Born From Madness (Harry Potter Fanfic)

33

It felt like hours till finally they landed on something soft and smooth. Hermione shuffled a bit and noticed it was some sort of plant thing. She was trying to figure out what kind of plant it was when Ron broke her thoughts. 

"Lucky this plant was here." Ron said. Hermione looked before her face twisted up in fear. 

"Lucky! Look at you two!" she ordered. Vines had begun wrapping themselves around Harry and Ron. She soon felt the vines wrapping around her. It then occurred to her what this stuff was. It was Devil's Snare! Quickly, Hermione tried to stay calm as possible. 

"Stop moving!" She shouted at them, "It's Devil's Snare! You need to relax or else it will kill you guys faster!" 

"Kill us faster? Oh well now I'm completely relax!" Ron snarled at her. Before Hermione could shoot a few choice words at him, she began to sink down through the ground. She could hear them screaming her name as she was dropped onto the ground. 

"Just relax! Trust me!" she pleaded with them. After a couple of minutes, Harry came falling from the pile of vines. Hermione rushed over to help him to his feet when she could here Ron screaming his head off. 

"He's not relax! What do we do?" Harry asked. Hermione fumbled with her fingers, trying to remember what Professor Sprout had told her about Devil's Snare. 

"Devil's Snare-- Devil's Snare-- likes the damp and and dark-- but won't sulk in the sun!" Hermione shouted before pulling out her wand, "Lumos Maxima!" 

A blinding light came flooding from Hermione's wand and hitting against the Devil's Snare perfectly. A loud screaming noise came as Ron fell down from the vine's grasp. As soon as he hit the ground, Ron scurried onto his feet. They turned and hurried down the corridor to find the next room. Once they found it, they were a bit confused. It was almost completely empty except for what appeared like little birds in the sky. They carefully hurried over towards the door. But it was locked and even Hermione's unlocking charm wasn't working. 

"What do we do now?" Ron asked. 

"What about those?" Hermione asked, "Surely they're more than decoration." 

"You're right!" Harry jolted, "They're keys! Winged keys. So that mean---" 

They slowly turned, their eyes scanning the room, to find broomsticks on leaning up against the wall. 

"Yes! Broomsticks! We got to use those to get the key!" Harry cheered. 

"But which one? There's like a hundred up there." Hermione asked while Ron proceeded to look at the knob. 

"It has to be a big, old-fashioned key. Maybe silver like the handle." Ron explained to them. 

"That one!" Harry blurted out, "The one with the bent wing." 

Harry proceeded to climb the broom which suddenly caused the rest of the keys to flutter towards him. They started attacking Harry just as he slowly made his way into the air. Hermione winced while she watched Harry struggling to catch the key. After a few minutes, Harry's hand grasp the key and proceeded to fly towards them. 

"Here," He screamed while flinging them the key. Hermione grabbed hold of it and rushed to put it in. It took a bit since the key struggled in her hand. She was able to get it as she opened the door, flinging the key to the side as she and Ron ran in. They waited till they saw Harry pass them before slamming the door close. Harry jumped off the broom then flung it to the side as they rushed to the next room. 

This room was more eerie then the last one. It was a giant chess board with large chess figures. On the sides were broken pieces of other chess figures. As they walked onto the board, torches began to light up. 

"What do we do?" Hermione asked. 

"It's obvious isn't?" Ron said, "We'll have to play to get across the room. 

"How?" 

"I think... we'll have to be Chessmen," Ron gulped before moving towards one of the knights, who sprung to life when Ron got near, "Excuse me, do we have to join to get across?" 

Ron then turned back to them, "We're going to have to take the place of three of them. So-- Harry you take the place of the bishop... Hermione, you go next to him instead of that castle... and as for me, I'll be the knight." 

Soon the three pieces, Ron had suggested left the board. The moment they took their stance, one of the pawns from the white chessmen moved a few spaces... and that was when the game began. 

It felt like hours as Hermione watched as pieces of chessmen destroyed each other. The pieces flew everywhere, some nearly hitting her or Harry or Ron. Soon most of the pieces were gone. Hermione noticed the white queen was staring at Ron. 

"Yes-- it's the only way," Ron suddenly mumbled. 

"NO!" Harry screamed. 

"What is it?" Hermione cried out. 

"He's going to let the queen take him!" Harry explained to her. 

"There's no other way! We have to stop Snape. Once I make this move, Harry you go and take the King. Don't stay around for me! Go and stop Snape." Ron said. Before anyone could say another word, Ron spoke and moved towards another square. Ron hadn't even gotten halfway onto the square when the queen pounce and knocked Ron off the horse. Hermione screamed as she watched the queen drag him off the board like he was just another broken piece. It was hard for Hermione to stay put but she had to. She watched Harry soon rush over to the King and pronounce checkmate. The King dropped his crown at Harry's feet before he and the other pieces cleared the board. Hermione looked at Ron one last time before she departed after Harry.