As they walked into the next room, disgusting smell filled their nostrils, making both of them pull their robes up over their noses. Eyes watering, they saw, flat on the floor in front of them, a troll even larger than the one they had tackled, out cold with a b.l.o.o.d.y lump on its head."I"m glad we didn"t have to fight that one," Harry whispered as they stepped carefully over one of its ma.s.sive legs. "Come on, I can"t breathe."
Once they walked into the 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!" Hermione 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, which ever 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.
Hermione let out a great sigh and Harry, amazed, saw that she was smiling, the very last thing he felt like doing. "Brilliant," said Hermione. "This isn"t magic -- it"s logic -- a puzzle. A lot of the greatest wizards haven"t got an ounce of logic, they"d be stuck in here forever."
"But so will we, won"t we?"
"Of course not," said Hermione. "Everything we need is here on this paper. Seven bottles: three are poison; two are wine; one will get us safely through the black fire, and one will get us back through the purple."
"But how do we know which to drink?"
"Give me a minute." Hermione read the paper several times. Then she walked up and down the line of bottles, muttering to herself and pointing at them. At last, she clapped her hands.
"Got it," she said. "The smallest bottle will get us through the black fire -- toward the Stone." Harry looked at the tiny bottle.
"There"s only enough there for one of us," he said. "That"s hardly one swallow."
The three looked at each other. "Which one will get you back through the purple flames?" Hermione pointed at a rounded bottle at the right end of the line.
"So here is what you do you and Ron drink from the bottle to get back to the castle. Send a letter to Dumbledore." Harry said.
"Harry what about you?" Ron asked.
"I will drink this one to go towards the stone." Harry said.
"But" "Don"t argue."
Then they each drank out of the respective bottles, but after a moment of time none of them felt anything different.
"Do you guys feel any different?" Harry asked.
""No""
"That is strange I know I picked the correct bottles" Hermione said and read through them again. "Yes I was correct these bottles should have gotten us through. Something is wrong."
As Hermione was saying this feeling that danger was approaching and as she turned around she saw a figure coming out of the fire.
"Behind you!" Hermione tried to say but she felt something hit her and then she couldn"t move.
In her range of view she saw that Harry and Ron also couldn"t move as well. As the figure in the fire came into view Hermione"s eyes went wide.
It was Quirrell.
"You!" Hermione heard Harry gasp as she felt herself have the ability to talk once more..
Quirrell smiled. His face wasn"t twitching at all. "Me," he said calmly. "I wondered whether I"d be meeting you here, Potter and it seems your friends have come along as well."
"But I thought -- Snape --"
"Severus?" Quirrell laughed, and it wasn"t his usual quivering treble, either, but cold and sharp. "Yes, Severus does seem the type, doesn"t he? So useful to have him swooping around like an overgrown bat. Next to him, who would suspect p-p-poor, st-stuttering P-Professor Quirrell?"
"But Snape tried to kill me!"
"No, no, no. I tried to kill you. Your friend Miss Granger accidentally knocked me over as she rushed to set fire to Snape at that Quidditch match. She broke my eye contact with you. Another few seconds and I"d have got you off that broom. I"d have managed it before then if Snape hadn"t been muttering a countercurse, trying to save you."
"Snape was trying to save me?"
"You mean Nova was right?" Ron interrupted. "Merlin"s beard does that leave a bad taste in my mouth."
"Of course," said Quirrell coolly. "Why do you think he wanted to referee your next match?"
"But Nova wasn"t there for that . . . Oh you meant Snape. Never mind" Ron interrupted again.
"Will you shut up? Now where was I . . . Oh yes. He was trying to make sure I didn"t do it again. Funny, really... he needn"t have bothered. I couldn"t do anything with Dumbledore watching. All the other teachers thought Snape was trying to stop Gryffindor from winning, he did make himself unpopular... and what a waste of time, when after all that, I"m going to kill you tonight. But first I need some information out of you three."
"In the next room, there was a mirror. And after spending time on Dumbledore"s nasty puzzle, I pulled this abnormally large ruby out of the mirror. Why was that? Where is the Stone?"
"Why would we tell you?" Harry said.
"It"s with Nova!" Ron suddenly belted out.
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"RON!! Harry called out to him.
"Yes it seems that Mister Weasley here can"t help himself. Afterall I poured out the Bone Chilling Potion Snape brewed and replaced it with some Truth Syrim. So Potter your turn."
"Knowing Dumbledore why would he give the Stone to some child?"
"I don"t know?" Harry said. Hermione could tell he was trying to fight the effects of the potion but if she remembered correctly it was a potion that forced the drinker to divulge any information related to the question.
"Ok then this Nova hasn"t been seen for almost 5 months, Dumbledore has annoyingly allowed him to be exempt from everything cla.s.sroom related. Not to mention he completely got on my nerves as well as the Master"s, constantly sleeping, never partic.i.p.ating, and then his a.s.signments. How can one sleep all day and still turn in multiple parchments worth of a.s.signment? It is like he was trying to work me to death. And what would that say about my master? A Dark Lord working himself to death, the thought of the ridicule to disgrace his glorious name. All that aside, where is Nova?"
"I don"t know? Harry and Ron replied. Hermione started to find it a bit strange she drank the same potion as Ron but at this point didn"t feel any desire to say anything, but rather a feeling of not wanting to speak either. Apparently Quirrel thought the same thing.
"You, girl, why are you not speaking?" Quirrel asked her. Hermione just kept silent. She still felt no inkling as to say anything. Strange.
"Crucio!" Quirrel suddenly said. The unknown spell ricocheted off a golden sphere that formed around Hermione. Seeing this Hermione recalled the events of Halloween, when the quill from Nova defended her, this time though it was the crystal orb that had flown out of her uniform that hovered in front of her.
"What is this?" And with a wave of his wand, the orb flew into his hand.
"Stop give that back." Hermione spoke for the first time.
"Silence! What is this? It contains so much power. Such energy I feel like my power is increasing and as well the Master"s power continues to grow from within. It"s like the power of the sun in the palm of my hand!" Quirrel started to marvel at the orb.
"Girl," He turned his wand on her, "Speak tell us where did you get such a G.o.dly item from?"
Seeing her unwilling to say anything, Quirrel turned his wand on Harry and Ron, "Either you tell me now or I will kill them."
Not wanting Harry and Ron"s death on her mind, Hermione spoke, "Nova gave it to me."
"So the rumors about the boy being wealthy were true? Take me to him or I kill them." Quirrel demanded.
Rumors? What rumors? Hermione didn"t know of any such thing. Maybe it was the gossip that the girls had that Nova was a rich stud from a hidden prominent family. Not only were these rumors floating about but after what happened at the Christmas Party at the Greengra.s.s Manor many n.o.ble families were plotting ways to marry their daughter off to Nova. Hearing this Hermione could only sigh as she nodded her head, and watched as Quirrel knocked the two boys out. And then point his wand back at Hermione, directing her to lead the way.
"You do realize that Nova will destroy you when he finds out what you have done right?" Hermione said. When Quirrel heard this he laughed, Hermione didn"t know what he found so funny.
"That young brat can"t do anything to me now that I have this G.o.dly shield tool in my hands." Quirrel boasted.
"But you do realize that Nova was the one to kill the troll during Halloween? Don"t you." Hermione asked him. She was honestly worried something was wrong with his head.
"Indeed the child was skilled in doing something to the troll, but as you had seen in the other room that a troll in nothing too hard to handle. And with this device in my hand anything he throws at me will be like an ant hitting a window."
Soon they had arrived out of the third floor and into the main castle and then Hermione came to a stop as the Third Floor Scenery melted to reveal the Front Entrance of the Castle.
"It seems that you have finally decided to join me." A voice came from above them.
When they both looked up they saw that it was Nova.
****************************************************
Time for some face slapping