Pariah: The Other Malfoy

Chapter 5: The Enchantments

Hermione busied herself with researching Flamel over the next few weeks, and Harry was occupied with Quidditch practice a lot of the time. That left Ron and I, unwilling to spend the same hours as Hermione in the library, so we quickly became great friends.

It was interesting talking to him - we were both purebloods and members of the Sacred Twenty-Eight, yet our upbringings couldn't have been more different. He was brought up with a fascination with muggles, while I had been taught to look down on them. Other than our blood, we were completely different, and I came to realise his family's outlook on life was so much better than mine.

"You have to come and visit at some point," Ron grinned as he crushed me at Wizard's Chess yet again, "My parents would be more than happy to meet you, it would be great!"

"I appreciate the offer, Ron," I grimaced as his Queen knocked down my last line of defence, "But I don't think my parents would be very impressed. Despite the fact they've made it clear what they think of me, they're very fond of keeping up appearances."

"The offer will be there, Lyra," he grinned, "Checkmate."

"Merlin, how have you beaten me every single time?" I cried.

About a week later, Hermione came rushing into the common room saying, "How could I be so stupid?"

"What are you talking about?" asked Ron, wiping chocolate off of his mouth. He had just been trying to beat his record for how quick he could eat a bar of it.

"I took this out months ago for some light reading," she said putting a massive book on the table. I raised my eyebrows but resisted the urge to make a comment, "And it says that Nicolas Flamel is the only person known to possess a Philosopher's Stone!"

Harry and Ron looked puzzled.

"The Stone makes the Elixir of Life," I quickly explained, my eyes widening.

"That must be what the dog is guarding!" said Hermione, "That's what Snape wants so badly!"

"I heard Snape talking to Quirrell. There's more than the dog guarding it!" said Harry, "And Quirrell won't tell Snape how to get past the dog or his defence!"

"So we're safe as long as Quirrell doesn't tell Snape!" said Hermione.

"It'll be gone by next Monday!" said Ron, sighing.

"What if you misheard, what if Snape is trying to stop Quirrell from stealing the stone!" I offered.

"Lyra, I know you trust Snape, but really? Quirrell?" Ron scoffed and I sighed.

We didn't get much time to worry about it. It was announced that exams were going to take place in a couple of weeks.

After the exams, Harry, Ron and Hermione told me that Hagrid had been keeping a dragon in his hut. He was called Norbert and they helped him escape in the dead of night to Romania before he was caught and most likely killed. They were, however, caught when my brother followed them and told a teacher - the four of them ended up with detention and Gryffindor lost one hundred and fifty points. My three friends were shunned by the others for putting Gryffindor in dead last, but that was the least of their worries.

Their detention took them to the Forbidden Forest after dark to search for an injured unicorn. Draco and Harry had found the unicorn, but it was already dead. A strange hooded figure was drinking the blood of the creature, and was going to attack Harry until a centaur saved him. The blood of a unicorn would give the drinker eternal life, but at a cost - you would live a half-life forevermore. The detention ended quickly after that, with Hagrid taking them back to the castle - the hooded figure had escaped after the centaur's intervention, and it was no longer safe (if you could call it safe in the first place).

They also said that a hooded stranger had given the egg to Hagrid. The stranger was apparently interested in the dog and Hagrid told him how to get past it! He must have had a bit too much to drink that night, and I feared it was that same hooded figure that Harry had seen in the Forbidden Forest - they were using unicorn blood now, but they intended to use the Philosopher's Stone to truly have eternal life!

My friends decided it had to have been Snape and Harry had the feeling Quirrell had already given in.

We all ran to warn Dumbledore, the others intercepting me on my way back from the library late at night, only to find out he had left for an important meeting. We were all convinced that Snape was going to steal the stone that night and we decided we would meet him there. Harry had found out how to stop the dog so we just had to pass all the other enchantments. We didn't stop to consider that five first-year students could hardly stand against Professor Snape, we were too busy thinking about how Snape was doing something bad and we had to stop him. Such a mistake was sure to get us killed, but it never crossed our minds. We were too busy being Gryffindors to think about the implications of our actions.

We all hid under Harry's invisibility cloak and snuck into the room with the dog. Harry lulled him to sleep by playing music and we got through the trap door alright. The music stopped just as I leapt down, and I felt the dog's breath on my neck. Too close for comfort.

The main issue with that is it meant whoever was after the Stone had a decent head start on us, and it also meant we were correct in our suspicions. Somebody was in there with us, and their intentions were anything but pure.

From the trapdoor, we landed in some kind of plant. It was a nice and soft landing, but the relief of that didn't last very long. The problem was it was trying to suffocate us, but Hermione quickly warned us not to move or panic. Ron, of course, didn't listen. Luckily for him, Hermione knew a charm to repel it and we quickly escaped to the next room. It was times like that we were all grateful to Hermione.

Next, it was some flying keys. Harry, being the Seeker, picked up one of the broomsticks and found one that fitted in the lock and we got to the next room. I was impressed with how quickly he managed, even as a Seeker. There were thousands of keys in that room but he managed to find the right one extremely quickly, quicker probably than the creator of the room had intended.

When we got through, there was a horrible stench. An unconscious troll was lying on the ground. Happy we didn't have to defeat it, we ran to the next room. Hermione ran past it especially quickly, but I didn't say anything - if I had almost been killed by one, I would have acted the same.

Our jaws dropped when we saw the next room. It was a gigantic chess set! We each took a place of one of the pieces and the game began. Ron sacrificed a Pawn and it got smashed, just like real Wizard Chess. This was going to be hard, especially since Ron was the only one who really knew how to play and we just had to trust him. No offence to Ron, but that was difficult. Sure, he was trustworthy, I just wasn't a fan of putting my life in his hands directly.

The game was going on and on before my mind started racing and I realised something. The only way we could avoid not losing in that moment, the only way we could avoid checkmate, was if I stepped forward and allowed the queen to take me.

I clocked eyes with Ron and nodded, but he hesitated.

"Lyra, there has to..." he began but I shook my head.

"We both know there isn't," I said and stepped forward.

Almost immediately, the queen raised her sword and collided it against my side, throwing me across the room. I hit the wall with a thump and groaned, my side was in agony.