The Founders' Intervention
By: Sheltie
I still don't own Harry Potter at all
Chapter 3
Harry and his group got their first mission. The founders told them that Dumbledore hid a very precious artifact, the Sorcerer's Stone, here in Hogwarts and that it should be removed before an enemy gets it or a student gets hurt. Harry and his friends agreed with this whole-heartedly. This school was built for teaching students, not to hide an artifact that could lure evil.
"Is everyone ready?" Harry asked.
"Ready for anything Harry" Neville said.
Daphne nodded as did Hermione and the twins.
"Good, let's get going" Harry said.
They made their acting like they were just wandering the castle with the twins acting like tour guides telling them about the places they were going and some funny pranks they pulled in the area. Once they got to the third floor corridor Hermione opened the door with a simple 'Alohamora' then they entered. What they found was a big three headed dog greeting them with bared teeth.
"Bloody hell, what is that?" Fred asked shocked.
"I think that is a Cerberus" Harry said tilting his head to the side.
The three-headed dog growled loudly as it took in the intruders.
"How do we get passed it?" Neville asked curiously.
Harry thought hard and then shrugged. He walked towards the three-headed dog, who was crouching down baring its teeth and growling even louder.
"Easy there boy" Harry said gently.
The three-headed dog looked ready to lunge, but as soon as Harry laid his hand on one of its legs the beast calmed.
"Good boy, you're doing a good job of protecting this area" Harry said gently as he rubbed the big beast's middle head.
The others watched in horror and fascination as Harry petted the three-headed dog gently and talk to it calmly.
"Alright boy, I have to go, but I'll be back to play" Harry said.
This got the beast excited and moved to the side, which revealed a trap door.
"Come on guys, let's go" Harry said.
The others walked over to Harry hesitantly. When they got there Harry had the trap door open and waiting.
"Harry, how'd you do that?" Daphne asked shocked and relieved that her friend was safe.
"I learned it from Helga, she is very good with all kinds of animals" Harry said.
Hermione lunged forward and wrapped her arms around Harry's waist squeezing him tight. Harry winced slightly at the sudden contact and force of the hug.
"Don't ever do that to me again" she wailed.
"It's alright Hermione, I'm fine" Harry said gently rubbing Hermione's back.
"Guys, we should get going" Neville said.
"Right, who's first?" Harry said still holding Hermione, who didn't seem to want to let go.
"We'll go guys" George said speaking for himself and his brother.
"Alright, let us know as soon as you land" Harry said.
The twins nodded and both jumped down the trap door. The others waited with bated breaths for word from the twins.
"It's alright, come on down" one of the twins said.
Harry and the others jumped down and they landed in a squishy pile of something.
"What is this stuff?" Daphne asked with a wrinkled nose.
"I don't know, maybe it was put here to break our fall" Hermione said.
"This is Devil's Snare" Neville said.
"What!" the others shouted.
"Calm down everyone, the more you panic the tighter the vines will get" Neville said.
The others watched as Neville took a deep breath and relaxed. The vines around loosened and he dropped down below. This made the others panic a bit.
"Neville, where are you?" Daphne asked worriedly.
"Just below you guys. Just relax and you'll be fine" Neville said.
The others did as they were told, though a few of them had to take a couple of deep breaths before they were totally relaxed, Daphne. Once they were all free from the Devil's Snare they went forward.
"What is this?" Hermione asked as she looked up.
Above them were millions of keys with wings. They were all flying about at a leisurely pace.
"Do you think they'll attack us if we move?" Neville asked nervously.
"One way to find out" Harry said.
They all ran to the other side of the room and the keys didn't bother them. They tried the door using many spells that would open it, but nothing happened.
"Well, now what?" Daphne asked.
"I think one of those keys are supposed to fit in" Harry said pointing at the flying objects above their heads.
"Sounds plausible" Hermione said.
"Right, I'll fly up and get the right one" Harry said.
"But there are so many, how will we know which one is the right one?" Hermione asked.
Harry frowned, he hadn't thought of that.
"We'll help you Harry" Fred said.
George nodded.
The three grabbed one of the brooms that were in the room and went in search of the key.
"What kind of key are we looking for?" Harry shouted down.
"A big old one" Daphne said.
"Right" Harry said.
Harry and the twins flew around looking for the right key.
"Harry, I found it" George shouted.
"Excellent, grab it" Harry said.
George did just that, but the key seemed to have sensed that it was spotted and evade George's attempt.
"Bloody hell, this key is annoying" George said after his fifth attempt.
"I got it, you two fly at it from either side and I'll fly at it from below" Harry said.
Fred and George both nodded in agreement. The plan went off with a hitch and Harry had firm grasp on the struggling key. They landed and Harry handed the key to Daphne, who was closest to the door. Once the door was unlocked they headed forward. The room was dark until the stepped forward and the room was alit.
"It's a giant chessboard" Hermione exclaimed.
"Great, I wish Ron was here" Neville muttered.
Fred, George, and Hermione had to agree since they knew that the bottomless pit boy was quite good at chess.
"There's no need for that" Harry said confidently.
"So you know how to play?" Daphne asked.
"No" Harry said.
"Then how are you going to win?" Neville asked confused.
"Simple" Harry said with a smile.
He walked to the edge of the board and waved his wand muttering some words under his breath. After he was done he smiled.
"Just as I thought" he said.
The others were confused at what Harry meant so they watched rapt attention. Harry took a breath and waved his wand in many intricate moves as he muttered words under his breath. As he did this the chess pieces came to life and started to play all by itself. The chess moves were quick and decisive. It was ten minutes later and Harry finished. He had sweat on his brow and panting slightly.
"Are you alright Harry?" Hermione asked worriedly.
"Yeah, just a bit tired" Harry said wiping the sweat from his brow.
"What did you just do?" Daphne asked in awe at what she just saw.
"Oh, just played a nice chess game" Harry said simply.
"Harry, that's was no chess game I've ever seen" Daphne said.
Harry shrugged and walked across the chessboard to the door, the others followed him still stunned at what they had just seen. There stood an adult troll. The stink was almost unbearable, but the group held their breaths.
"What are we going to do?" Daphne asked.
"Fire hexes at the ugly thing until he's down" Harry said.
The others nodded and pulled out their wands and began firing hexes at the troll. The troll finally dropped after almost a half an hour of spell casting.
"That was tiring" Neville said panting.
"Yeah, but let's go, I can't hold my breath any longer" Hermione said.
The group nodded and ran to the door on the other side of the room. Once in they all took a ton of deep breaths to compensate for the oxygen they didn't breath before. Once they were all breathing normally again they turned to find a table with a row of potion vials. They walked forward and a wall of purple fire appeared behind them as well as a wall of black fire in front of them.
"Now what are going to do?" Fred asked.
"Yeah, we're trapped by two different color fires" George said.
Hermione and Daphne went to the table and looked at the piece of parchment that laid there. They read it and then started a ten minute discussion that none of the boys could follow. The two girls ended with big grins on their faces.
"Amazing" Hermione said.
"I'll say, not many would get this" Daphne said.
"Of course, there aren't many wizards with an ounce of logic" Hermione said.
"Definitely" Daphne agreed.
The boys looked at one another with confused expressions. Hermione and Daphne were still hunched over the piece of parchment whispering to each other.
"So what do you think Daph?" Hermione asked.
"It's got to be that one" Daphne said pointing to one of the bottles.
"That's what I was thinking too" Hermione said nodding.
"Well, what's the verdict?" Fred asked with a bit of annoyance.
"Yeah, what's the whole challenge?" George asked with the same amount of annoyance in his voice.
"It's a logic puzzle" Hermione said.
"Okay" the four boys said.
Hermione and Daphne rolled their eyes. They explained the whole puzzle to the boys and how they came up with the solution.
"Okay, but it doesn't look like there's enough for all of us" Neville said noticing how small the bottle was.
"The potions are refillable" Daphne said.
"Oh" Neville said.
"But, we don't need to do that since the twins can just use that spell to freeze the flames so we could all move on" Hermione said.
"Right, forgot that the founders taught us that one" Fred said.
"Yeah, so what are we waiting for?" George asked.
The twins used the flame-freezing spell and they went through the black fire into the next room.
"Now what?" Fred asked looking around the new room.
The room was empty except for a mirror in the middle of the room.
"This must be Dumbledore's challenge" Daphne said.
"Which means this one will be the trickiest one" Neville said.
Harry led the group forward and Harry saw his reflection in the mirror. His reflection smiled at him and pulled out a red stone out his pocket, then put it back. Harry felt a weight in his pocket and smiled.
"That was easy" he said.
"Harry, what do you mean, what happened?" Hermione asked.
"I'll explain it when we get back to the founders" Harry said.
Hermione pouted, but nodded.
It didn't take them much time to get back through the traps and once they were back in the founder's chambers Harry showed off the Sorcerer's Stone to everyone.
"How'd you do it Harry?" Neville asked.
"Well, I don't know actually. I just thought that I wanted to find the stone to keep it safe and then boom it was in my pocket" Harry said.
Hermione didn't like this explanation and was about to rip into Harry when Rowena started laughing. She laughed so hard that she fell off her chair.
"What's so funny Rowena, dear?" Godric asked looking confused.
"Oh, Dumbledore, that's got to be one of your finest traps ever" Rowena said now giggling madly.
Everyone was still confused and had to wait for Rowena to calm down to get her to explain.
"What Dumbledore did was quite ingenious. The only way to get the stone out of the mirror is to want to find it, but not use it. If you want to find it to use it then all you see in the reflection is you using the stone" Rowena said.
"Oh" Hermione said in realization.
"That was quite clever and very sneaky too" Salazar said.
"Yes, it was. Anyway, we don't have to worry anymore since Harry has the stone" Rowena said.
"But what do we do with it now?" Neville asked.
"Send it back to Nicholas Flamel" Godric said.
The other three founders agreed with this.
"Aright, we'll do that" Harry said.
/Scene Break/
Nicholas Flamel was sitting at his desk writing in his journal when a snowy white owl appeared.
"Hello, and who might you be?" Nicholas asked.
The snowy owl hooted and stuck out her leg.
"I see, you have something for me" Nicholas said.
The owl hooted again.
Nicholas chuckled then he untied the small package and letter from the owl.
"Here's a perch for you to rest on" Nicholas said as he waved his wand to conjure a perch.
The snowy owl went to the perch and closed her amber eyes.
Nicholas opened the package and saw it was his stone. He frowned for a moment then opened the letter.
Dear Mr. Flamel,
Enclosed is your stone. My friends and I retrieved it from a set of traps your friend Albus set up in hopes of luring a dark lord, possibly Voldemort to take the bait. My friends and I saw this as a poorly conceived plan as he not only put at risk a powerful magical artifact like the Sorcerer's Stone, but a school full of children to the threat of Voldemort. We didn't like this at all and made our way through these 'safety precautions' to rescue the stone before Voldemort could get it or any student could get hurt. You might also want to know that your friend Albus warned the whole school not to go to where the stone was hidden and I quote, "under the pain of death," which is a completely stupid thing to say to children since it will only make us curious and want to investigate.
I also want you to know that my friends and I are all first years with two third years and we got through traps that our professors had set up to stop such attempts.
Sincerely
Harry Potter
Nicholas set the letter down and lean back in thought. He had a bad feeling when Albus offered to protect the stone and this just clarified it. He shook his head.
"Albus, how dumb can you be to put children under your care in such danger" the alchemist muttered to himself.
/Scene Break/
Meanwhile back in Hogwarts Harry and his friends relaxed knowing that the threat was mostly over. Now they had to figure out Quirrell. All they knew was Harry got a headache when he looked at the garlic-smelling professor was staring at him. Though Harry was able to block out the headache he still sensed them. They talked to the founders about this and they told them that it was very suspicious. But that was all they said. This made the group curious and wondered if the founders knew what was going on and why don't they tell them.
"We want you to figure it out yourself. You won't learn anything if we just tell you" Rowena said when Hermione asked.
This made Hermione pout. But later this gave her drive to find out about Quirrell. She devoted much of her time researching it and the other half working on her schoolwork.
This of course worried her friends some.
"Harry, you have to do something, she's going to wear herself out" Daphne said.
"I know, but I have no idea what to do" Harry said with frustration.
"Maybe you should take her out for a nice fly" George suggested.
"She's afraid to fly" Harry said.
"She is, maybe she just needs the right teacher" Fred said smirking.
Harry blinked.
"Come on Harry, take your girl for a nice fly" George said.
Harry blushed.
"She's not my girl" he said.
"Harry, there's no need to play innocent with us, we're all friends" Fred said grinning now.
Harry was now blushing madly by now at Fred and George big grins.
"Guys, help" Harry said looking over at Neville and Daphne.
Neville and Daphne looked at one another then shrugged, leaving Harry to fend for himself.
"Thanks a lot" Harry said glaring slightly at his two friends.
/Scene Break/
Harry got Hermione away from her work by pretty much kidnapping her from the library and made her stay with him for the next five days. Hermione tried to get away, but Harry always knew where to find her and then he'd 'kidnap' her again.
"Harry, how long are you going to so this to me?" Hermione asked glaring at her friend.
"Until you realize that you need to take a break. You're going to wear yourself out at the rate you're going and I prefer the way you look right now" Harry said.
Hermione blushed slightly at this.
Once the five days were up Harry allowed Hermione to get back to work. She did, but she was more relaxed.
/Scene Break/
Dumbledore sighed as he watched the group chatting. Now he didn't have any problem with the friends that Harry hung around though he would have preferred Harry to befriend the young Mr. Weasley so he could have an inside line on what was going on. But that didn't happen and none of Harry's friends gave him the time of day. He remembered the talks he had with each one of them.
/Scene Break/
Dumbledore sat back and watched the young brunette in front of him.
"How are you enjoying your time here Miss Granger?" he asked.
"I'm having a great time sir" Hermione said.
Dumbledore nodded.
"I see you're friends with Harry Potter, how is that going?" he asked.
"I don't understand how my being friends with Harry has to do with my schooling?" Hermione asked.
"You see Miss Granger, Harry Potter is a very important individual to our world and I just want to makes sure he's doing well" Dumbledore said.
"Sir, I understand that Harry is important, but what I don't understand is why you are asking me about him when you can just talk to Harry directly" Hermione said.
Dumbledore didn't like this at all. So he decided to peek into her mind to see what he could find. What he found was a huge grey stonewall, that encircled her whole mind. This baffled the old wizard as he never saw something like this before. Definitely from a muggle-born.
"Something wrong sir?" Hermione asked.
"No, you are excused Miss Granger" Dumbledore said.
Hermione nodded and left. She had a small smile on her face when she left the office.
/Scene Break/
A week later
Dumbledore sat back as he examined the boy in front of him. He knew that the boy was a possible for the prophecy, but it was Harry that Voldemort went after. He did decided if Harry died or something he'd move on to Neville here.
"Mr. Longbottom, how are you today?" Dumbledore asked.
"I'm fine sir, am I in trouble or something?" Neville asked.
"No you aren't, I just want to see how you are adjusting to everything" Dumbledore said with a twinkle in his eye.
"I'm doing fine sir, I'm doing well in my classes and I have good friends" Neville said.
"Yes, I see that. I see that your friends include Harry Potter" Dumbledore said.
"Yes, but don't see what that has to do with anything" Neville said.
"Mr. Longbottom, I just want to make sure that you're making the right choices in life" Dumbledore said.
"Sir, who my friends are is none of your business unless they are affecting my schoolwork, which they are not. So I'd like to know why I am her or do I need to write a letter to my grandmother" Neville said.
Dumbledore was taken back at this. He thought the boy would be falling head over heels to listen to him. He was the great Albus Dumbledore. But it looked like the young lad has grown a backbone. This wasn't good at all if he had to use the boy if Harry didn't work out. He needed to be able to manipulate things to work in his favor and that wouldn't work if his weapon had self-confidence.
"Is there anything else professor?" Neville asked.
"No, you may go Mr. Longbottom" Dumbledore said.
/Scene Break/
Another week later
Dumbledore sat serenely as he looked at the student in front of him. Daphne just looked back at him not making a move or anything. She had a look of boredom on her face.
"How are you doing Miss Greengrass?" Dumbledore asked.
"Fine sir" Daphne answered.
Dumbledore frowned, he didn't like these short answers.
"Care to elaborate?" he asked.
"About what, sir?" Daphne asked.
Dumbledore felt a small headache forming.
"About how you're enjoying your time here at Hogwarts Miss Greengrass" he said.
"Fine sir, I have met some good friends and I am doing fine in my classes" Daphne said.
Dumbledore frowned internally, he was hoping for more an answer than that.
"That's good Miss Greengrass, I'm happy to see that you've adjusted to here" Dumbledore said.
Daphne just sat there, which annoyed Dumbledore. He was used to students opening up to and telling him everything, but there Daphne sat motionless.
"Is there anything else sir?" Daphne asked.
"No, that's all" Dumbledore said holding back his annoyance.
Daphne nodded then left.
/Scene Break/
Another week later
Dumbledore now had a very big headache and had to ask Pomfrey for some headache potion to help him. He sat back as he observed the twins.
"Are we in trouble sir?" Fred asked.
"No, I just want to see and chat a bit" Dumbledore said casually.
Fred looked at George and the two nodded. This confused the old man since he had no idea what was going on.
"So you just wanted to chat with us?" George asked.
"Yes, since you have two brothers also in school with you I thought you might want someone to talk to" Dumbledore said.
"We're doing fine" Fred.
"Yeah, we got great friends" George.
"We have a lot of fun in classes" Fred.
"And Quidditch is wicked fun" George.
Dumbledore had to keep turning his head back and forth to keep up with the twins.
"Yeah, Harry is a fun guy" Fred.
"Totally, and his friend Hermione is cool too" George.
"Daphne isn't bad at all either, for a Slytherin" Fred with a smirk.
"And Neville is nice to be around also" George.
Dumbledore now not only a headache, but his neck was getting sore turning to and fro.
"Enough please, I understand now" he said.
"Alright, so can we go?" Fred asked.
"Yes, you two can go" Dumbledore said as he massaged his temples.
The twins left with smirks on their faces.
/Scene Break/
Later that night after the twins time with the headmaster they were in the founders' chambers with the others.
"That was hilarious guys" Neville said chuckling.
"Yeah, I thought Dumbledore was going to snap" Harry said.
The twins bowed to their audience.
"Well done you two, I think Dumbledore will think twice before calling you back in" Helga said.
"Yes, you all did well dealing with the old man, but be careful. He has a lot of power and can crush you" Rowena warned.
"Maybe I should take Hermione under the protection of house Potter" Harry suggested.
"That might not be a bad idea Harry" Godric said.
"What does this all mean?" Hermione asked curiously.
Harry then explained to Hermione when he went to Gringotts to get some money from his vault he found from his parents' wills, which were to be read to him when he turned eleven. That he was to be made head of the Potter house. Harry did and now wore the ring that all heads of Ancient and Noble houses wear. He had his become invisible so know one would know that he was head of Potter house. Now though he had to reveal himself so he can protect Hermione. They all knew that the headmaster was the magical guardian to all muggle-borns who enter Hogwarts.
"So what do I have to do?" Hermione asked.
End of Chapter
A/N: that's the end of this chap. Thanks for reading and please review.