Rosabella Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

XIII: The End, pt. 1

Christmas comes and goes in a flourish of decorations, snow, and presents. The rest of the school year passes with little interest, until the last couple of days. I was on my way to the dungeons from meeting up with Oliver when I heard a group of people walking down the hall.

Slipping behind a suit of armor, I watch as Harry, Weasly, and the mudblood girl walk down the hall past me. I can barely hear them talking, but I catch them saying something about a stone. I decide to follow them instead of going back to my dorm. I follow them to the third floor, where we enter a room. The girl says a speel and another door unlocks and opens, a loud snoring sound filling the room.

I look around and find the source of the noise; three large dogs. No, not dogs, but one with three heads. Next to the dog is a harp playing all by its self. 

"Looks like Snape's already been here." One of the others says quietly. The trio approaches the sleeping dog and moves one of its large paws. Underneath is a trap door in the floor I had failed to notice before. Opening it the trio goes to jump or climb down it when the dog wakes up without warning. They quickly descend, while yelling, to escape the dog's vicious heads. The dog takes no notice of me as I duck between the heads and follow. 

I fall and land on what seems to be a plant.

"What the bloody hell are you doing here?" It's Weasly who speaks.

"What does it look like? Same thing as you." I snap at him. I feel something wrap around me as we speak. It's a thick vine that has wound around my body. "Is this Devil's snare? Like from Herbology?" 

"Yes." Comes the only reply. I look around for who spoke but only see my brother and Weasly. 

"Where's your other friend?"

"I'm down here. Relax and the Devil's snare will let you go." I follow the advice reluctantly and find myself falling again. This time its cold, hard stone catching me. Harry soon falls too, leaving Weasly to panic.

"He's not relaxing, is he?" Mudblood asks.

"Clearly." I roll my eyes.

"What was it that we learned in Herbology? Devil's snare, devil's snare, it's deadly fun, but will sulk in the sun. That's it sunlight!" A flash of light comes from her wand and Ron hits the ground with a thud.

"Lucky we didn't panic," says Ron.

"Lucky Hermione pays attention in Herbology," Harry replies. So her name is Hermione. 

We continue on our way, facing different challenges. A room full of winged keys, a life-sized chess board,  and a riddle with potions. The first Harry overcomes and catches the right key, then Ron leads us to victory in chess. Unfortunately, Ron is injured and cannot continue, so he and Hermione stay behind while my brother and I continue. 

We reach the potions riddle. A wall of purple fire sprang up behind us and black flames in front of us.

"A little overkill with the fire." I murmur under my breath. I see a table with seven potions and a piece of paper standing before the black flames. Picking up the paper, I read what is written out loud.

"Danger lies before you, while safety lies behind,
Two of us will help you, whichever 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 hidden in line.
Choose, unless you wish to stay here for evermore,
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 onwards, 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."

"I wish Hermione was here, she could probably figure this out," Harry says as he rereads the riddle over and over again while I inspect the potions. I look at the amount of potion inside each bottle, and low and behold only one isn't full.

"Its this one." I hold up the third potion, which is the smallest. "This one is to move forward."

"How do you know?" Harry inquires.

"Well seeing as whoever else is here is ahead of us, they had to have come this way, and this is the only potion not completely full. Common sense really. Also, no guaranteeing that whoever was here before didn't mix the bottle ups." I shrug. We each take a sip and walk up to the flames.

"Ready?" Harry asks nervously.

"Of course." I step through the flames with no hesitation. They part as I walk into the next room. Harry quickly follows.

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Cliffhanger!!!! So I finally had time and motivation to write this chapter. The next one is the last chapter before the next book! 

-Rosella