Chapter 17

The three of them got up, tired from all the searching they'd been doing. As they did so, a word on the opened book Hermione had left behind caught Draco's eye. "Harry, wait," he said beckoning him closer to the book. "Look what it says there," he said pointing at the line.

Harry squinted his eyes, trying to read the ridiculously small text. "Nicholas Flamel," he said slowly, his face lighting up. "That's it Daph! That's the book we've been looking for! You're brilliant, Drake " he said

"...the stone could be in Hogwarts for its own protection," said Daphne as she and Harry walked in on the Slytherin common room.

"Yeah, but the Flamel's have an estate the size of a country. What better protection could there..." The question died on Harry's lips as he saw what was going on in the common room.

"I GIVE UP!" shouted Rigel as he stormed away, oblivious to the fact that Harry, Draco and Daphne had walked in.

"Tracey?" asked Harry walking over to her and her stack of galleons that hadn't been there the last time they saw Tracey.

"Yes Harry?" she asked mid-laugh.

"How badly did you beat him?"

"7-0," said Tracey. "He just lost 20 galleons." she said standing up and packing her chess set.

"Remind me never to play chess against you." said Harry.

"Spoilsport." said Tracey sticking her tongue out.

"So you're telling me that there is a literal god stone just sitting there in the castle ready for us to take?" asked Rigel slowly, looking Harry right in the eyes. Him, Harry, Draco, Daphne and Tracey were in Harry's room. Harry nodded. "But there are going to be weird traps and what not in our way?" he asked, and Harry nodded again. "And how exactly did you find this out?"

"Um…" Harry shifted nervously. "Nothing illegal." he said.

"That fails to fill me with hope." drawled Rigel making them think he was channeling Snape. "I don't want to know." he decided.

"So, what are we going to do?" Rigel asked.

"We were thinking of stealing it." said Daphne.

"Wait what?" asked Tracey standing up. "Stealing a philosopher's stone from Hogwarts? Are you three mad?"

"Relax," said Harry ignoring her question. "If Flamel really wanted to keep it safe, he would have kept it at his billion-galleon estate instead of sending it to Hogwarts. And the traps can't be that hard to get through- Dumbledore basically told us to go through it at the welcoming feast and you can unlock the door with a simple 'Alohomora.' If he really wanted to keep it safe, Dumbledore would have put really strong wards up or something."

"You are right." admitted Tracey slowly, "And think of all we could do with it. We can live forever, get even richer and do whatever we want." sighed Tracey dreamily.

"Are you two in or not?" asked Harry looking at Rigel and Tracey. Whilst he and Daphne had been finding out more about the stone, they'd also planned a way for them to get it.

Rigel and Tracey looked at each once before turning away and nodding. "We're in." said Tracey.

"So, what are we going to have to do?" asked Rigel.

"Alohomora," Harry whispered a couple of days later hiding under his invisibility cloak woven from Demiguise hair. Since he didn't have the family one (as it was given to James and then Thomas), he had received a Demiguise cloak for his 8th birthday. He'd barely used it ever since, not wanting it to get ruined. The door clicked and opened slowly, offering them all a glimpse into darkness. "Come in," said Harry whispering to the others, who were hiding under their own Demiguise cloaks they had gotten for their various birthdays.

Once the last person (Tracey) had walked in, Harry closed the door, hearing it shut with a harsh click that told them it wasn't being opened anytime soon. "Somebody conjure some bluebell flames," Harry said dusting himself off and taking off his cloak. The other did the same and wrapped them up and put them inside their pockets.

"On it," Daphne said bringing out her wand, saying the incantation and conjuring some bright blue flames. She trapped them within a jar and held it up.

"Hold it still," Rigel said bringing out his wand as well. "Sequitur et levitate," Harry said pointing his wand at the jar of flames. They rose from Daphne's hands and hovered above them. "They'll follow me wherever I go," explained Harry. "Now, where are we?" he asked turning around.

"Shit!" yelped Rigel, being the first to see the giant 3-headed-dog sleeping soundly on the floor.

"Do you want to get us killed?" asked Daphne shushing him, the other 2 voicing their opinions as well.

"That was not there the last time we checked this place out." he said quietly hyperventilating.

"Well it must just be added security," reasoned Harry. "Probably from Hagrid."

"Look under his paw," Tracey pointed out. "The trap-door's under it. Help me move the paw." she demanded going over to the dog slowly. All of them followed her, and after several minutes of grunting efforts they managed to move the paw out of the way.

"What d'ya say we go in?" Rigel asked having opened the flap. None of them noticed that Fluffy had opened one eye and was looking around.

"Are you a Gryffindor or a Slytherin?" berated Daphne. "Who knows what's in there?" she asked.

"Uh, Daph," Harry said noticing Fluffy rise up. "I don't think we have time," he said pointing to the three-headed-dog. "Jump!" he shouted, just as Fluffy charged at them. Daphne went first, followed by Tracey, Rigel and then Draco. Harry followed his friend, desperately hoping they wouldn't be shredded. Instead, they landed in a soft pile of moving plants. "The fuck is this?" he asked, having got over his initial fear. "And why are we sinking?"

"It's Devil's Snare," said Tracey trying her best not to panic.

"The fuck is that?" asked Rigel thrashing about.

"Didn't you pay attention in Herbology?" berated Tracey.

"I was too busy messing around with Harry at the back," mumbled Rigel, blushing.

"Enough chit-chat! Get us out of here!" interrupted Harry.

"Right! Um, Devil's Snare, Devil's Snare. Oh yeah," she remembered. "It hates fire," she began bringing out her wand and the others understood quickly, bringing theirs out as well.

"INCENDIO!" they all yelled together focusing the fire away from their bodies. As soon as the plant came into contact with the flames, it began thrashing about as if it was being whipped. Soon, it had burnt away dropping them onto the floor beneath.

"Thank God Tracey pays attention in Herbology!" berated Daphne once they had picked themselves up off the floor. "Now, where are we?" she asked and all of them looked around. They seemed to be in a long hallway that was strangely silent, and it seemed to lead somewhere. They followed the hallway and eventually, after a couple minutes of walking, they came to a well-lit chamber from where some sort of weird fluttering noise could be heard.

Harry waved his wand and dispelled the jar of flames that was floating above them, and actually looked at the chamber. There were hundreds, if not thousands, of floating, fluttering objects throughout the room. "What are they?" asked Daphne.

Harry jumped up and grabbed one, making it look effortless, and held it up for them to see. "Keys," he said. The key in question had wings on it and was trying to escape his hand. "And I'm guessing one of those unlocks that door over there," he said pointing to the door in front of them.

"Try Alohomora first," recommended Draco. Harry tried it to no avail, as expected. "Well, how are we meant to get the right key? Trying out all of them will take us ages."

"Ok, so realistically, there's only one key for this door, and we can summon it using the summoning charm," explained Harry. "Accio right key," he said and suddenly a large copper key jerked towards him. It had starry blue wings that seemed to be fighting against the pull of Harry's summoning charm, but eventually it yielded and went into his hand without much protest. Harry slotted it into the door hole and turned it with an oddly satisfying click. The door swung open, stopping just before it hit the wall and all they could see was a room clouded with darkness.

As soon as they stepped inside, the room lit up revealing a chess board with 3 empty spaces. "What is this?" asked Draco, his head tilted to one side.

"A chess board," replied Daphne snarkily.

"I can see that," snapped Draco, "but what do we actually have to do?"

"I'm guessing we have to play across the board," said Daphne looking around the room. "Harry?" she asked when she saw he wasn't there.

"Relax Daph," said Harry walking back into the room. He was holding 3 brooms in his hand that had been there in the previous room. "Why not fly over?" he asked tossing a broom to Daphne and another to Rigel.

"There's only 3 brooms and 5 of us," pointed out Tracey, the only one without a broom.

"You and Daph are the lightest out of all of us, so you should be able to both get on the broom," explained Harry. He mounted his broom with Draco and kicked off, hovering in the air and waited for the other 3. Rigel kicked off next and both Tracey and Daphne got onto the broom, Daphne at the back, and hovered shakily. The board was only 10 meters wide, so they flew over that very easily and gently landed onto the ground. All of them got off their brooms and tossed them into a corner of the room in case they'd need it again. "Next room," Harry said opening the door slowly.

Suddenly, a terrible stench hit their noses making them want to vomit. Inside the room, a 15 foot troll was sleeping soundly on the floor whilst cradling a large club. It was even bigger than the one Harry had met on Halloween and the fact it was treating a 5 foot long club like a stuffed animal made it even worse. He closed the door instantly when he had seen the troll, making sure to do it quietly so the troll didn't wake.

"There is a troll in there," whisper-shouted Rigel, "and it is massive. The fuck are we meant to do?" he asked in shock.

"Look," Harry began. "The troll is sleeping and there's a door right next to it. If we go quietly, we can get through without waking the troll up. I'm sure you don't want to turn into minced meat."

"What about the smell?" interrupted Daphne.

"We'll have to bear it." admitted Harry. He slowly opened the door and tiptoed in, followed by the other 3. All of them walked across the room as carefully as they could, making sure they didn't wake the troll. "I'm glad we didn't have to fight that one." Harry whispered as they stepped carefully over one of its massive legs. "Come on, I can't breathe."

He pulled open the next door, both of them hardly daring to look at what came next - but there was nothing very frightening in here, just a table with seven differently shaped bottles standing on it in a line. "Snape's," said Harry. "What do we have to do?" They stepped over the threshold, and immediately a fire sprang up behind them in the doorway. It wasn't ordinary fire either; it was purple. At the same instant, black flames shot up in the doorway leading onward. They were trapped.

"Look!" Daphne seized a roll of paper lying next to the bottles. Harry looked over her shoulder to read it:

Danger lies before you, while safety lies behind,

Two of us will help you, whichever you would find,

One among us seven will let you move ahead,

Another will transport the drinker back instead,

Two among our number hold only nettle wine,

Three of us are killers, waiting bidden in line.

Choose, unless you wish to stay here forevermore,

To help you in your choice, we give you these clues four:

First, however slyly the poison tries to hide

You will always find some on nettle wine's left side;

Second, different are those who stand at either end,

But if you would move onward, neither is your friend;

Third, as you see clearly, all are different size,

Neither dwarf nor giant holds death in their insides;

Fourth, the second left and the second on the right

Are twins once you taste them, though different at first sight.

"Ok," said Harry pacing. "This is a logic puzzle, and none of us know enough magic to get through the fire without a potion so we're going to have to solve it. Anyone got any ideas?" They all looked hard at the puzzle, reading it over and over again for several minutes. "I've got it," Harry said after a few minutes. "It isn't that hard- we have all the clues. 3 will kills us, 2 are wine, 1 lets us go forward and one lets us go back."

"Then which ones are they Sherlock?" asked Tracey having given up on the riddle.

"The smallest bottle lets us go forward and this round one," he said lifting up a round bottle at the end of the line, "lets us go back. There's enough in here for all 5 of us, but just barely, so make sure you don't drink too much." He put the round bottle down back onto the table and picked up the smallest bottle.

Just as he was about to take a sip he was interrupted. "Are you sure about this?" Daphne asked.

"Positive," Harry said smiling. He took a small sip, shuddering slightly and held up the bottle to Daphne. "It's not poison, but it's like ice," he said.

"You go- we don't know how long the potion lasts for," said Daphne taking the bottle from him. Harry walked through the blazing purple fire with a gentle tingle into a new room. The room was quite large and barren bar for a large silvery mirror in the middle. A few seconds later, Daphne, Tracey, Draco, and Rigel walked into the room, one after another.

"What is this?" asked Rigel while tracing a finger along the side of the mirror.

"I don't know," Harry admitted, "but I'm guessing the stone is in here. There's no more doors so this must be the final room."

"Then how are we going to get the stone out of here?" asked Rigel.

"Like I said before, I don't know but there is something written here." Harry said. He pointed to an engraving on the frame of the mirror. "Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi," Harry said reading the engraving on the side of the mirror.

"What language is that?" asked Tracey. "Because it's not English and that doesn't sound like Gobbledegook."

"Since when do you know Gobbledegook?" Daphne asked raising an eyebrow.

"I don't know it, but it always sounds like they're coughing up something from their throat." Tracey admitted.

"That sounded slightly racist." Rigel remarked.

"Shush you two," Harry said. "I've worked it out. The engraving backwards is 'I show not your face but your heart's desire.' " he said taking a step back. "Guys, what do you see in the mirror?"

"I see my family, and you guys. My grandparents are there as well." said Rigel. He looked at his friends who were looking at the mirror in amazement. "What about you?"

"I see myself holding the house and quidditch cup," began Tracey, "and then I get older and get married." She sighed dreamily and looked at Daphne, telling her to continue.

Daphne looked into the mirror properly for a few seconds, hard, before blushing violently. "What is it?" asked Tracey smiling evilly. "Is that why you're blushing?"

"Move on," snapped Daphne, "I'm not telling you!"

"Tracey, don't tease her." said Harry and Daphne gave him a grateful look.

"Well than what about you?" Rigel asked Harry.

Harry looked into the mirror hard, and shapes began forming around him, shapes that eventually turned into people. There were his grandparents, his friends, his godfather, Daphne holding his hands and kissing him and his family but there was also his brother and his parents. "I've won the House and Quidditch Cup, and I'm really powerful," Harry lied smoothly determined to find out what his actual 'desire' meant.

"Now how are we going to get the stone out?" asked Daphne.

"With a little bit of magic?" asked Harry pulling out his wand and pointing it at the mirror. "Confringo!" he shouted, and a blue light flew out of his wand. It struck the mirror leaving a large crack, though it didn't break the glass. "Guys, help me," he said, and they all pulled out their wands. 7 Confringo charms later, the mirror lay broken along the floor and a red stone had settled upon the shards of glass.

"I guess this is it," Draco said picking up the rock. They all huddled together and passed the rock between themselves, Harry pocketing it when it had been passed round.

"We should probably head back," Harry said surveying the damage they'd done to this room. The 4 of them pocketed their wands and walked back through the flames, Harry still pondering upon the things he'd seen in the mirror.

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