So sorry everybody. I know I said that I would post a new chapter every day but I’ve had a big family emergency and this is the first time in a week that I’ve been home and awake at the same time. So to really say that I’m sorry, I’m going to post the last two chapters but then that’s it for a while, I don’t know when I’m going to be able to post the new book, but I promise you that I will. And that brings me to the next thing, should I continue to post the second story with this one, like as a new chapter? Or should I create a completely new story? Tell me what I should do because I have no idea! And I will read what you sent when this has all finished. Thanks for sticking with me and I will cya when I next get on. I’m sorry again.

– CHAPTER SIXTEEN –

Through the Trapdoor

In years to come, Harry would never quite remember how he had managed to get though his exams when he half expected Voldemort to come bursting through the door at any moment. Yet the days crept by and there could be no doubt that Fluffy was still alive and well behind the locked door.

It was sweltering hot, especially in the large classroom where they did their written paper. They had been given special, new quills for the exams, which had been bewitched with an Anti-Cheating spell.

They had practical exams as well. Professor Flitwick called them one by one into his class to see if they could make a pineapple tap dance across a desk. Professor McGonagall watched them turn a mouse into a snuffbox – points were given for how pretty the snuffbox was, but taken away if it had whiskers. Snape made them all nervous, breathing down their necks while they tried to remember how to make a Forgetfulness Potion.

Harry did the best he could, trying to ignore the stabbing pains in his forehead, which had been bothering him ever since his trip into the forest. Neville thought Harry had a bad case of exam nerves because Harry couldn’t sleep, but the truth was that Harry kept being woken by his old nightmare, except that it was now worst than ever because there was hooded figure dripping blood in it.

Harry wasn’t the only one having nightmares. Late into the night he could he hear his brother crying out: “No, leave me alone, I don’t want to –”

“Jay! Wake up,” said Harry, violently shaking Jay awake one night.

“No! Don’t take me! I want to stay!”

“Jay!”

“What?” Jay sat up suddenly. He was covered in sweat and his sheets were all twisted. “What wrong, Harry?”

“You, you were having a nightmare.”

“Oh, don’t worry about me, you just get some sleep for the exam tomorrow.”

“You were screaming at someone. It sounded like they were hurting you.”

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Jay, you sounded scared.”

“I said I don’t want to talk about it!” said Jay lying back down and rolling away from Harry.

“Has it got anything to do with the figure in the forest?’ said Harry.

Jay didn’t answer.

“If it makes you fell better, I’m having nightmares about him.”

Jay rolled back over to face his brother. “Harry, everyone gets nightmare, it’s not something new. Just go back to bed. I’m fine.”

“Ron and Hermione aren’t getting nightmares.”

“They didn’t see the figure in the forest.”

“So it is about the figure.”

“Goodnight, Harry.”

Harry, grudgingly, went back to bed.

It was true that Ron or Hermione didn’t wake up in the middle of the night panting and covered in sweat after a nightmare. In fact, they didn’t seem as worried about the Stone as much as Harry or Jay. The idea of Voldemort certainly scared them, but he didn’t kept visiting them in dreams, and they were so busy with their revision they didn’t have much time to fret about what Snape or anyone else might be up to.

Their very last exam was History of Magic. One hour of answering questions about batty old wizards who’d invented self-stirring cauldrons and they’d be free, free for a whole wonderful week until their exam results came out. When the ghost of Professor Binns told them to put down their quills and roll up their parchment, Harry couldn’t help cheering with the rest.

“That was far easier than I thought it would be,” said Hermione, as they joined the crowds flocking out into the sunny grounds. “I needn’t have learnt about the 1637 Werewolf Code of Conduct or the uprising of Elfric the Eager.”

Hermione always liked to go through their exam papers afterwards, but Ron said this made him feel ill, so they wandered down to the lake and flopped under a tree. The Weasley twins and Lee Jordan were tickling the tentacles of a giant squid, which was basking in the warm shallows.

“No more revision,” Ron sight happily, stretching out on the grass.

“What revision?” said Jay joining him down on the grass.

“You could more cheerful, Harry,” said Ron, “we’ve got a whole week before we find out how badly we’ve done; there’s no need to worry yet.”

Harry was rubbing his forehead.

“I wish I knew what this means!” he burst out angrily. “My scar keeps hurting – it’s happened before, but never as often as this.”

“Go to Madam Pomfrey,” Hermione suggested.

“I’m not ill,” said Harry. “I think it’s a warning … it means danger’s coming …”

Ron couldn’t get worked up, it was too hot.

“Harry, relax, Hermione’s right, the stone’s safe as long as Dumbledore’s around. Anyway we’ve never had any proof Snape found out how to get past Fluffy. He nearly had his leg ripped off once; he’s not going to try it again in a hurry. And Neville will play Quidditch for England before Hagrid lets Dumbledore down.”

Harry nodded, but he couldn’t shake off a lurking feeling that there was something he’d forgotten to do, something important. When he tried to explain this Hermione said, “That’s just the exams. I woke up last night and was halfway through my Transfiguration notes before I remember we’d done that one.”

“Or it could be something about Fluffy or it could be something about Norbert,” said Jay half-mindedly.

Harry suddenly jumped to his feet.

“You’re a genies Jay,” said Harry.

“What did I say?” said Jay.

“We’ve got to go and see Hagrid now.”

“Why?” panted Hermione, hurrying to keep up.

“Don’t you think it’s a bit odd,” said Harry, scrambling up the grassy slope, “that what Hagrid wants more than anything else is a dragon, and a stranger turns up who just happens to have an egg in his pocket? How many people wander around with dragon eggs if it’s against wizard law? Lucky they found Hagrid, don’t you think? Why didn’t I see it before?”

“What are you on about?” said Ron, but Harry, sprinting across the ground towards the forest, didn’t answer.

Hagrid was sitting in an armchair outside his house; his trousers and sleeves were rolled up and he was shelling peas into a large bowl.

“Hullo,” he said, smiling. “Finished yer exams? Got time fer a drink?”

“Yes please,” said Ron, but Harry cut across him.

“No, we’re in a hurry. Hagrid, I’ve got to ask you something. You know that night you won Norbert? What did the stranger you were playing cards with look like?”

“Dunno,” said Hagrid casually, “he wouldn’ take his cloak off.”

He saw the four of them look stunned and raised his eyebrows.

“It’s not that unusual, yeh get a lot o’ funny folk in the Hog’s Head – that’s one of the pub down in the village. Mighta bin a dragon dealer, mightn’ he? I never saw his face he kept his hood up.”

Harry sank down next to the bowl of peas.

“What did you talk to him about, Hagrid? Did you mention Hogwarts at all?”

“Mighta come up,” said Hagrid, frowning as he tried to remember. “Yeah … he asked what I did, an’ I told him I was gamekeeper here … He asked a bit about the sorta creature I look after … so I told him … an’ I said what I’d always really wanted was a dragon … an’ then … I can’ remember too well, ‘cause he kept buyin’ me drinks … Let’s see … Yeah, then he said he had the dragon egg an’ we could play cards fer it if I wanted … but he had ter be sure I could handle it, he didn’t want it ter go ter any old home … So I told him, after Fluffy, a dragon would be easy …”

“And did he – did he seem interested in Fluffy?” Harry asked, trying to keep his voice calm.

“Well – yeah – how many three-headed dogs d’yeh meet, even around Hogwarts? So I told him, Fluffy a piece o’ cake if yeh know how to calm him down, jus’ play him a bit o’ music an’ he’ll go straight off ter sleep –”

Hagrid suddenly looked horrified.

“I shouldn’ta told yeh that!” he blurted out. “Forget I said it! Hey – where’re yeh goin’?”

Harry, Jay, Ron and Hermione didn’t speak to each other at all until they came to a halt in the Entrance Hall, which seemed very cold and gloomy after the grounds.

“We’ve got to go to Dumbledore,” said Harry. “Hagrid told that stranger how to get past Fluffy and it was either Snape or Voldemort under that cloak – it must’ve been easy, once he’d got Hagrid drunk. I just hope Dumbledore believes us. Firenze might back us up if Bane doesn’t stop him. Where’s Dumbledore’s office?”

They looked around, as if hoping to see a sign pointing them in the right direction. They had never been told where Dumbledore lived, nor did they know anyone who had been sent to see him.

“We’ll just have to –” Harry began, but a voice suddenly rang across the hall.

“What are you three doing inside?”

It was Professor McGonagall, carrying a large pile of books.

“We want to see Professor Dumbledore,” said Hermione, rather bravely, Harry, Jay and Ron thought.

“See Professor Dumbledore?” Professor McGonagall repeated, as though this was a very fish thing to want to do. “Why?”

Harry swallowed – now what?

“We want to talk to him about something we found out,” said Jay.

“Really,” said Professor McGonagall. “And what was that?”

The four of them looked at each other.

“It’s just between us five,” said Jay, but he wished at once he hadn’t, because Professor McGonagall’s nostrils flared.

“Professor Dumbledore left ten minutes ago,” she said coldly. “He received an urgent owl from the Ministry of Magic and flew off for London at once.”

“He’s gone?” said Harry frantically. “Now?”

“Professor Dumbledore is a great wizard, Potter; he has many demands on his time –”

“But this is important.”

“Something that you have found out is more important than the Ministry of Magic, Potter.”

“Look,” said Harry, throwing caution to the winds, “Professor – it’s about the Philosopher’s Stone –”

Whatever Professor McGonagall had expected, it wasn’t that. The books she was carrying tumbled out of her arms but she didn’t pick them up.

“How do you –?”

“Professor, I think – I know – that Sn – that someone’s going to try and steal the Stone. I’ve got to talk to Professor Dumbledore.”

She eyed him with a mixture of shock and suspicion.

“Professor Dumbledore will be back tomorrow,” she said finally. “I don’t know how you four found out about the stone, but rest assured, no one can possibly steal it, it’s too well protected.”

“But Professor –”

“Potter, I know what I’m talking about,” she said shortly. She bent down and gathered up the fallen books. “I suggest you all go back outside and enjoy the sunshine.”

But they didn’t

“It’s tonight,” said Harry, once he was sure Professor McGonagall was out of earshot. “Snape’s going through the trapdoor tonight. He’s found out everything he needs and now he’s got Dumbledore out of the way. He sent that note; I bet the Ministry of Magic will get a real shock when Dumbledore turns up.”

“But what can we –”

Hermione gasped. Harry, Jay and Ron wheeled round.

Snape was staring there.

“Good afternoon,” he said smoothly.

They stared at him.

“You shouldn’t be inside on a day like this,” he said, with an odd, twisted smile.

“We were –” said Harry but Jay cut in.

“Just talking to Professor McGonagall, about our test results.”

“Really,” said Snape. He glared at the four of them. “You want to be more careful. Hanging around like this, people will think you’re up to something. And Gryffindor really can’t afford to lose any more points, can they?”

Harry flushed. They turned to go back outside, but Snape called them back.

“Be warned, Potter – any more night-time wanderings and I will personally make sure you are expelled. Good day to you.”

He strode off in the direction of the stuff room.

Out on the stone steps, Harry turned to the others.

“Right, here’s what we’ve got to do,” he whispered urgently. “One of us has got to keep an eye on Snape – wait outside the stuff room and follow him if he leaves it. Hermione and Jay, you’d better do that.”

“Why us?” said Hermione.

“It’s obvious,” said Ron. “You can pretend to be waiting for Professor Flitwick, you know.” He put on a high voice, “Oh Professor Flitwick, I’m so worried, I think I got question fourteen b wrong …”

“Oh, shut up,” snapped Hermione.

“I’m so not doing that,” said Jay.

“No, you can follow Snape under the Invisibility Cloak when Hermione is talking to Professor Flitwick.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

“And we’d better stay outside the third-floor corridor,” Harry told Ron. “Come on.”

But that part of the plan didn’t work. No sooner had they reached the door separating Fluffy from the rest of the school than Professor McGonagall turned up again and this time, she lost her temper.

“I suppose you think you’re harder to get past than a pack of enchantments!” she stormed. “Enough of this nonsense! If I hear you’ve come anywhere near here again, I’ll take another fifty points from Gryffindor! Yes, Weasley, from my own house!”

Harry and Ron went back to the common room. Harry had just said, “At least Jay and Hermione are on Snape’s tail,” when the portrait of the Fat Lady swung open and Jay and Hermione came in.

“Sorry bro,” said Jay as he sat in the chair next to Ron, “Snape came out and asked Hermione what she was doing, she said she was waiting for Flitwick, so Hermione was stuck with Flitwick and I followed Snape but he turned a corner and when I got there he had disappeared, I don’t know where he went.”

“Well, that’s it then, isn’t it?” Harry said.

The other three stared at him. He was pale and his eyes were glittering.

“I’m going out of here tonight and I’m going to try and get to the Stone first.”

“You’re mad!” said Ron

“You can’t!” said Hermione. “After what McGonagall and Snape have said? You’ll be expelled!”

“SO WHAT?” Harry shouted. “Don’t you understand? If Snape gets hold of the Stone, Voldemort’s coming back! There won’t be any Hogwarts to get expelled from! He’ll flatten it, or turn it into a school for Dark Arts! Losing points doesn’t mater and more, can’t you see? D’you think he’ll leave you and your families alone if Gryffindor win the house cup? If I get caught before I can get to the Stone, well, I’ll have to go back to the Dursley and wait for Voldemort to find me there. It’s only dying a bit later than I would have done, because I’m never going over to the Dark Side! I’m going through that trapdoor tonight and nothing you three say is going to stop me! Voldemort killed my parents, remember?”

“Our parents, Harry, he killed our parents so I’m going with you and nothing you can say can stop me.”

“We will use the Invisibility Cloak,” said Harry. “Good thing we got it back.”

“But will it cover all four of us?” said Ron.

“All – all four of us?”

“Oh, come off it, you don’t think we’d miss out on an adventure do you?”

“Of course not,” said Hermione briskly. “How do you think you’d get to the Stone without the three of us? I’d better go and look through my books, there might be something useful ...”

“But if we get caught, you two will be expelled too.”

“Not if I can help it,” said Hermione grimly. “Flitwick told me in secret that I got hundred and twelve per cent on his exam. They’re not throwing me out after that.”

After dinner the four of them sat nervously apart in the common room. Nobody bothered them; none of the Gryffindors had anything to say to Harry any more, after all. This was the first night he hadn’t been upset by it. Hermione was skimming through all her notes, hoping to come across one of the enchantments they were about to try and break. Harry, Jay and Ron didn’t talk much. The three of them were thinking about what they were about to do.

Slowly, the room emptied as people drifted off to bed.

“Now is a better time then any,” said Ron. “Got the cloak?”

Jay got up and picked up the cloak he had been sitting on.

“Hold on,” said Harry as he ran up stairs. He rummaged through his trunk until he found what he was looking for; the flute Hagrid had given him for Christmas. He didn’t feel like singing Fluffy to sleep.

He ran back down to the common room.

“We’d better put the cloak on here, and make sure it covers all four of us,” said Harry. “If Filch spots one of our feet wandering along on its own –”

“What are you doing?” said a voice from the corner of the room. Neville appeared behind an armchair clutching Trevor the toad, who looked as though he’d been making another bid for freedom.

“We were just talking, Neville,” said Jay, hurriedly putting the cloak behind his back.

Neville stared at their guilty faces.

“You’re going out again,” he said.

“No, no, no,” said Hermione. “No, we’re not. Why don’t you go to bed, Neville?”

Harry looked at the grandfather clock by the door. They couldn’t afford to waste any more time, Snape might even now be playing Fluffy to sleep.

“You can’t go out,” said Neville, “You’ll be caught again. Gryffindor will be in even more trouble.”

“You don’t understand,” said Harry, “this is important.”

But Neville was clearly setting himself up to do something desperate.

“I won’t let you do it,” he said, hurrying to stand in front of the portrait hole. “I’ll – I’ll fight you!”

“Neville,” Ron exploded, “get away from that hole and don’t be an idiot –”

“Don’t you call me an idiot!” said Neville. “I don’t think you should be breaking any more rules! And you were the one who told me to stand up to people!”

“Yes, but not to us,” said Ron in exasperation. “Neville, you don’t know what you’re doing.”

He took a step forward and Neville dropped Trevor the toad, who leapt out of sight.”

“Go on then, try and hit me!” said Neville, raising his fists. “I’m ready!”

Harry turned to Jay and Hermione.

“Do something,” he said desperately.

Hermione stepped forward.

“Neville,” she said, “I’m really, really sorry about this.”

She raised her wand.

“Petrificus Totalus!” she cried, pointing it at Neville.

Neville’s arms snapped to his sides. His legs sprang together. His whole body rigid, he swayed where he stood. Jay grabbed him just before he was about to fall and laid him gently on to his back.

Neville’s jaws were jammed together so he couldn’t speak. Only his eyes were moving, looking at them in horror.

“What’ve you done to him? Harry whispered.

“It’s the full Body-Bind,” said Hermione miserably. “Oh, Neville, I’m so sorry.”

“We had to, Neville, no time to explain,” said Harry.

“You’ll understand later, Neville,” said Ron.

“Don’t worry, Neville, the effects of the jinx will wear off by morning, just try and get some sleep,” said Jay, as they stepped over him and pulled on the Invisibility Cloak.

But leaving Neville lying motionless on the floor didn’t feel like a very good omen. In their nervous state, every statue’s shadow looked like Filch, every distant breath of wind sounded like Peeves swooping down on them.

At the foot of the first set of stairs, they spotted Mrs Norris skulking near the top.

“Oh, let’s kick her, just this once,” Ron whispered in Harry’s ear, but Harry shook his head. As they carefully around her, Mrs Norris turned her lamp-like eyes on them, but didn’t do anything.

They didn’t meet anyone else until they reached the staircase up to the third floor. Peeves was bobbing halfway up, loosening the carpet so that people would trip.

“Who’s there?” he said suddenly as they climbed towards him. He narrowed his wicked black eyes. “Know you’re there, even if I can’t see you. Are you ghoulie or ghostie or wee student beastie?”

He rose up in the air and floated there, squinting at them.

“Should call Filch, I should, if something’s creeping around unseen.”

Harry had a sudden idea.

“Peeves,” he said, in a hoarse whisper, “the Bloody Baron had his own reasons for being invisible.”

Peeves almost fell out of the air in shock. He caught himself in time and hovered about a foot off the stairs.

“So sorry, your bloodiness, Mr Baron, sir,” he said greasily. “My mistake, my mistake – I didn’t see you – of course I didn’t, you’re invisible – forgive old Peevsie his little joke, sir.”

“I have business here, Peeves,” croaked Harry. “Stay away from this place tonight.”

“I will, sir, I most certainly will,” said Peeves, rising up in the air again. “Hope your business goes well, Baron, I’ll not bother you.”

And he scooted off.

“Brilliant, Harry!” whispered Ron.

A few seconds later, they were there, outside the third floor corridor – and the door was already ajar.

“Well, there you are,” Harry said quietly. “Snape’s already got past Fluffy.”

Seeing the open door somehow seemed to impress upon all four of them what was facing them. Underneath the cloak, Harry turned to the other three.

“If you want to go back, I won’t blame you,” he said. “You can take the cloak, I won’t need it now.”

“And let my only brother face dangers unmanageable. No we are doing this together, all four of us.”

“There is no way we’re going back now,” said Ron.

“We’re coming,” said Hermione.

Harry pushed the door open.

As the door creaked, low, rumbling growls met their ears. All three of the dog’s noses sniffed madly in their direction, even though it couldn’t see them.

“What’s that at its feet?” Hermione whispered.

“Looks like a harp,” said Ron. “Snape must have left it there.”

“It must wake up the moment you stop playing,” said Harry. “Well, here it goes …”

He put Hagrid’s flute to his lips and blew. It wasn’t really a tune, but from the first note the beast’s eyes began to droop. Harry hardly drew breath. Slowly, the dog’s growls ceased – it tottered on its paws and fell to its knees, then it slumped to the ground, fast asleep.

“Keep playing,” Ron warned Harry as they slipped out of the cloak and crept towards the trapdoor. They could feel the dog’s hot, smelly breath as they approached the giant heads.

“I think we’ll be able to pull the door open,” said Ron, peering over the dog’s back. “Want to go first, Hermione?”

“No, I don’t!”

“Oh, you’re such a scaredy cat,” said Jay. “I guess I will have to go first.” He steeped carefully over the dog’s legs. He bent down and pulled the ring of the trapped, which swung up and open.

“What can you see?” Hermione said anxiously.

“I can see Snape.”

“What,” said the other three. Harry had stopped playing; he rushed over to the trapdoor.

“Snape’s not down there,” he said. “Its pitch black.”

“Harry play the stupid flute!”

“What?” said Harry as turned around. The dog had woken up and was growling again. It was showing all of its big long, pointed fangs in its three big drawling mouths.

“JUMP!”

The four of them jumped down the hole in to darkness, just as the Fluffy started to thrash around its heads and try to bite them.

FLUMP. With a funny, muffled sort of thump they landed on something soft.

“Well great one Ernestine, stop playing the stupid flute.”

“Well if you hadn’t said Snape was down here.”

How was I supposed to know you where going to stop –”

Hermione screamed.

“What?”

“The plant! It’s attacking us!”

“What plant?” said Harry.

“The plant we landed on you idiot,” said Ron.

Harry looked at Ron and Hermione; they were all fighting against a plant that was twisting in a snakelike sense around them.

Harry looked down and saw that it too was twisting around him. Harry started to struggle against the strangling vines of the plant but the harder he fought the tighter the plant wound around him.

“Stop moving!” Hermione ordered them. “I know what this is – it’s Devil’s Snare!”

“Oh, I’m glad we know what it’s called, that’s a great help,” snarled Ron, leaning back, trying to stop the plant curling around his neck.”

“Shut up, I’m trying to remember how to kill it!” said Hermione.

“Well, hurry up, I can’t breathe!” Harry gasped, wrestling with is as it curled around his chest.

“We are all suffering here, Harry. Now let’s think. Devil’s Snare, Devil’s Snare … What did Professor Sprout say?”

“It likes the dark and the dump,” said Jay pulling a vine away from his mouth.

“So light a fire!” Harry choked.

“Yes – of course – but there’s no wood!” Hermione cried, wringing with the plant.

“HAVE YOU GONE MAD?” Ron bellowed. “ARE YOU A WITCH OR NOT?”

“Lumus Solem!” cried Jay. A great burst of light came out Jay wand. In a matter of seconds, the plant loosened its grip on the four kids as it cringed away from the light and warmth. Wriggling and flailing, it unraveled itself from their bodies and they were able to pull free.

“I was getting to that,” said Hermione panting for air.

“Yes, well when you said there was no wood, I got a bit scared,” said Jay

“No wood, honestly,” muttered Ron. “Don’t want to lose your head in a crisis, Hermione,”

“This way,” said Harry, pointing down a stone passageway which was the only way on.

All they could hear apart from their footsteps was the gentle drip of water tricking down the walls. The passageway sloped downwards and Harry was reminded of Gringotts. With an unpleasant jolt of the heart, he remembered the dragons said to be guarding vaults in the wizards’ banks. If they met a dragon, a fully-grown dragon – Norbert was bad enough …

“Can you hear something?” Ron whispered.

Harry listened. A soft rustling and clinking seemed to be coming from up ahead.

“Do you think it’s a ghost?”

“I don’t know … sounds like wings to me.”

“There’s light ahead – I can see something moving.”

They reached the end of the passageway and saw before them a brilliantly-lit chamber, its ceiling arching high above them. It was full of small, jewel-bright birds, fluttering and tumbling all around the room. On the opposite side of the chamber was a heavy, wooden door.

“Do you think they’ll attack us if we cross the room?” said Ron.

“Probably,” said Harry. “They don’t look very vicious, but I suppose if they all swooped down at once Well, there’s nothing for it … I’ll run.”

He took a deep breath, covered his face with his arms and sprinted across the room. He expected to feel sharp beaks and claws tearing at him any second, but nothing happened. He reached the door untouched. He pulled the handle, but it was locked.

The other three followed him. They tugged and heaved at the door, but it wouldn’t budge, not even when Hermione tried the Alohomora charm.

“Now what?” said Ron.

“These birds … they can’t be here just for decoration,” said Hermione.

“They’re a funny bred of birds, nothing like these back in the Muggle world,” said Jay staring curiously up at the birds.

“They’re not birds!” Harry said suddenly, “they’re keys! Winged keys – look carefully. So that must mean …” he looked around the chamber while the other three squinted up at the flock of keys. “… Yes – look! Broomsticks! We’ve got to catch the key to the door!”

“But there are hundreds of them!”

Ron examined the lock on the door.

“We’re looking for a big, old-fashioned one – probably silver like the handle.”

They seized a broomstick each and kicked off into the air, soaring into the midst of the cloud of keys. They grabbed and snatched but the bewitched keys darted and dived so quickly it was almost impossible to catch one.

Not for nothing, though, was Harry the youngest Seeker in a century. He had a knack for spotting things other people didn’t. After a minute’s weaving about through the whirl of rainbow feathers, he noticed a large silver key that had a bent wing, as if it had already been caught and stuffed roughly into the keyhole.

“That one!” he called to the others. “That big one – there – no, there – with bright-blue wings – the feathers are all crumpled on one side.”

Ron went speeding in the direction that Harry was pointing, crushed into the wall and nearly fell off his broom.

“We’ve got to close in on it!” Harry called, not taking his eyes off the key with the damaged wing. “Ron, you come at it from above – Hermione, stay below and stop it going down – Jay, come it from the left – and I’ll try and catch it. Right, NOW!”

Ron dived, Hermione rocketed upwards as Jay shot like a bullet straight at it, they key dodged them all and Harry streaked after it; it sped towards the wall, Harry leant forward and with a nasty crunching noise, pinned it against the stone with one hand. Jay, Ron and Hermione cheers echoed around the high chamber.

They landed quickly and Harry ran to the door, the key struggling in his hand. He rammed it into the lock and turned – it worked. The moment the lock had click open, the key took flight again, looking very battered now that it had caught twice.

“Ready?” Harry asked the other three, his hand on the door handle. They nodded. He pulled the door open.

The next chamber was so dark they couldn’t see anything at all. But as they stepped into it, light suddenly flooded the room to reveal an astonishing sight.

They were standing on the edge of a huge chessboard, behind the black chessman, which were all taller than they were and carved from what looked like black stone. Facing them, way across the chamber, were the white pieces. Harry, Jay, Ron and Hermione shivered slightly – the towering white chessmen had no faces.

“Now what do we do?” Harry whispered.

“It’s obvious, isn’t it?” said Ron. “We’ve got to play our way across the room.”

Behind the white pieces they could see another door.

“How?” said Hermione nervously.

“I think,” said Ron, “we’re going to have to be chessmen.”

He walked up to a black knight and put his hand out to touch the knight’s horse. At once, the stone sprang to life. The horse pawed the ground and the knight turned his helmeted head to look down at Ron.

“Do we – er – have to join you to get across?”

The black knight nodded. Ron turned to the other three.

“This wants thinking about …” he said. “I suppose we’ve got to take the place of four of the black pieces …”

Harry, Jay and Hermione stayed quite, watching Ron think. Finally he said to Harry and Hermione, “Now, don’t be offended or anything, but neither of you are that good at chess –”

“We’re not offended,” said Harry quickly.

“I am.”

“Well not you, we can work together. These white pieces aren’t going to miss around.”

“Nah, it’s alright. I’ll just give a word of advice now and then.”

“Right,” said Ron a little taken back. “Right, well, Harry you take the place of that bishop, Hermione, you go there instead of that castle and Jay –”

“I bags the queen.”

“Ok, you can go as the queen then.”

“What about you?”

“I’m going to be a night,” said Ron.

The chessmen seemed to have been listening, because at these words the queen, a knight, a bishop and a castle turned their backs on the white pieces and walked off the board leaving four empty squares which Harry, Jay, Ron and Hermione took.

“White always plays first in chess,” said Ron, peering across the board. “Yes … look they’re moving.

A white pawn had moved forward two squares.

Ron started to direct the black pieces. They moved silently wherever he sent them. Harry’s knees were trembling. What if hey lost?

“Harry – move diagonally four squares to the right.”

Their first real shock came when their other knight was taken. The white queen smashed him to the floor and dragged him off the board; where he lay quite still, face down.

“Had to let that happen,” said Ron, looked shaken. “Leaves you free to take that bishop, Hermione, go on.”

Every time one of their men was lost, the white pieces showed no mercy. Soon there was a huddle of limp black players slumped along the wall. Twice, Ron only just noticed in time that Harry, Jay or Hermione were in danger. He himself darted around the board taking almost as many white pieces as they had lost black ones.

“We’re nearly there,” he muttered suddenly. “Let me think – let me think …”

The white queen turned her blank face towards him.

“Yes …” said Ron softly, “it’s the only way … I’ve got to be taken.”

“NO!” Harry and Hermione shouted.

“That’s chess!” snapped Ron. “You’ve got to make some sacrifices! I make my move and she’ll take me – that leaves you free to checkmate the king, Harry!”

“What, no! Jay, tell him his mad.”

“Ron you’re mad and that’s why it’s going to work.”

“Jay –”

“Look we need to stop Snape, this is the only way.”

“Ron –”

“If you don’t hurry up, he’ll already have the stone!”

There was nothing else for it.

“Ready?” Ron called his face pale but determined. “Here I go – now, don’t hang around once you’ve won.”

He stepped forward and the white queen pounced. She struck Ron around the head with her stone arm and he crushed to the floor – Hermione screamed but stayed on her square – the white queen dragged Ron to one side. He looked as if he’d been knocked out.

Shaking, Harry moved three spaces to the left.

The white king took off his crown and threw it at Harry’s feet. They had won. The chessmen parted and bowed, leaving the door ahead clear. With one last desperate look back at Ron, Harry, Jay and Hermione charged through the door and up the next passageway.

“What if he’s –?”

“He’ll be alright,” said Harry, trying to convince himself. “What do you reckon is next?”

“We’ve had Sprout’s, that was the Devil’s Snare – Flitwick must’ve put charms on the keys – McGonagall transfigured the chessmen to make them alive – that leaves Quirrell’s spell – and Snape’s …”

They had reached another door.

“Alright?” Harry whispered.

“Go on.”

“Let’s do it.”

Harry pushed it open.

A disgusting smell filled their nostrils, making the three of them pull their robes up over their nose. Eyes watering, they saw, flat on the floor in front of them, a troll even larger than the one they had tackled on Halloween, out cold with a bloody lump on its head.

“I’m glad we didn’t have to fight that one,” Harry whispered, as they stepped carefully over one of its massive legs. “Come on, I can’t breathe.”

He pulled open the next door, both of them 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.

“Snape’s,” said Harry. “What do we have to do?”

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

“Look!” Hermione seized a roll of paper lying next to the bottles. Harry and Jay looked over her shoulder to read it:

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 drink back instead,

Two among our number hold only nettle wine,

Three of us are killers, waiting hidden in the line.

Choose, unless you wish to stay here forevermore,

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.

Hermione let out a great sigh and Harry, amazed, saw that she was smiling, the very last thing he felt like doing.

“Brilliant,” said Hermione. “This isn’t magic – it’s logic – a puzzle. A lot of the greatest haven’t got an ounce of logic; they’d 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 safely through the purple.”

“But how do we know which to drink?”

“Give me a minute.”

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

“Got it,” she said.

“About time,” said Jay who was behind looking at the bottles as well. “I got it ages ago.”

“How? You didn’t have the paper?”

“Photographic memory.”

“Well then which one will get you though the black fire?”

Jay pointed to the smallest of the bottles. Harry looked at the tiny bottle.

“There’s only enough there for one of us,” he said. “That’s hardly one swallow.”

Jay examined the bottle; “I think you could get two people though the fire with this.”

“Which one will get you back through the purple flames?” said Harry

Hermione pointed at a rounded bottle at the right end of the line.

“You drink that,” said Harry. “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 owlery and send Hedwig to Dumbledore, we need him –”

“No send Deilvtorm, he’s faster.”

“Just send an owl to Dumbledore. We might be able to hold Snape off for a while, but we’re no match for him really.”

“But Harry – what if You-Know-Who’s with him?”

“Well – I was lucky once, wasn’t I?” said Harry, pointing at his scar. “Might get lucky again and Jay will look after me.”

“All the way.”

Hermione’s lip trembled and she suddenly dashed at Harry and Jay and threw her arms around them.

“Hermione!”

“Harry – you’re a great wizard, you know.”

“I’m not as good as you,” said Harry, very embarrassed, as she let go of the boys.

“Me!” said Hermione. “Books! And cleverness! There are more important things – friendship and bravery and – oh Harry – be careful!”

“Ok don’t want to rush you but we got a Snape to kill,” said Jay

“And Jay, don’t do anything stupid.”

“Hermione, how can you say that? I’m always doing stupid things; I jumped in front of a falling club once.”

Hermione gave a weak smile.

“You drink first,” 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.

“Ok, you go first Jay.”

“Making sure the potion works first, hey?” said Jay as he picked up the bottle and drank a small amount. “Ahh, she was right, ice.”

“Go though.”

“See you on the other side,” he handed Harry the bottle and walked right though the black flames.

Harry took a deep breath then drank the rest of potion that was in the bottle

It was indeed as though ice was flooding his body. He put the bottle down and walked forward; he braced himself, he saw the black flames licking his body but couldn’t feel them – for a moment he could see nothing but dark fire – then he was on the other side, in the last chamber.

But there was already someone there – but it wasn’t Snape. It wasn’t even Voldemort.