Alex had given Harry a bunch of snack food, with the full knowledge that he would be surviving off only lollies for the rest of summer as the Dursleys would not feed him well. Alex was slightly surprised when Theodore gifted Harry with a bunch of books that Theodore had assured would be quality holiday reading. The others had given Harry a bunch of cards, lollies and chocolate frogs.
Alex planned to spend the rest of the week with a low profile and avoided people both professors and other students who hounded him for answers. He already knew that he had passed all of his subjects with good grades. They had all achieve good grades largely thanks to their afternoon library sessions and Hermione's overflowing brains. To all of their surprise, Crabbe and Goyle had managed to pass as well. Although how was largely a mystery that Theodore and Tracey put down to Snape not wanting to teach or deal with those idiots in his house a year more than he had to.
He was kind of not looking forward to going home for the summer, although a break from study would be nice. For a start, it was unlikely that the friends he had made would be able to visit him over the holidays. It reminded him that he had lost touch with his friends at his previous school and other parts of the muggle world. It was also because of a letter that had been sent to him through Screeches-Too-Much two days ago.
'Alex,
I've been having trouble at the bank and I'm hoping that it won't end up involving you but I can't give any assurances. I'm working hard so you and I can have a decent holiday.
Jack says that she's going to organise a special dinner for you when you get home. Please write to tell her what you want.
I'm also writing because your headmaster has sent a letter explaining EVERYTHING you have been up to yesterday night. I TOLD you not to get involved with anything dangerous. You are in SO much trouble when you get home.
Cheers,
Uncle Ian.'
A/N: Hi, sorry for not writing on this story for some time. I'm still here. I've been planning a brief story (included in this one) of what happens over the summer. I'm aiming to add more spy stuff to the story. At the moment it just seems like Alex is an insert into Hogwarts. Any reviews, favourites and follows will be appreciated.