And I am back with another chapter of "Road to Power. Welcome, everyone!

I am happy that you all liked my idea about the disappearances. I saw a lot of questions about the people responsible for them and all I can say is that some of you might be right. I won't say more as this plot will be heavily expanded in year 2.

Today though, we are finally finishing the first year and the plot about Philosopher's stone. In the next chapter, we will focus on summer and the beginning of the second year. Trust me you won't expect all of the changes I made for this single year.

Now a quick note about future updates. My next week will be very busy and I will release even one chapter. Sorry, but IRL stuff is more important.

That would be it for this AN. I tried to answer all of your questions via PMs. Check them and if I missed you, then just ask again.

Enjoy.

Chapter 11. What you desire the most

It was very hard to find the perfect day for my final trip to the third corridor. After all, I needed to do this before Quirell tried to go after the Philosopher's Stone, but also chose a moment in which no one would ever notice that something was wrong.

If I remember correctly in books and movies it was the day that Dumbledore was out of Hogwarts. Similarly, I tried to wait for this day and use the exact moment I knew the Headmaster left, to make my move. There was just one problem with this idea.

I could miss my opportunity if I waited too long. Then there was the case of being faster than Quirell, but I could deal with that. I was prepared and had knowledge of every trap in the corridor, so I was pretty sure I could deal with everything faster.

Now with the end of the school year just around the corner, I knew I had no more time to waste. Thankfully yesterday I overheard two professors talking when I was coming back after the curfew from the Chamber of Secrets.

Apparently, there was some kind of problem in the Ministry of Magic and Dumbledore would be out of the caste for the whole day tomorrow.

I was obviously in luck and that was why after I came back to my dorms, I went to 'sleep' and waited for everyone to hit the sack. After that, I quietly slid from the Gryffindor Tower and went back to the Chamber of Secrets to inform Salazar of the new plan. I also confirmed the teachers' conversations during breakfast where Dumbledore was already missing.

And here I was standing before the entrance to the third corridor, exactly after the history exam. I remembered from the canon that Quirell and Golden Trio went after the stone in the evening, so I had about one hour to find the stone and get out. If it even was the same day that they went down there, unfortunately, I couldn't remember the day when it all happened in canon, only some of the timeframe.

I was wearing darker clothes that no one ever saw on my person, it was one of my ideas of how to dodge any suspicion if I was seen by anyone. The next one was a potion that I made with the help of Salazar. I really doubt that I could have brewed it without him.

It was already familiar to me as it was used by the twins during the Goblet of Fire. The aging potion.

It gave me the appearance of an older teenager and I already had the antidote ready for me in the Chamber. After all, I needed to do this quickly and go back to the Gryffindor common room as soon as I could.

I drank it in the chamber as I needed to transfigurate my clothes before going as unfortunately I wasn't skilled to do it in a few seconds. The worst part of all of this was that I still felt the foul taste in my mouth after the potion. Really, it was kind of sad that almost every potion I tried tasted terrible.

With a sigh, I finally opened the door in the corridor and passed the ward just like I practiced. I really hoped that I wouldn't find any new surprises that weren't there just a few days ago.

With practiced ease, I did the same thing that Quirell did and used a transfigurated instrument to make the big Cerberus fall asleep. Of course, the spells to animate an instrument to play weren't easy, but when you had a few months to practice, you could basically achieve anything. I already tested this method before and I was still wondering how something that dangerous could have such a weird weakness.

Not that I minded as it made my mission easier.

It only took a few seconds before the large dog laid down on the floor and fell asleep. This time I was lucky as the Cerberus didn't put his paw on the trapdoor so I didn't need to risk anything while getting inside.

With a flick of my hand, the trapdoor opened and I was greeted with the large Devil's Snare that was probably the easiest of the obstacles to pass.

I summoned a very bright ball of light in my hand and slowly descended down while the plant remained unmoving. I really wondered if the professors passed through it every time when they needed to check on the Underground Chambers. I didn't find any secret passage, but maybe it was just hidden very well.

Now onto the next obstacle, the winged keys prepared by Filius Flitwick. Surprisingly this was the best obstacle out of them all... Well as long as you weren't a NEWT student or natural seeker like Harry.

I was neither of them, but again I had months to prepare. The closed doors were heavily enchanted and there was no way for me to open it with brute force or unlocking spells. Okay, maybe I could do it with brute force, but I wanted to do this covertly without leaving any signs that I was here.

I could also take the old broom and try to catch the correct key...

Yeah, I also tried that and it appeared that I didn't have any skill with a broom. I only ended up with a few bruises after my first try and wisely decided to never do it again. I was okay with casual flying, but chasing after a small object was beyond me.

That was why I found a spell in one of the books in the library to fix my problem.

A very simple wide-area stunning charm.

Well, maybe not that simple as it required a lot of power and focus. Power that I thankfully had, but if I attempted the spell more than three times, I would get tired very fast. At least I got enough practice to perform the spell silently.

This time I drew my wand and performed the required wand movement. I didn't want to waste more time to practice, so for now I would need to use them.

The spell worked just like I practiced and all of the keys fell on the floor. From there I searched for the correct one and used it to open the doors. As I said, this obstacle was probably the hardest one, but if one already knew what it was, then they wouldn't have a problem beating it.

After passing through the massive doors, I emerged in another room that housed the giant chessboard we all knew and loved... Yeah, not really. For someone as intelligent as McGonagall, she didn't think her obstacle through.

After all, there was no door or secret passage that needed to be opened via beating the chessboard. No, one could simply pass it and go to the next room without almost any problems if they weren't complete morons.

While the chessboard spanned through the entire width of the room and the animated chess pieces would stop me if I tried to just pass by them on the ground. They would do nothing if I tried to fly above them. Oh well, no human was perfect, and even McGonagal could have missed such a simple detail.

For this, I prepared my own broom or rather borrowed one from Filch's storage. The man had a lot of interesting things in his room, unfortunately, the Marauder's map was already taken by the twins - probably. For now, I couldn't be bothered to steal it from them. I had the founder of Hogwarts that knew almost every secret passage and while the function to know where everyone was would be helpful in this situation, I could work without it.

Besides, it was not like I could get a drop on the two Weasleys like some of the characters did in fanfiction. From what I observed before abandoning my idea to steal the map, Fred and George were always careful with their actions and I never even saw them using the map.

Meh, I could try in the future when I had a good plan. Now it was time to pass through Snape's obstacle, as I already flew past the trolls. Only this time I used every concealing spell I learned so the beasts wouldn't try to follow me by the scent.

And so upon entering the next chamber, my passage was blocked by purple flames. Now here I could go with the canon route and drink the correct potion or again use a spell that I learned just for this occasion. It wasn't that hard to learn and from what I found it was something taught in the sixth year charms. I could also safely bet that this was the spell Quirell used to pass the flames without even sparing Snape's riddle a look.

The spell's name? Flame-Freezing charm.

Yeah, even I was surprised that it worked on those weird purple flames. Like always I learned how to perform it silently, but using it wandlessly and without wand movements still beyond me. Really ever since I began using my wand, every spell was getting harder and harder to learn wandlessly. Salazar said that my being was getting too used to performing magic with a focus and only more practice without a wand would fix it.

Again I performed the spell and safely walked through the affected flames. They no longer burned, but now I could only feel some pleasant sensation just like a warm summer breeze. Such a useful spell, it definitely helped during the witch-hunts when mundanes tried to burn magicals on stakes.

Shaking my head I put those thoughts for later. Already ten minutes passed and I still had to deal with the last obstacle.

And lo and behold, here it was, the fabled Mirror of Erised or more simply Mirror of Desire. Really I had no idea what was the purpose of turning its name backward. I would never understand all the quirks of the wizarding world...

To be honest, the mirror didn't look special, but I should have expected that. After all, in the wizarding world, nothing worked like it was supposed to.

Now it was time to get to work.

I never really went into this room, because I feared that if there were some wards that I could discover, then they would instantly notice Dumbledore to my presence. Now that Dumbledore was out of the way I could at least try without the fear of him running in here wands blazing.

First I cast every spell that Salazar and I found to search for any wards that could be laid around the room.

The results were definitely interesting.

While the room itself wasn't warded in the slightest, the mirror was a completely different case. There were so many different enchantments and wards around this thing that it would take me years to even figure out how they worked.

I suspected that most of those things were probably part of the mirror while the rest was added by Dumbledore. Was I right? Who knew and it wasn't really that important.

The important thing was that as soon as I found the stone, I was getting the hell out of here. There was definitely something that would activate with the removal of the stone and if I timed everything right then all the blame would fall on Voldemort who would be coming here not that long after I finished.

"Alright, let's get this over with," I murmured and stood before the mirror.

I waited for the image to appear in the reflection and raised an eyebrow when it finally did. The mirror was supposed to show the deepest desire of our hearts and this didn't really look like it.

The mirror showed me - obviously - in an adult form. I was wearing pretty casual clothes with a long dark brown trench coat over it. My face was matured and my hair was still kept short. The only things that caught my interest were the glimpse of some runes on my hand and a small smirk on my face.

Apart from that, my older self was standing in space? Yeah, it looked like it, the stars in the background and lack of any floor definitely confirmed that. There were also some weird blurred pictures in the background that I couldn't recognize.

Still, there was one more thing that caught my interest, a blurred person - or at least I thought it was a person, the limited vision didn't help - was standing a few feet away from me.

I had no clue what it was supposed to mean, but it could either be some mistake created by the mirror or some kind of my desire that I didn't even know about. Humans could desire a wide range of things and some went through their lives without realizing what they truly needed. It was just basic human nature and I couldn't say that I wasn't one of them.

I snorted at the thought, before turning back to my reflection. I wasn't here to think of philosophy, but to find the stone.

The moment the thought went through my head, my older self smirked wider and raised his empty hand. He then clenched it tightly and I instantly felt something change when he opened it again to show the red Philosopher's stone in all its glory.

With no small amount of shock, I looked down on my left hand that was clenched just a few seconds ago, and just like my mirror self, I opened it to find the stone waiting there.

Was it really that easy? Wasn't the mirror supposed to stop people who wanted to use the stone?

...Right, I didn't want to use it, not now at least. Not really. Ever since I came to this universe I wanted the stone just because. Yeah, it would certainly be useful, but I had no grand plan on how to use it as I never really knew if I would be able to get it and it really worked.

The mirror might have ignored my small want to use it and focused on the desire to find it. After all, it was a mirror of desire and this whole mission was about finding the stone.

"Fuck, and here I thought I would need to try hard to remove you," I then shook my head, "Really, I will never understand how the wizarding world works."

Without any further ado, I again activate my concealment pack and ran back through the still charmed flames. I passed the trolls and chessboard just like I did previously and finally arrived back at Flitwick's obstacle.

There I quickly closed the door and woke up with all the keys.

With everything taken care of, I climbed back through the Devil's Snare and arrived back in the third corridor where Fluffy was still sleeping. A sense of accomplishment filled me when I realized that everything went according to plan. Well, mostly, I thought I would need more time to get the stone out of the mirror.

So it was with a grin that I left the third floor and went back to the Chamber of Secrets to hide the stone and take the antidote.

Now, I just needed to wait and find out if the rest of the events went similarly to the canon. And with me living in the same dorm as Harry Potter, it wouldn't be a problem.

If that didn't work?

Well, Dumbledore almost revealed what happened during the End-of-Term Feast by giving points to the Golden Trio and Neville.

"Please sit down Minerva," Albus said in a tired tone.

"Is something wrong? I know that the whole fiasco with Quirrel and you-know-who was a surprise, but it all ended well if you consider who was the person who stopped him," Minerva said after she sat down and looked at the headmaster in worry.

"I can't argue with that. Unfortunately, just a few minutes ago I came back from my investigation of the whole underground chambers and found something very disconcerting," Dumbledore responded finishing with a long sigh.

McGonagall didn't ask the question, but the slightly raised eyebrow was enough to make Albus continue.

"It is the stone, Minerva. It is no longer in the Mirror," he stated simply.

The stern professor gasped, "How? From what I know Quirell couldn't take it and Mr. Potter didn't have it on him. The boy even told you that he never saw it during his confrontation with you-know-who."

Dumbledore shook his head lightly, "I am not sure. The only reason I knew to come back to Hogwarts because the stone was removed and Mr. Potter and his friends passed through the ward at the entrance to the Corridor. I thought that Voldemort somehow found a way to extract it and then it was destroyed during his confrontation with Harry. But after speaking with the boy and doing my own investigation, I now know that something went completely wrong.

Of course, the stone still could have been destroyed when Mr. Potter arrived, but I searched for any remains of it and I didn't find anything. An artifact like this would leave a sign if it was destroyed there. Be it magical signature or even small parts of the stone."

Minerva nodded in understanding, as it all made sense, "Do you think it could be someone else?"

"It is a possibility," he replied while dragging a hand through his long beard, "There are many scenarios of what could have happened there, but in the end, I have no way of finding which one is true. I will go back there to try to find some clues, but I fear that the Philosopher's stone is truly lost. I placed a tracking charm on it, but when I came back to my office to check where it was, I found the charm removed or destroyed along with the stone. It was a mistake to use it as a bait for Voldemort..."

McGonagall took a few deep breaths to calm herself, "You knew my opinion on this Albus and you still went with it," her tone was calm, but Dumbledore could hear the hidden anger in it, "Unfortunately now we can only try to recover it as fast as we can. I am more concerned about the Flamel pair, what will they do without it?"

"They don't need it, Minerva. If they did then Nicholas wouldn't ever give it to me. He and Perenelle decided a few years back, that they had enough of this prolonged life and wanted to finally see what was waiting for them on the other side. They gave me the stone because I was the only person Nicholas trusted as he knew I never wanted it. I was supposed to protect it, but it seems my life is full of mistakes," he was so tired of all this.

"Stop Dumbledore," the Head of Gryffindor snapped at her old friend, "Yes, you made a lot of mistakes, but you need to remember all the things you did for our world. Without you, the British wizarding world would be in a darker place now, hell, all the world would be. You are always the one saying about forgiveness... Maybe it is time to finally learn how to forgive yourself."

With that McGonagall quickly left the office. Dumbledore needed to think about it alone, and her presence would only disturb him.

Albus sat there, slightly shocked that even after all these years, there was still someone who could scold him so easily. Still, he knew that what Minerva said was true, but it was easier said than done.

"But I will try, my dear friend," he spoke quietly listening to Fawkes' calming song, "I will try."

That's it.

As you see this is the end of year one... well almost, I still have two quick scenes to write in the next chapter that will close it all up, but they will be really short, don't worry. There is just so much I need to put in the first year as this is the introduction to everything. After that everything should go a lot smoother.

Now about this chapter.

Finally, Logan managed to obtain the Philosopher's stone. What will he do with it? I won't tell, but I have some plans.

Some of you probably won't like how the theft went down and that's fine. While it was a major pint of the plot, I didn't really see any reason to change it too much. Yeah, Logan used his own ideas to pass the challenges and along with Salazar thought of a perfect way to fool everyone, but that's pretty much it.

At first, I had other ideas about how I wanted it to go down, but after thinking this though, I decided on this.

Finally, we got a short scene between Dumbledore and McGonagall. The headmaster is a very interesting character to write and I just couldn't stop myself from showing you all more of his personality in this story.

That would be all for this AN. Let me know what you all think.

Have a good day/night.