Disclaimer 1: This is fanfic. That means I do not own any of it. I just borrow it to play with for a little while and let people see the pathetic results if they really want to.
Disclaimer 2: I'm not making any money from it. It's just for fun.
Disclaimer 3: What isn't borrowed is all made up. None of this is real or most likely at all realistic. Please don't trust any of the information in here. Most likely you know more about whatever I'm writing about than I do.
Disclaimer 4: Attitudes, views and opinions expressed by the characters or in the story are not necessarily those of the author. Even when writing Science Fiction or Fantasy I do not tend to attempt to create perfect/better worlds in which everybody gets a happy end ... or whatever is best for them. Please accept that some characters will have a bad ending or be unhappy.
Disclaimer 5: I intend no insult to anyone. If I offend anyone I'm very sorry. Please understand that it was an accident as I tend to be very clumsy in these things.
Notes: Six best friends trying to rescue the Philosopher's stone. Why, it'll be easy, right?
Chapter 16: Through the Trapdoor
It was scary to think that You-Know-Who was alive - or at least half alive - and trying to get at the Philosopher's stone, but what could they do?
As Hermione pointed out they had to study. Exam time was approaching rapidly and soon the seventh years would leave the institute and the new batch of first years arrive.
"And we will be second years," Draco said proudly. "No longer the youngest."
If You-Know-Who didn't destroy the institute and kill them first.
"Only if we pass our exams," Hermione reminded him. "So tell me, Ron: What are the uses of dragon's blood?"
The actual exams turned out to be easier than Hermione's questions, though and after their last practical exam in Charms they were released onto the grounds with six days off until the leaving feast for the seventh years.
"And then the welcoming feast not long after that," Oliver promised them. "It's the best time of the year and as first years you get the longest holiday of all."
The older students still had their exams ahead of them.
Harry, Hermione, Ron, Draco, Gregory and Vincent found themselves a nice shady place under a tree by the lake. Harry stretched out on his back and watched the clouds through the twigs. They formed nice, light patterns, not at all like the shadows in the forest, but something about them reminded him of the horrible scene with the dead unicorn anyway.
"We ought to tell the headmaster," he realised suddenly.
"Tell the headmaster what?" Vincent asked.
"About You-Know-Who and the stone," Harry explained. "Before You-Know-Who attacks the institute and ruins everything."
"Well, let's go then," said Draco, but it turned out to be easier said than done.
None of them knew where Professor Dumbledore's office was and when they asked Professor McGonagall she told them Professor Dumbledore wasn't even at the institute and sent them back outside.
"Oh, this is terrible," Hermione exclaimed. "If the headmaster is away, surely Snape and You-Know-Who will steal the stone tonight!"
"Then we have to stop them," Ron decided. "We'll be heroes."
Harry liked that idea a lot, even though he wasn't sure how one did that. For this they had Hermione, though. She told them to meet up outside the library that night. Harry was to bring his flute.
"We'll use that to play Fluffy to sleep," she explained. "Then we climb through the trapdoor and get the stone to safety before Snape comes."
That would be easy!
"And then we'll be heroes?" Harry asked.
"Yes, then we'll be heroes," Ron confirmed.
"And You-Know-Who can't attack us," Draco added.
Gregory and Vincent nodded eagerly. They didn't want to be attacked either.
However when they reached the room Fluffy was in, the door was already unlocked and there was a self-playing harp standing in one corner.
"Oh, Snape has already been here!" Hermione breathed.
"Then we have to follow him and stop him," Ron decided and on they went through the trapdoor.
They fell into something Hermione claimed was called devil's snare and that tried to crush them to death, but luckily Hermione also remembered that it was afraid of light and Draco cast a fire spell at it that made it let them go.
Next they came into a room in which lots of very aggressive little keys with colourful wings were flying around and which had a locked door on the other end.
They also found three brooms next to the door, and Hermione told Harry, Draco and Ron, who were the best flyers of the group, to get on the brooms and catch keys for her to try. Vincent and Gregory tore the wings off the captured keys so they didn't fly off again and eventually they caught a key that fit the lock and escaped into the next room.
"The devil's snare was Professor Sprout's contribution," Hermione said. "And the keys were probably Professor Flitwick's."
Harry didn't know how she knew that, but of course she was very smart.
"So whose is this?" Ron asked looking worriedly at the huge chessboard in front of them.
"It doesn't look like Quirrel in any case and I suppose Snape's will be Potions, so I guess this must be McGonagall."
That didn't help them win, though. Ron and Draco did their best but the game was a lot more difficult than one against another child and in the end Ron had to sacrifice himself to ensure their victory. They decided to send Gregory and Vincent back to help him to the hospital wing and alert the adults.
The next room held a positive surprise. A dead troll lay in it.
"But I don't understand," Hermione said as they crossed the room. "Snape captured the other troll. Why did he kill this one?"
She was soon distracted by a more urgent problem, though. The next room held a row of bottles and a logic puzzle.
"Oh," said Hermione. "Snape is really smart, too!"
It took them a very long time to work out the puzzle and then they discovered that there was only enough left of the potion for one of them.
They argued over who should be the one to go on, both Hermione and Draco saying that Harry wasn't smart enough, but Draco reminding Hermione that he'd been the one that had remembered the fire spell in Professor Sprout's room and consequently was better at keeping his head in a crisis. Hermione countered that he was a Slytherin and not brave enough.
"But he killed my parents!" Harry announced and finally the other two agreed to wait in the potions room and attack Snape should he come back with the stone. Harry walked through a wall of fire into the last room, but what he found there wasn't Professor Snape.