Disclaimer: Lord Voldemort belongs to JK Rowling.
Chapter 16: Sprout
Through the Trapdoor
"Oh, this isn't going to end well, either," said Professor Sprout. "I remember this week, too. Chapter Sixteen: Through the Trapdoor.
"In years to come, Harry would never quite remember how he had managed to get through his exams when he half expected V…Voldemort to come bursting through the door at any moment…"
"As opposed to now, when I call it Wednesday," Harry said, though from his friends' faces, it wasn't as funny as it sounded in his head. In the story, he'd been having headaches ever since the encounter in the Forest. At the time, Ron and Hermione would have been really worried if they'd known the full truth; a curse scar flaring up like that tended to be bad news. But now, with Voldemort back, it was so commonplace for him as to be almost ignored.
They did get through their exams, but that was when the trouble really started. Harry suddenly realised that it was suspicious that a stranger who ran into Hagrid just happened to have the dragon egg he wanted so much. After a quick interrogation of Hagrid, he deduced that Hagrid had already told the stranger—Snape, he believed—how to control Fluffy: just play some music.
"Which in retrospect, any muggle-born could have guessed from the myth of Orpheus," Hermione pointed out. "Which is worrying in itself. Cerberi wouldn't make very guard dogs if everyone knows how to tame them."
"But it worked for with You-Know-Who—at least until Hagrid told him," Ron pointed out.
"Only by luck," she countered. "Voldemort grew up in an orphanage—no orphanages in the magical world. And Quirrell was the Muggle Studies Professor before he taught Defence. Either of them could have known."
No one had an answer to that. In the story, in response to this revelation—which they believed meant Snape could now get through all the protections on the Philosopher's Stone, the trio actually did do the responsible thing: try to warn Dumbledore. Unfortunately, Dumbledore wasn't in the castle. He'd been "called away" urgently, Professor McGonagall said.
"'I don't know how you found out about the Stone, but rest assured, no one can possibly steal it, it's too well protected.' But I think it nearly did get stolen, though," Professor Sprout said.
"Through an unfortunate chain of errors, yes," McGonagall admitted. "I do stand by what I said, though. By any reasonable measure, there was no realistic thought of anyone being able to steal the Stone, and no way for the three of them to make it any safer."
"Except we've already discussed the fact that we weren't doing all we could to protect it. I don't know…" she shook her head and kept reading. The trio happened to run into Snape, who scared the with his usual suspicion and threats, which seemed all the worse under the circumstances: "'Be warned, Potter—any more nighttime wanderings and I will personally make sure you are expelled.' Honestly, Severus, you can't just say that. It would take a lot more than breaking curfew any number of times to expel a student."
"And if that rule had been different when Potter's father and his friends were here, things might have gone much better."
"A bit melodramatic, aren't you, Severus?" Sprout said. He glared at her.
The trio's next plan, to keep an eye out on the forbidden corridor—the rest wasn't specified, but it was implied they would alert the teachers if Snape made a move for the Stone—didn't go any better. "'If I hear you've come anywhere near here again, I'll take another fifty points from Gryffindor! Yes, Weasley, from my own house.'" At that, Sprout merely gave a disapproving look at McGonagall.
"I was trying to keep them safe, Pomona," she defended herself. "I was sure they'd go poking their noses where they didn't belong sooner or later, and I was worried about the person who was really trying to steal the Stone."
"And the fact that Mr. Potter felt the only thing he could do was to go down there and steal the Stone first, Minerva?" she pressed.
"Potter was only a first-year. If I'd known then his peculiar propensity for getting into mortal peril, I would have acted differently."
"You made yourself unapproachable," said Sprout. "I've seen it before. You made them feel they couldn't go for help because they'd only receive punishment for their trouble. And that's not just on you, I admit. We all should have realised how flimsy the security on that door was."
"I can agree with that, Pomona. We all made mistakes, but we can't change the past. Let's just get this over with, shall we?"
Harry had decided on a course of action, and nothing was going to dissuade him. He even made an impassioned speech that got the audience cheering him on, even if it hit a little too close to home these days: "'D'you think he'll leave you and your families alone if Gryffindor win the house cup? If I get caught before I can get to the Stone, well, I'll have to go back to the Dursleys and wait for Voldemort to find me there. It's only dying a bit later than I would have done, because I'm never going over to the Dark Side!'"
Of course, his two best friends went with him. After everyone went to bed, they prepared to leave, only to be blocked by Neville, who wanted to stop them from causing any more trouble for Gryffindor. Hermione uncomfortably thought that he sounded a lot like she had in the book a few chapters ago.
"'I don't think you should be breaking any more rules! And you were the one who told me to stand up to people!'
"'Yes, but not to us,' said Ron in exasperation."
Hermione smacked her forehead. "Really, Ron?"
In the story, however, Hermione used the full Body-Bind on Neville to get him out of their way.
"Oh, sorry, Neville," she said.
"It's fine," he replied. "I understood after you explained to me what happened. Heh, just my own bad luck for picking the wrong time to start standing up to people. Crazy stuff happens around you guys."
"Story of my life," Harry muttered.
Harry sneaked them past Peeves by imitating the Bloody Baron, which surprisingly worked. (Peeves wasn't very bright.) And he got them past Fluffy by playing the flute Hagrid had given him, and they jumped down the trapdoor.
"Which was pretty stupid," Hermione pointed out. "There could have been a spike pit at the bottom—probably should have been if they were serious about it."
But instead of a spike pit, they landed on something soft—which turned out to be Devil's Snare—hazardous, but easily dispatched with fire.
"'Yes—of course—but there's no wood!' Hermione cried, wringing her hands.
"'HAVE YOU GONE MAD?' Ron bellowed. 'ARE YOU A WITCH OR NOT?'"
Most of the Great Hall laughed. Hermione was embarrassed, but when she heard Draco Malfoy's voice over the laughter saying, "Ha! Stupid mudblood!" it made her blood boil. Someday, she'd show him…
The room with the Devil's Snare led into another one with a door on the other side that couldn't be opened with Alohomora.
"Okay, that's it!" Hermione hissed. "Something is rotten in the state of Scotland."
8. Why was a soft landing provided for the trapdoor?
9. Why wasn't something more dangerous guarding the door, like Venomous Tentacula or a man-eating fungus?
10. Why was there an Anti-Alohomora Charm on the Key Room and not Fluffy's door?
11. Why was the key to the Key Room in the Key Room?
She underlined this last part three times.
"Why was there an Anti-Alohomora Charm on that room and not the door to the corridor?" Sprout asked.
"I enchanted that room," Professor Flitwick said. "I actually had the sense to include one. I'm still not sure what the problem was with the corridor door."
"And…why was the correct key actually in that room?"
"Professor Dumbledore wanted it that way," he said uncomfortably. "I told him it didn't make any sense at the time, but he insisted."
"Aha! So Dumbledore was actively sabotaging his own protections?" Umbridge said triumphantly.
"I…I'm honestly not sure what his plan was," Flitwick admitted. "I know it made sense at the time, but I can't quite remember how it was put together."
"Well, something is definitely fishy about that, even if only Dumbledore himself knew the full extent. I'm thinking criminal negligence on this one, aren't you, Cornelius?"
"Yes, I am, Dolores," Fudge said. "And possibly dereliction of duty and breach of contract, depending on what his agreement with Flamel was. Oh, yes, this is just one most spot of trouble for him."
At the Gryffindor Table, Hermione shook her head. "This is bad," she said. "I think they might be right."
"What?" her friends said in horror.
"The Stone really wasn't that well protected. Okay, yes, with the Mirror, it was, but we know the Mirror wasn't down there the whole time. And the rest of the protections were a total mess. I mean three first-years got through them…Holy cricket!"
12. Why were the protections on the Philosopher's Stone so simple three first-years could get through them? Was it intentional?
"Intentional?" Harry said. "Why would it be intentional?"
"I'm not sure yet, but I've got a bad feeling." If only she could make sense of it.
It soon proved that the correct key was not only in the Key Room, but was easily identifiable and accessible by broomsticks that were also in the Key Room!
13. Why were broomsticks provided in the Key Room?
The next room contained a giant chess set. Ron was by far the best of the three at chess, so he successfully played their way across. Unfortunately, it was wizard's chess, complete with the smashing of captured pieces. This part was well enough known; Percy had been bragging about it for the rest of the term afterwards, but the students still sat in rapt attention as Ron sacrificed himself to be captured by the white queen to get Harry and Hermione through, getting severely clubbed in the head in the process. He'd been lucky to have recovered so quickly.
14. Why include a chess game, which was beatable, when they could have included transfigured stone warriors that you had to fight?
The next room contained a huge mountain troll, which had already been knocked out. That was actually sensible. Security trolls existed. But a single troll would not be considered strong enough or vigilant enough to do the job on its own. Also…
15. How was the troll being fed deep under the forbidden corridor?
After the troll was a room bounded by cursed fire and an elaborate riddle placed by Snape.
"'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 here forever.'"
"Wow, I was an idiot when I was twelve," Hermione said at the Gryffindor Table, shaking her head.
"Huh?" said Harry and Ron.
"The Ravenclaws have to answer a riddle to get into their common room. I bet most of them could have solved it, and Quirrell was a Ravenclaw. I checked afterwards. And really, this is Snape we're talking about. Wouldn't it have been his style to lie about the riddle and make the answer a different bottle—or none of them—at least for the one to move forward?"
Harry looked at her in horror. He'd never thought of that, and under the circumstances, he really, really should have. Moody was right; he wasn't being paranoid enough.
16. Why was Snape's riddle truthful?
"'Me!' said Hermione. 'Books! And cleverness! There are more important things—friendship and bravery and—oh Harry—be careful!'"
"Oh? Friendship and bravery and what, Hermione?" asked Fred, wagging his eyebrows.
Hermione blushed heavily. "I was going to say kindness. And then diligence and patience and humility, and I realised I was about to go into a whole list, and I had to stop myself before I got hysterical."
And then, there was only enough of the potion for one of them, so Harry had to go on alone.
"There was already someone there—but it wasn't Snape. It wasn't even V-Voldemort…Oh, a cliffhanger! Quickly, Severus, you have the last chapter. Get to it!" Sprout said.