Rory Potter, the Girl Who Lived

The Quest for the Stone

          "Rory! Ron! Hermione! Come with me, I just realized something!" Harry yells, jumping up from where we sit next to the lake. He grabs Hermione and pulls her upright.
          "What is it, Harry?" I demand, standing up as well. Harry grabs Hermione and I and practically drags us to Hagrid's with Ron trailing lazily behind.
          "Hullo, you four, fancy a drink?" Hagrid asks. Ron starts to say yes, but Harry cuts him off, saying quickly, "No, thank you. We've got to ask you something. You know the night you won Norberta? What did the stranger look like? Did you mention Fluffy? Was he interested in Fluffy?"
         "Hmmm, well he never took off his cloak, so I don't know. Mighta been a dragon dealer? But I did mention Fluffy, and yeah, he was int'rested. I mean, how many three-headed dogs are yeh gonna be findin' 'round here?" Hagrid says. "I told him Fluffy's aiece o' cake, all yeh got ter do is play him a but o' music an' he'll go straight ter sleep!" Hagrid suddenly looks horrified. "I can't believe I just told yeh that? Hey, where d'you think yer goin'?" 
          We had all of a sudden come to a big realization. Snape knows how to get past Fluffy. We run to the school as fast as we can, talking quickly. In the end, we decide to go to Dumbledore.
          "What are you four doing inside?" asks the unmistakable voice of Professor McGonagall. We all freeze.
          "We need to see Professor Dumbledore," Harry says, "it's about the Sorcerer's Stone - "
          "Sorcerer's Stone?" McGonagall's books tumble from her arms. "How on earth do you know about that? And it will have to wait, Professor Dumbledore has gone - an urgent call from the Ministry of Magic."
          With that, she gathers her books and walks off.
          "Tonight," I say, "Snape's going to steal it tonight."

          "Alright, have you got the cloak?" Ron asks Harry. Hermione and I are waiting for the two of them in the common room.
         "Are you sure you want to go after him?" Harry asks the three of us. We all nod our consent. Then a voice speaks up from the corner, "I can't let you do this!"
          It's Neville.
          "Neville, go back to bed," Ron says soothingly.
          Neville scrambles in front of the portrait hole, squeaking, "No! I'll fight you!"
          "Neville, I'm really, really sorry about this," Hermione says, pulling out her wand. "Petrificus Totalus!"
          Neville's legs and arms spring together and he falls over. Hermione keeps saying, "Sorry, sorry, sorry Neville!" 
         We leave the common room and go to the their floor corridor, running into Peeves the Poltergeist. Luckily, my brother keeps his cool and pretends to be the Bloody Baron.
          "We need music, what should we do?" Ron asks.
          "Rory can sing," Hermione says. I roll my eyes, but start to sing a little lullaby. Fluffy's eyelids droop, and he falls the ground snoring. Harry volunteers to jump through the trapdoor first, then Ron and Hermione. 
          "Lucky!?" I hear Hermione scream. "That's Devil's Snare! Rory, jump!"
          I jump and immediately start to struggle to where Hermione stands.
          "Great! We know what it's called, that's a huge help!" Ron hollars, thrashing about.
          "Shut your trap, Ronald!" I scream, trying to shake my foot loose from the plant. "And stop struggling!"
          "Devil's Snare, it likes dark and damp - " Hermione frets.
          "So light a fire!" I screech.
          "Yes, but there's no wood!" she wails.
          "HAVE YOU GONE MAD?!" Ron bellows. "ARE YOU A WITCH OR NOT!?"
          "Right!" Hermione squeals. She flicks her wand and a blast of blue fire erupts forth. The boys struggle over to where we stand.
          "Lucky Hermione pays attention in Herbology," Ron says. "And Rory keeps her head in a crisis. 'There's no wood', honestly."
         We walk over to another room, this one with high, vaulted ceiling and a bunch of bright glittering birds. We run across the room to the door, but find it locked. Hermione and I try the Alohamora charm, but it does nothing. Then I realize something.
          "Oh, my gosh! They're not birds, they're keys!" I gasp, pointing up at what I had previously thought to be hundreds of jewel-bright birds.
          "Hmm, I'll bet you've got the catch the one that opens the door," Ron says. "It should be big, old-fashioned nnd probably silver. Maybe like it's already been shoved in the lock once."
          Harry spots it first, and we grab the bunch of brooms in the corner to try to catch it. Which proves to be very difficult. At last, Ron dives downwards, Hermione rockets upwards, and Harry pins the key against the wall with a nasty crunch.
          "Rory, catch!" he yells, and throws the key to me. I snatch it and dive to the door. The rest of the keys follows me, their sharp wings cutting my face and arms. I shove the key in the lock and open the door. Harry, Ron, and Hermione tumble through, dragging me with them. Vaguely, I hear the thumps of the other keys running into the door.
          "Wow," Ron says, "giant wizard's chess!"
          It's giant indeed. A lifesized board and cess prices forms this giant room into a huge chess game.
          "I think we've got to play our way across," Hermione says in a scared voice. Ron looks delighted.
          "Of course! Let's go then: Harry, you be the bishop, Hermione the castle, Rory the queen," Ron says. "I'll be the knight."
          We all clamber on top of the pieces, and the white team goes first. Ron begins to direct the pieces around the board, and the first real shock comes when the other knight is taken. The white team's queen smashes it to the floor, where it shatters, and the piece reform off to the side. We meet each other's eyes, faces pale and terrified.
          "Had to let that happen," Ron says shakily, no longer enthusiastic.
          The white pieces are brutal, taking the black pieces and showing no mercy. Several times a shard of smashed chessman slices through my face or arms. But Ron darts around the board, taking as many pieces as we lose.
          "We're almost there," he says. "Ah, yes, I've got to be taken . . . "
          "Ron, no, don't - " Hermione shrieks. But Ron moves forwards two squares. The white queen looks at him and then smashes him to the ground. Hermione and I scream.
          "Hermione, Rory, stay where you are! We're still playing," Harry yells. Then he moves three spaces to the left. "Checkmate."
          The white king removes his crown and throws it at Harry's feet. Then the pieces part to let us through. Casting last glances back to where Ron lays unconscious on the floor, we step through to the next room. Immediately, purple flames shoot to life in the doorway behind us, and fire ahead. Were left in a room with a table and seven different bottles. There's clues top, and Hermione reads them.
         "Okay, two will help, three are poison, and two are nettle wine," Hermione says. She goes to step us to use the clues, but I step up before she can. Smelling each of the bottles, I pick up two and smash them on the floor.
          "Wine," I say simply. I flick a drop of each one onto the table, my brain working at about a thousand miles an hour. After a moment, I grab three more and smash those ones.
          "Poison," I say. Harry and Hermione stare. "What?"
          "How are you doing that!?" Hermione manages. I shrug.
          "I got an 'Outstanding' in Potions, I guess," I say, picking up the last two bottles and holding them up against the fire to examine their colours. After about three minutes, I set them back on the table.
          "This one," I say, pointing to the smaller bottle, "will get us back. The other one forward."
          "I'll go back for Ron. I'll owl Dumbledore and get help," Hermione says instantly. "You two go ahead."
          "Alright," Harry says, "be careful."
          "No, you be careful," she says. She throws her arms around the both of us at once. "You two are amazing, I hope you know that."
          "We'll be extra careful. Okay?" I tell her. She smiles and kisses Harry on the cheek, then drinks the potion and disappears.
          "I'll go first," I say, taking a sip of the potion. It feels like I'm drinking ice. I shudder.
          "You okay?" Harry asks.
          I nod, saying, "Yeah, but its like ice."
          Harry gulps the rest and looks at me. I grab his hand.
          "On three. One, two, three."
         We step through the fire, and I find that it doesn't burn a bit. It just tickles slightly. But when we reach the other side, I almost fall over in shock. The person that awaits us is not Snape. It's not even Voldemort.