Chosen - a Harry Potter fanfic

By Anton B. Ingibjartsson, AKA dragonwrath7

Disclaimer: The Harry Potter universe belongs to JK Rowling. I am not JK Rowling.

This story was partly influenced and inspired by the fanfic In The Words Of Ginevra Molly Potter, by TheJealousOne.

THIS STORY CONTAINS HEAVY SPOILERS TO ALL THE HARRY POTTER BOOKS! IF YOU HAVEN'T READ THEM AND DON'T WANT THE EXPERIENCE RUINED FOR YOU, REFRAIN FROM READING FURTHER. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

THIS STORY HAS UNDERGONE SEVERAL CHANGES! BEFORE READING ON, I SUGGEST YOU READ THE PREVIOUS CHAPTERS AGAIN. AT LEAST TAKE A LOOK AT THE NEW PROLOGUE AND FIRST CHAPTER! ALSO TAKE NOTE THAT I'VE CREATED A FORUM FOR THIS STORY!

Chapter Seven: Riddle Me This

Harry put his hand in his pocket and pulled out the stone. It seemed to glow in the torchlight. Then Harry heard something that sent a terrible chill down his spine. How could he have been so stupid? His thoughts strayed back to the Christmas card, signed 'H'.

"Very good, Potter," said Hermione's voice from behind him. "Now hand me the Philosopher's Stone."

Harry stopped breathing. He looked down at the Christmas card, which he had dropped to the floor. How could he not have recognized the handwriting? Why hadn't he bothered to read it?

Dear Harry,

Happy Christmas! I was going to buy you a present, but I couldn't find anything so I hope this card will suffice. Mom and dad were a little shocked when Hedwig flew in through the kitchen window with your present. Thanks, by the way. See you soon.

Love, H.

How could he have been so blind? How could he not have seen? He should have noticed the difference. Hermione had been unusually quiet all Christmas break. She had known he was going after the stone. She had caught the flying key, despite the fact she was supposed to be a lousy flyer. She had known how to win the chess game and hadn't seemed particularly upset that Harry had to be sacrificed so they could win. She'd even gotten past the troll on her own without suffering so much as a scratch, a feat the real Hermione could not have accomplished at her current skill level, and she had spoken Voldemort's name without even a shiver!

"Turn around, Potter."

Slowly, reluctantly, Harry did as he was told. For a moment, the two simply stared at each other, one with a triumphant smile, the other a defiant scowl.

"Why are you doing this, Quirrel?"

"Why, Potter," the fake Hermione replied, "I thought you knew everything. Your Seer abilities are quite impressive, I must say. How unfortunate that you are not such a natural at Occlumency."

"But why do you serve Voldemort? He will betray you. You know he will."

"Because in his service I will be truly strong, Potter. Your understanding of the Dark Arts is limited at best. You cannot imagine the glory that can be obtained through them."

"You're wrong. The Dark Arts are for the weak, and so is serving Voldemort. You are nothing more than a weak fool."

Harry had to admit he had no idea where his courage was coming from.

"A fool, am I?" asked Quirrel, no longer smiling. "It was not I who thought of my plans in the presence of my enemy without using Occlumency."

Another chill crept down Harry's spine. So that's how he'd known. That was the reason Fluffy was dead. Harry had always known how to get past Fluffy so he hadn't thought about it, and when Quirrel realized Fluffy would become a real obstacle he'd simply gone and killed it. Harry had, however, thought a great deal about how to get past the other obstacles during class. Quirrel's class, in fact. And Quirrel had simply used Legilimency to listen in on Harry's thoughts. Harry wondered if he'd also done this in the books, or if something Harry changed had affected the situation, compelling him to read his mind when he otherwise wouldn't have bothered.

"It was not I who was too intent on stopping my enemy to notice the change in my own best friend."

Harry shivered. That one really hurt. Quirrel had hit a soft spot, and he knew it. It was one thing to forget using Occlumency; that was a mistake. But the same could not be said about his latter comment. Harry had ignored the best friend he'd ever had, and that was unforgivable. Harry forced himself to look Quirrel in the eye, and noticed that he was slowly growing taller. The eyes were changing from Hermione's brown to Quirrel's jet black, and the hair seemed to be vanishing back into his skull. The polyjuice potion, which was obviously what Quirrel had used to mimic Hermione's appearance, was wearing off.

"You see, Potter, your time has run out. Today, you die."

Harry didn't know what to do, so he simply kept talking.

"Wrong. I've seen my own death, and it's neither here nor now."

"Oh? Tell me then, when and where is your death?"

Quirrel had almost completely turned back into himself. Harry held his wand firmly, and his mind jumped to the seventh Harry Potter book.

"In the forest, about seven and a half years from now."

Harry tightened his grip on the Philosopher's Stone as the last hair slipped into Quirrel's skull. The time had come.

A wicked hissing voice could be heard from behind Quirrel's head.

"Turn around, Quirrel. I will confront the child myself."

Quirrel quickly obliged. As Harry had expected, he now stood before an entirely different wizard. The cold crimson eyes of Lord Voldemort pierced him from the back of Quirrel's head. Harry froze in sheer terror. Time seemed to stop. The only indication of the seconds passing was the rapid beating of his own heart.

"Hello, Harry."

"Riddle."

"Do not speak that filthy name before me, Potter."

"I'll say whatever I want, Tom. I'm destined to live for another seven years. You cannot kill me."

Once again, Harry had no idea where his courage came from. He had expected to stand frozen in fear.

Voldemort showed no signs of anger, but the extra pain in Harry's scar was all the evidence he needed. He may not have shown it, but Voldemort was furious.

"If you want this stone," said Harry, holding the Philosopher's Stone in front of him, "you'll have to rip it from my cold, dead hands. Oops, I forgot. That won't be happening for another seven years."

"This insolence will get you nowhere. Give me the stone now, or your mudblood friend dies."

"Nice try, but Hermione isn't even in the school. And like you said, she's a mudblood, which means there's no chance in hell you'd spare her anyway."

"Give us the stone, Potter!" Quirrel's voice sounded from behind Voldemort.

"You'll have to kill me for it."

Voldemort seemed disappointed.

"I had hoped you would join my cause, Potter, but very well." He looked Harry directly in the eye and smiled. Upon the sight, Harry couldn't stop a cold shiver from running down his spine. "Kill him."

Quirrel turned around and threw a fireball at Harry. Harry barely avoided it and the flame hit the mirror. Harry quickly aimed his wand.

"Aguamenti!"

A jet of ice-cold water hit Quirrel in the face. For a moment, Harry thought he saw a fish appear in the water, but a moment later it was gone and Harry didn't have time to think about it. Knowing the water wouldn't distract Quirrel for long, he ran towards the chamber entrance. Suddenly a wall of fire appeared before him, blocking his path. Quirrel threw another fireball at him.

"Reflecto!"

An orange ball of light shot from Harry's wand and hit the fireball. This caused the fireball to change course, hurling into the wall on Harry's left. Harry ran right, as another fireball flew his way. He looked around in a panic. There was no other way out of the room and no place to hide. Then he noticed the Mirror of Erised. He remembered that the mirror had been hit with a fireball earlier, but it was completely intact. There was no sign of the mirror being damaged or even scorched by the flame.

Suddenly, it felt like his left arm was on fire. He cried out in surprise and pain. Without stopping to see what had happened, he aimed his wand at Quirrel.

"Fumos!"

Smoke erupted from the wand and engulfed Quirrel. Harry heard him trying to escape the veil of smoke. He caught a glimpse of Quirrel's feet and aimed his wand at them.

"Colloshoo!"

Quirrel's shoes were glued to the floor. Before the smoke dissipated, Harry jumped behind the mirror. If fireballs couldn't damage it, he was surely safer behind it. Dumbledore must have put protective spells on it. His arm still felt like it was burning, but no flame was visible. Thinking fast, he pointed his wand at his arm and hoped it was a minor curse.

"Malus Aufero."

The pain vanished. Whatever it had been it was clearly not very powerful. Malus Aufero was a simple charm that could only be used as a counter-measure to minor curses.

"You cannot hide, Potter. Show yourself."

"In your dreams," replied Harry and shoved the Philosopher's Stone back into his pocket.

Quirrel cried out in anger and the mirror shook as it was hit by some spell. Harry knew he didn't have much time. The Colloshoo charm only glued the target's shoes to the ground. All Quirrel had to do was take off his shoes and he could follow Harry behind the mirror.

Think! There's got to be a way out of this.

You know there's always one thing you can do.

Yes, but that's dangerous.

You're in danger right now. You don't have much choice in the matter.

Fine.

Harry took a peek past the mirror's edge, ready to quickly duck back behind it if Quirrel threw another spell at him. Quirrel, however, was busy taking off his shoes.

You won't get a better chance than this!

Harry jumped out and ran towards Quirrel, who raised his hand to throw some spell against him. Guided by sheer instinct, Harry quickly pointed his wand at Quirrel's hand.

"Galcius!"

Quirrel's hand was frozen in ice and he gave a cry of pain. He quickly raised his other hand, but before he could cast any spells, Harry was upon him. Dropping his wand, Harry grabbed Quirrel's arm with one hand and his face with the other.

The pain was intense. His scar burned like never before.

Just a few seconds, thought Harry, just hold on for a few seconds.

Quirrel was clearly suffering even more pain than Harry, but he somehow found the strength to act. Harry fell over and nearly lost consciousness when something hard it him on the head. Quirrel had hit him with his frozen arm.

Lying on the floor, barely conscious, Harry tried desperately to reach his wand, but Quirrel kicked it away. It was over then. There was nothing he could do. Quirrel ripped open Harry's pocket and pulled out the stone.

Hermione... Ron...

Quirrel put the stone in his pocket and smiled cruelly at Harry.

Ginny...

Quirrel raised his hand to cast the final spell, and Harry knew it was all over. He gave in to his pains and let himself slip into unconsciousness, but just as his mind was entering sweet oblivion, another voice sounded throughout the chamber.

"Stupefy!"

Author's Notes:

For those of you who failed to see the larger-than-life notice at the top, I've done a bit of a revamp for the story. For a full list of these changes, see the new prologue.

This chapter is short, but you shouldn't complain. You're lucky I was able to write anything at all. I've been very busy. Also, don't expect another chapter until next summer. I doubt very much that I'll find the time to work on this story for the next few months. As of today, I'm done apologizing for how long it takes me to write these. If they arrive early, great. If not, that's just to be expected.

You'll notice I used some new spells in this chapter. Some were original, some weren't. The ones I didn't invent were from sources such as HP video games or the HP card game.

There's a forum for this story now. I would very much like it if you used it and discussed thins among yourselves rather than asking me. It helps to see others discuss these matters because it shows how the story affects people differently. As always, you're free to ask questions in your comments, but I prefer you use the forum.

Once again, I offer thanks to my readers, especially those who've left constructive comments.

Special thanks go to thejealousone for reading this story and adding me to his community. I'm a big fan. Thanks pal.

Oh, and I've added a poll to my profile. Ceck it out and participate, please. I'd very much ike to see what you think. This poll will remain open until I upload the next chapter.

Be seein' ya.