Hello, everyone! Here's the newest chapter for the "Harry Potter: the Serpent Lord" story. Enjoy!
* Review response:
Highvalour, don't be so sure about that, my friend. There are always things that can make wrong turn right...
Still Not Dead Yet, ChaosLord SilverLink310, Dark Dragen, Loiosh311, Hanzo of the Salamander, thanks, folks!
sarah-rose76646, thank you for being straight, yet polite, like you were. Unfortunately review replies aren't working and I couldn't reply you directly (you might not read it here...). Hopefully, I will be able to change your opinion with the later chapters, but oh well... And thanks for you wishing me luck.
The Sinful, who wouldn't?
justbin, sorry, but like I said, that was a filler chapter... This one is an 'action' one, so you should find it more to your tastes.
harlequin320, canon will be more or less abandoned after the second year (I have a couple of twists in mind that I haven't seen before... or I just missed the stories where they were used).
Vukk, *evil laughter* coughs - OK, I have something planned for this, but, alas, I'm not giving you any spoilers.
* Disclaimer: I DO NOT own "Harry Potter" and its characters in any shape or form.
"human speech"
'human thoughts'
"spells / parseltongue"
This chapter was not beta-read. Yet.
chapter 9: Jumping into the unknown
May came, and so did the last quidditch game of the season: Griffindor versus Ravenclaw... The match was long and hard, and not exactly during the fine weather too, but in the end Harry managed to catch the snitch before the other seeker dd it, thus bringing the third victory in the season to the Griffindor team.
And with three victories and a lot of points, the house of lions wont the quidditch cup. For the first time in several years, which put their head of the house, professor McGonnagal into a very good mood... Unfortunately, the house that lost the cup was Slytherin, and professor Snape didn't hesitate a second on being extra mean to anyone who didn't wear silver and green during his potion lessons, which quickly brought to nought the hundred points Griffindor was awarded for winning the quidditch cup...
The second week of May marked the beginning of the end of year exams. Harry was sure the he and his friends, including Draconica, were more than ready for them, and he wasn't wrong there: the exams weren't hard at all... Well, Potions and History of Magic were for the green-eyed wizard, but that had more to do with the professors than with the subjects...
On the Monday of the last week of May, the results were announced. Unsurprisingly – and mush to the dismay of Ravenclaws – Hermione was ranked first among the first year students. Draconica was fifth, while Harry and Neville shared eleventh place. Not bad...
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With only so many days left from the school year, a certain dark spirit that parasitezed on the back of Quinius Quirrell's head was using everything it could to have its host get a certain stone. And while the defenses that he headmaster erected around the stone were easy to bypass, the stone itself was hidden within a powerful magical object the spirit didn't knew how to deal with. It knew that the Philosopher's stone was hidden inside the Mirror of Erised, but it didn't know what it – or its host – needed to do in order to get it, and destroying the mirror was out of question as it could destroy the stone too...
"We need to find some help..." The dark spirit hissed. "Potter would be perfect, as his demise at my hand would be a good way of announcing to the world that I'm back." Quirrell nodded.
"I agree, master, but Potter doesn't seem to be stupid enough to just come here. We need to do something to have him go down there." The DADA professor replied. The dark spirit was silent for several seconds.
"He is hanging out with that mudblood. If we capture her, Potter will come here to save her, and we will capture him. And killing not only Potter but a mudblood too will be even better." It hissed to its host.
"I take it, you want the girl to be alive until you are done with Potter?" Quirrell asked. After the parasite hissed a positive reply, the man started waving his wand in an intricate pattern, and several seconds later stone floor in front of him started shifting and a humanoid figure of about three meters tall rose from the stone floor... By the time the creation of the golem was complete, the young professor was breathing heavily – creating a golem took a lot of energy, and enhancing it to move silently wasn't easy either...
Not wanting to waste his master's time, Quirrell drank a potion to restore some of his energy and guided the golem through the various traps set to protect the stone to the corridor of the third floor. From there the animated piece of stone would have to work on its own... Hopefully, it would do everything like it was told to...
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Hermione was walking back to the Griffindor tower after doing some more studying in the library – "Why, the school year has ended, you should relax a little too" Neville had said to her – when she felt ...something approaching her from behind, something that wasn't friendly. Turning around, the young witch saw a very large stone 'statue' approaching her. Instinctively letting out a loud scream, Hermione started sending the most powerful hexes and jinxes she knew at the golem, while trying to run away from it, but the animated statue was both quite fast and seemed to be impervious to the magics of this level...
Trying to run and 'fight' simultaneously too, proved to be not the best idea, as the bushy-hared witch had made a wrong turn somewhere and ended in an unused classroom instead of the safety of the Griffindor common room... Hermione put up a really good magical fight for a first year student, but with none of her spells even scratching the stone golem, she was quickly pushed into the corner and knocked out by golem's punch...
Picking the unconscious girl up, the animated statue started walking back to the right-hand part of the corridor on the third floor where it's creator was waiting for it to return.
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As Harry and Neville hadn't seen their friend since lunch, and she didn't appear at the dinner, the two of them naturally got worried about her. As much as Hermione liked studying, she never missed her meals without a really good reason... Speaking of people who were absent at the dinner... The headmaster too wasn't there, which was quite unusual – no Wizengamot sessions lasted this long, plus there wasn't one today anyway... ICW too didn't hold any meetings during this week... Oh well, maybe the ancient man felt like having a quiet meal at his office? Professor Quirrell wasn't there, but that was hardly unusual in the last month or so, and professor McGonnagal was currently very busy as the deputy headmistress and just didn't have time to dine in the Great hall...
Suddenly, one of the school owls flew into one of the special windows of the Great Hall and landed in front of the two Griffindor boys... Receiving mail this late was unusual, but it happened sometimes, so the boys took the note that was attached to the bird's leg. Opening the note, the two boys saw the message written in rather big and irregular letters in some dark-maroon ink:
Potter, if you want your friend back alive, go to the right-hand corridor on the third floor and you will find her at its end. I'll be waiting.
Harry and Neville looked at each other, trying to decide whether the author of this note was serious or just wanted to get the green-eyed boy into a trouble. Harry looked back at the text and studied it more carefully. The ink it was written with was strange and it looked like...
"Blood." He whispered, catching Neville's attention. "It is written in blood. Most likely someone made a small cut on a finger and used it to write the note... And I'm afraid, this blood is Hermione's." Neville looked now both really worried for his friend and a bit sick from what the message was apparently written in.
"We need to tell professor McGonnagal about it. Now." Harry nodded, and the two friends raced out of the Great Hall, heading straight to their head of the house's office. Thankfully, the professor was there, going over some of her paperwork...
"Mr. Potter, Mr. Longbottom, I do hope that you have a good reason for diverting me from my duties right now. I'd hate to take points from my house this late in the school year." Apparently, the transfiguration professor wasn't having a good day.
"Here." Instead of replying verbally, Harry just gave her the note. Her frown as she read the short message told the boys that their reason for disturbing the deputy headmistress was good enough.
"I see..." Professor McGonnagal said finally. "I know that this looks bad, but I think that it is just someone trying to get you into trouble, Mr. Potter. But just in case someone had really done what he claims, I will ask the castle's portraits and house elves to look for Ms. Granger. If they can't find her within an hour, I will have professors and prefects go get her. In any case, the one who did this will be punished most severely." While Harry and Neville didn't show this on the outside, they weren't really happy with what their head of the house said. So as soon as they were out of her office, Neville said that themselves will go save Hermione. And the scion of house Longbottom also insisted that they both go there, stating that not only the bushy-haired witch was his friend too, but also that he won't leave his friend to face whatever was there in the corridor alone.
Two boys ran up to the Griffindor tower and collected Harry's invisibility cloak there – who knows, they might need it! - before racing down to the third floor and to the forbidden corridor. They stopped in front of the door there to catch their breath before going further, into the unknown.
"Shall we, mate?" Neville asked. Harry just nodded, and the two of them pointed their wands at the door's lock. "I hope, this works." The pudgy boy said, before they simultaneously cast the alohomora charm on it. The was a clicking sound, and the door creaked open. Now the boys could hear three loud snoring sounds and some tune played by a charmed lyre. Peeking inside, Harry saw a Cerberus – Hagrid's Fluffy – sleeping next to the lyre that was playing on its own, and an opened trapdoor. Opening the door wider, he and Neville slipped in.
"I think, we should go down through this trapdoor..." Then the green-eyed wizard looked down into it. "Unfortunately, it's quite dark there and I can't see the bottom."
"You can throw the stone..." Thankfully, there was a couple on the floor next to the trapdoor. "And listen, when it hits the floor down there." Harry nodded and did just that. The duo listened for any the sound of the stone hitting the floor, but even after thirty seconds there was none.
"It's either really deep, or there is something soft down there... Let's hope, it's the second." The green-eyed wizard said, as he readied himself for a jump. "This must be the stupidest thing I did in my life." Harry said, before jumping... He was falling for several seconds, before landing on something soft, yet wet and slippery... Like tentacles of a giant octopus... Looking up, Harry saw that the trapdoor's hole looked to be really small from down here. "You can jump down!" Harry shouted. Neville, apparently, had heard him, as several seconds later the green-eyed wizard heard an approaching screaming of his falling friend.
"I hope, I don't have to do this ever again." The pudgy boy said after he had recovered from the fall. "By the way, Harry, do you know that we're sitting on the Devil's snare?" Looking down, the green-eyed wizard saw that, indeed, the tentacles they were sitting on belonged to the said plant, and it had already wrapped around his both legs without him even noticing it.
"Oh, damn! I knew this couldn't be that easy. Lumos solem!" Thanks to all of the studying session Hermione made them complete, Harry knew that the Devil's snare didn't like heat and light, and faced with a source of bright light, the plant retreated into the dark corner of the chamber, making the two boys fall down onto the rough floor of a chamber underneath this one...
It took Harry and Neville more than a minute to get ready to continue forward, through the only door available to them. As they came closer to the door, they could hear sounds of multiple ...bird? flying there, as well as some booming of an unknown machinery or something like that... Opening the door, the two boys were blinded for a moment with how bright it was there...
The room itself was a vast rectangular chamber with two doors opposite to each other. In front of each door there was a small balcony without rails, and there balconies were connected by a very narrow 'bridge'. The floor of the chamber was covered with ominous spikes that would definitely kill anyone who was unlucky to fall onto them. There also was about a hundred of polished marble cubes in the room, on the either side of the 'bridge'. These cubes were moving in different patterns, but mostly up and down, while producing those booming sounds the boys had heard. Finally, just below the ceiling there was a flock of ...winged keys? that zipped around.
"And what do we have to do here?" Neville asked as he threw a small stone down. It fell between the spikes, revealing that there was no transparent panels over them.
"Hm... If I were to guess, we have to catch the right key without falling onto the spikes and cross this bridge... But I think it won't be that easy." Harry replied. "But then again, to get the right key, we need to know what we need, so crossing the room is in order." Crossing the bridge wasn't easy, even if it was still and straight. Neville even had to crawl as he still had his acrophobia and couldn't stand over the spiked abyss without fear taking over him... Finally, the duo crossed the bridge and were standing in front of the exit from this chamber.
"It looks like we will need a large silver key. Possibly with an ornate handle." The scion of the house Longbottom said as he examined the lock. Harry nodded and started locating the key in the flock... He was lucky as the key was pretty much like what Neville said it should look like, and it also had a broken wing, which made it slower and less maneuverable.
"Wish me luck." The green-eyed wizard said as he jumped onto the lowering marble cube. It appeared to be much more slippery than its polished top looked to be, and Harry was quite sure that the cube had some charms on it for that purpose. Thankfully he managed not to fall down, though it still was a close call. After he had recovered from his first jump, Harry waited till the block was as high as it could go, before jumping onto the block that was moving horizontally across the chamber. And from that one he had jumped onto the one that was moving along the chamber. Now all he had to do was waiting for the right moment to catch the winged key... Finally, a little more than a minute later, the young Potter was in the right position. Jumping up from the block, he caught the key. And the rest of the flock instantly stopped and turned towards him. Sensing that something bad was about to happen, Harry started jumping towards the balcony where Neville stood, while angry keys tried to turn him into a pincushion... Unfortunately, as Harry was doing the last jump, he slipped a little and missed the balcony. Feeling that he was falling towards his death, Harry threw the key he had caught to Neville, who managed to catch it before the thing could recover and fly away... The green-eyed wizard prepared himself for the pain that will mark the end of his short life, but it never came as he hit some magical field about an inch above the spikes and bounced up, landing face first onto the balcony a couple of seconds later.
"You OK, mate?" Neville asked as he dragged Harry through the door, before the keys made another attempt of killing them.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Let's go." And they continued forward... The next obstacle on their was was in the form of a giant chess board with human-sized figures. It was supposed that they would have to win the game to continue to the next room, but since the figures couldn't leave the squares of the board, the boys just used the edge of the board to slip past the obstacle.
The next room greeted the two first years with a terrible stench that could only belong to a troll who had spent a lot of time in a closed space. Thankfully, the troll in the room – and it was bigger than the one they had faced on Halloween – was dead. Going past the dead beast, two boys reached the next room.
Unlike the previous ones, it was circular and rather small. Right in the center of the room there was a table with seven vials of various sizes with some liquids, an opened scroll and a key. As soon as they picked the key from the table, they found themselves trapped as some liquids formed walls in front of the doors out of the room – one of the walls, the one that blocked the door back to the troll room, was of some clear liquid, while the other one was formed by a yellowish liquid.
"These are contact poisons." Neville said as he studied the walls of liquids. "I bet some of these vials have protection against them." Indeed, the riddle that was written in the scroll told that one of the vials had a potion that will protect from the poison that formed the wall preventing the boys from going forwards, while one other – from the poisonous wall that prevented them from going back. Two other vials, according to the poem, had wine in them, and the final three held deadly poisons. Solving the riddle without Hermione there to assist them proved to be not an easy task, but after ten or so minuted, the boys were sure that the smallest vial held the potion to protect from the yellowish poison, though there was barely enough for one swallow, while the bigger vial on the opposite end of the table had a potion that would allow the drinker to return to the previous room.
"So... What will we do now?" Harry asked. "Only one of us can continue forward." He pointed out.
"I think you should go, mate." Neville replied. "We might be placed as equals by the exams, but you are better with the wand than me." The scion of house Longbottom paused for a moment. "I'm not as great as you are, Harry... I will go bring the help, instead..." Harry shook his head.
"No, Neville, you are a great wizard, and even better friend. But you are right. It's me who must go forward: the kidnapper asked me to come... Who knows what he will do to Hermione if you come instead." And at his friend's nod, Harry drank the potion and stepped through the wall of yellowish poison. Inserting the key into the keyhole, the green-eyed wizard unlocked the door and opened it...
That's all, folks!
The tenth chapter will be published in a week.
Leave me a review.