meant to be (1)

57

"What if hes —?"

'He'll be all right." said Harry, not sounding convinced at all.

"What do you reckon's next?" Harry added

"We've had Sprouts, that was the Devils Snare - Flitwick must've put charms on the keys - McConagall transfigured the chessmen to make them alive - that leaves Quirrel's spell,
and Snape's ..." Hermione said.

We had reached another door.

"All right, Jules, Hermione?" Harry whispered.

"Go on!"

Harry pushed it open.

A disgusting smell filled our nostrils, making all  of us pull our sweaters up over our noses. Eyes watering, we saw, flat on the floor in front of us, a troll even larger than the one we had tackled, out cold with a bloody lump on its head.

"I'm glad we didn't have to fight that one." Harry whispered, as we stepped carefully over one of its massive legs.

"Come on, I can't breathe." Hermione said. I stayed silent, the pain in my shoulder increasing.

Hermione pulled open the next door, all of us 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.

"Snapes." said Harry. "What do we have to do?"

We stepped over the threshold and immediately a fire sprang up behind us in the doorway. It wasn't ordinary fire either; it was purple. At the same instant, black flames shot up in the doorway
leading onwards. We were trapped.

"Look!" I seized a roll of paper lying next to the bottles. I put the paper in front of us so all of us could read it:

Danger lies before you, while safefy lies behind, Two of us wil help you, whichever you would find, One among us seven will lef you move ahead, Another will transport the drinker back insfead, Two among our number hold only neffle wine, Three of us are killers, watfing hidden in line.
Choose, unless you wish fo sfay here for evermore, To help you in your choice, we give you these four clues:
First, however slyly the poison tries fto hide You will always find some on neffle wine's left side;
Second, different are those who stand at either end, But if you would move onwards, neither is your friend;
Third, as you see clearly, all are different size, Neither warf nor giant holds death in their insides;
Fourth, the second loff and the second on the right are twins once you taste them, though different at first sight.

Hermione let out a great sigh. To my pleasure she was smiling. Solving the riddle was the very last thing I wanted to do right now.

"Brilliant!" said Hermione. "This isn't magic - it's logic - A lot of the greatest wizards haven't got an ounce of but he be stuck in here for ever."

"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?" I asked.

"Give me a minute!" she said.

Hermione read the paper several times. Then she walked ap and down the line of bottles, muttering to herself and ponting at them. At last, she clapped her hands.

"Got it." she said as I looked at her in amazement. "The smallest bottle will get us through the black fire - towards the Stone!"

Harry and I looked at the tiny bottle.
"There's only enough there for one of us, maybe two" he said. 'That's hardly one swallow!

We all looked at each other.

"Which one will get you back through the purple?" Harry asked. Hermione pointed at a rounded bottle at the right end of the line.

"You two drink that." said Harry.

"Harry-" I started

"No, listen - get back and get Ron - grab brooms from the flying-key room, they'll get you out of the trapdoor and past Fluffy - go straight to the owleryand send Hedwig to Dumbledore, we need him. Hermione make sure Julie gets to Madam Pomfrey. I might be able to hold Snape off for a while, but I'm no match for him really!"

"But Harry - what if You-Know-Who's with him?" Hermione asked anxiously.

"Well - I was lucky once, wasn't I?" said Harry, pointing at his scar. "I might get lucky again."

"I'm going with you" I said.

"No, look at you! You're barely even standing!"

"I really don't care."

Hermione's lip trembled and she suddenly dashed at Harry and I and threw her arms around the both of us.

"Hermione!"

"Harry, Julie - you're both great wizard, you know! Harry, you know how Julie is. She will follow you no matter what. Just let her go with you."

"I'm not as good as you." said Harry, looking very embarrassed, as she let go of us.

"Me!'' said Hermione. "Books! And cleverness! There are more important things - friendship and bravery and - oh you two - be careful!"

"Jules, are you sure you're up for coming with me? I don't want you to get hurt because of me." Harry asked, turning to me. I nodded in response.

"You drink first, Hermione." said Harry. "You are sure which is which, aren't you?"

"Positive." said Hermione. She took a long drink from the round bottle at the end and shuddered.

"It's not poison?" said Harry anxiously.

"No - but it's like ice!"

"Quick, go, before it wears off!"

"Good luck - take care-"

"GO!"

Hermione turned and walked straight through the purple fire.

I took a deep breath and picked up the smallest bottle. Harry and I  turned to face the black flames.

"Here we come" Harry said as he took a small sip out of the bottle and handing it to me.

It was indeed as though ice was flooding my body. I put the bottle down and walked forward. we braced ourselves, saw the black flames licking our bodys but couldn't feel them - for a moment we could see nothing but dark fire - then we were on the other side, in the last chamber.

There was already someone there - but it wasn't Snape. It wasn't even Voldemort.