The Unknown: A Harry Potter Story

Chapter 28: End of the Line

"That was amazing!" Hermione shouted as she and Harry rushed towards Jason.

"I was scared when you got knocked down," Harry said, "but then you turned it around. You did great."

"Thanks, guys," Jason said through a weak simile, as he released the void from around him. "But we're on a schedule so let's not waste too much time celebrating how awesome I am."

Harry and Hermione laughed as they all made their way to the door on the far side of the room. The duel had left Jason exhausted, and he had to lean on Harry and Hermione as they moved on.

"You ready?" Harry asked, looking back and forth between both Jason and Hermione.

"Let's go," Hermione replied, while Jason just nodded.

Taking a deep breath, Harry pushed the door open.

A disgusting smell filled their nostrils, making the three of them pull their robes over their noses. Through watering eyes, they saw, flat on the floor in front of them, a troll even larger than the one from Halloween, out cold with a bloody lump on its head.

"Guess we lucked out on this one," Jason whispered while looking at the troll.

"I'm glad we didn't have to fight that one," Harry whispered as they stepped carefully over one of the troll's massive legs to get to the next door.

Jason pulled open the next door, all three of them were scared to see what came after the troll - but there was nothing very frightening in here, just a table with seven differently shaped bottles standing on it in a line.

"I'm gonna go out on a limb here ... and say this is Snape's challenge," Jason commented, finally being able to walk on his own again. He then quickly and quietly closed the door behind them so they didn't have to worry about the troll waking up.

"What do we do?" Harry asked.

"Not sure yet, but I assume we're just gonna leave this one to Hermione."

Hermione gave Jason an angry look as they stepped over the threshold. Immediately a fire sprang up behind them in the doorway. It wasn't ordinary fire either; it was purple. At the same moment, black flames shot up in the doorway leading onward. They were trapped.

"Look!" Hermione seized a roll of paper lying next to the bottles. Jason and Harry looked over her shoulders to read it.

The paper contained a riddle that explained how the challenge would work. There were seven vials, each with a potion. One would let the drinker move forward, one would take them back to the previous room, two of the vials had nettle wine, and three were poisons. The riddle gave different rules for identifying the vials. The rules got a little confusing, but Jason had a general idea of what was going on. Looking over at Harry, he knew that Harry was completely lost.

Hermione on the other hand was smiling.

"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?" Harry said, sounding depressed.

"Of course not," Jason replied. "I already know what to do."

"Oh, and what's that?" asked Hermione.

"I already told you," Jason smiled. "Leave everything to you."

Hermione rolled her eyes and turned back to the riddle.

"How do we know which to drink?" Harry asked.