The Boy Who Wanted to Live

Stab Wounds and Fire: 5 hours previous

Draco ran to the third floor corridor, panting heavily. He slammed past the old door and stopped suddenly. As he had expected the three headed dog was passed out. A harp nearby was playing a soft melody and the dogs snored blew hot breath onto Draco's clothes. He winced before lifting the trap door in the floor boards and sitting down at the edge of the hole.
"This better be worth it" Draco growled and shoved himself into the black pit.
He landed with a thump onto something soft and squishy. Draco took out his wand from his pocket.
"Aloh Hamora" he called out, wincing as the dark was cut out by the bright light coming from his wand.
Draco looked around at the damp room, extremely aware of the thick coils of vines he was sitting on. A few smaller strands moved away from the light. Draco took a second to calm his breathing and studied the plant. Thick green vines started to wrap around Draco's ankles. The dark leaves tickling his skin. Draco sneered.
"I hate Devil's Snare," he muttered as the vines wrapped around his arms.
He stopped to think of a solution for this situation and relaxed as his mind went through the collection of knowledge in his brain. He remembered that Sprout had said that Devil's Snare would wilt in the sun, but he didn't remember the name for the spell to conjure sunlight. The plants were moving around him but draco was too deep in thought to notice. Suddenly the plants underneath him gave way and he fell to the hard cement under him. He winced as his hips hit the ground. Surely that would cause some bruising. Draco sat up and wiped the dust from his shirt before continuing down the winding hallway. Through the darkness Draco could hear the buzzing of wings. He slammed into a door and winced. His hands rested on the thick wood and Draco hesitated. His ear pressed against the wood and he heart the faint fluttering of hundreds of wings.
"Birds?" He asked himself in a rushed breath.
He slowly opened the door and winced as light hit his eyes. To his surprise, when his eyes adjusted, he saw not birds flying through the air, but keys. In the middle of the room was a floating broomstick. Across the room was a door. Draco gasped and ran towards the wooden structure. He jiggled the doorknob and sighed when he heard the lock prevent it from opening.
"Alohamora" Draco said, pointing at the doorknob.
Nothing happened. The boy sighed and tugged lightly on his silver hair looking back at the hundreds of keys happily flying above his head.
"I'm not doing that," he said turning to look at the door again. It was old, the wood was splintering and the hinges were rusted. Draco took a step back and took a breath before kicking the door harshly. It crashed open with a bang and Draco pointed his wand into the empty room. He looked around and sighed when he saw this room too held no other humans. He holstered his wand and looked around bored. For someone trying to keep other people out theyd done a rotten job of it. Draco squinted in the dark and sighed. Maybe he'd see better from a higher view, he thought to himself spotting a large statue of a horse nearby. Draco put his foot on the creatures leg and pushed himself onto it. Suddenly the room light up with bright lights.
"Oh, no" he whined softly looking around the room.
The floor was checkered and he could see the statues littered around the room were actually giant chess pieces. Specifically Wizard Chess Pieces.
He sighed before turning to a pawn and sighing
"Pawn to G4" in a dissapointed voice. This was going to take a while....
A while later because Im a lazy author who hates chess.....
Finally the knight smashed his sword through the heart of the queen and Darco hopped off the horse with a groan. The game had been difficult. Draco had been stabbed once by a piece and a dagger stuck out of his ribs as evidence. Draco assumed he'd only been gone for two hours at most but it felt like days. He stretched and sighed, wincing when a sharp burn went through his arm and the dagger burried deeper in his side. He wished Madame Pomfrey had been in her office a few hours before. The deep scratch was starting to bother him. But at least it had stopped bleeding  earlier that day although the fresh stab wound was a different story. He made his way into the next room and jumped in fright when fire caught on his pants as he stepped through. He let out a shout and spun around facing a wall of flames that quickly scorched his cheek. Draco hurriedly smacked out the fire climbing his left leg but couldnt prevent the painful burn that it had caused on his skin. He let out a cry of pain and stumbled backwards into a table. On the table was a row of seven jars and a piece of paper. Draco bit his lip to keep from crying and read the paper carefully.
"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. "

"What the actual fuck?" Draco yelled angrily, his hurt leg making him forget that he wasn't supposed to be there.
He stared at the parchment till his eyes grew fuzzy and his brain was tired. He angrily began to read the poem out loud repeatedly, pacing the room until he grew dizzy. Anger covered his eyes and Draco crumpled the paper and threw it across the room in anger. He began to pace once more. Angrily he bit out the words which made less and less sense as time went by.
"Though different at first si-" he stopped.
His grey eyes widened slightly and he turned to the table and picked up the third bottle.
"Oh please dont be the poisoned one" he said softly, then placed the bottle to his lips.
The liquid was bitter and made Draco grimace and throw it against the wall, shattering into pieces. A tingling sensation slowly spread throughout his body until Draco could barely even feel the stinging wound on his leg. He hesitated and limped toward the wall of black fire. He put his hand out feeling only ice as he touched the flame. He took a breath and walked into it.