"So far, we've faced a killer dog and killer plants." Harry commented as they made their way down the corridor, Tracey repeating her set of detection charms every five metres. "What do you think we'll have to deal with next?"

"Killer bugs?" Tracey suggested as she cast the last charm in her sequence and began walking again.

Daphne shuddered. "Ugh, I hope not."

"I wouldn't have taken you for the sort of girl who's afraid of bugs." Hermione said.

"I'm not afraid of bugs — I just don't like them. I'm fine with the multiple eyes and multiple legs, but the sounds their joints make as they walk makes my skin crawl." She squinched her eyes shut and covered her ears with her hands. "Ugh, I'm feeling gross just thinking about it."

Harry had realised pretty early on in their friendship that Daphne seemed to process certain sensations differently than most people. There were certain foods she refused to touch, and she was incredibly picky about the material and cut of her clothing. Harry couldn't relate, but it was easy enough to get used to her quirks — after all, he was pretty sure that all of his friends, himself included, were strange in some way or another. If anything, it was kind of a relief to have some oddness in his life after spending the better part of a decade in the oppressively normal neighbourhood of Little Whinging.

"Killer bugs wouldn't fit the pattern, though." Hermione observed. Seeing the dumbstruck look everyone else was giving her, she elaborated. "Well, the first room was obviously set up by Hagrid. The second room was set up by Professor Sprout. We know that there's a troll further on, which would be Professor Quirrell's challenge. So the remaining challenges are likely ones that were set up by the remaining teachers."

Daphne nodded. "So the remaining challenges are ones that were made by Sinistra, Flitwick, Snape, or McGonagall… plus maybe Hooch or the elective teachers."

"No sense in thinking ahead, people. We have no idea what's ahead, so we may as well just take it one challenge at a time to save our energy." Tracey said as she cast her charms at the door to the next room. Once she finished, she groaned aloud. "Speaking of saving energy, all those charms I just did were worthless. There were no traps in this hallway. We could have just walked down this whole thing with no issues."

Daphne shrugged. "Better safe than sorry, I suppose."

Harry took in the sights of the next room as Daphne pushed the door open.

It was enormous. The room was wide, not much wider than the room before, but still fairly spacious.

The room's real size came from its height. It was easily three or four stories high, high enough that Harry wondered where in the layout of Hogwarts this room could possibly be hidden. Of course, then he remembered the existence of the infinite corridor and realised that magic was probably involved in some way or another. Several columns extended from the room's floor to its ceiling, with several… stone support beams between them. He knew there was a specific term for such things, but he couldn't recall it offhand.

Various… winged things were flying around the upper area of the room. Their wings made them almost resemble birds, but their motions through the air were too smooth. Some sort of magical construct, perhaps? Whatever they were, they likely played into the defences of this room. Harry was actually surprised that they weren't already being attacked, given the nature of the last two rooms.

Tracey made a beeline for the door on the opposite side of the room and cast her detection charms. "Ah, now this is more along the lines of what I'd expect. The door is warded against all sorts of unlocking charms and is extremely resistant to damage and being removed from the wall. It needs to be unlocked with a key."

"What, so that's it?" Hermione complained as Daphne gestured for Harry to come to her. "We come all this way and can't go any farther because we need a key? A key we don't even know the location of?"

Daphne waved her arm at the pair of brooms lying at her feet. "No, that isn't it, because the key is in this room." She pointed up at the odd bird things gliding around the upper half of the room. "I bet it's flying around up there."

Harry squinted at the bird things, and was able to make out that they did indeed seem to be winged keys.

"Seems a bit… I don't know… obvious?" He mused. "I mean, why would the real key be here if they were really focused on keeping this place secure? Wouldn't they want to keep it safe somewhere else and make all of these keys fake?"

"Entirely possible…" Tracey said thoughtfully, tapping her finger on her chin. "But I doubt it. This challenge was probably designed by either Flitwick or McGonagall, since the flying keys would fall under either of their specialties." She eyed the broomsticks. "I'd wager that this one is McGonagall's, if the quidditch angle of this challenge is anything to go by. The point is, neither of them seem like the sort who'd go for that sort of trick."

"Well, Harry and Daphne are the best on brooms, so they should be the ones to go for it." Hermione said with obvious relief. "After all, we need to move as fast as possible, lest we get caught."

Harry mounted the broom as Daphne did likewise. "Alright, we'll do a few searching sweeps first. We just need to make sure we avoid the support beams up there."

"Buttresses." Hermione clarified. "They're called buttresses."

Tracey let out a snorting laugh and Harry struggled not to do likewise.

"What!? They are!" She defended herself. "I'm not the one who gave them that name!"

"Right, so avoid the buttbeams." Tracey giggled. Harry failed to suppress his laughter that time.

Okay, he needed to focus. Especially since he'd never tried to catch an object while flying before. Come to think of it, how was he supposed to maintain his balance while wildly grasping at an object in the air? It seemed like a rather risky maneuver to perform. Why was quidditch even an authorised school sport? Sure, magical humans were tougher than non-magical humans, but even that durability only went so far. Doing frantic aerial dives on a broomstick was one thing, but doing them with one hand while trying to grab something with the other? That was just dangerous.

Well, at least the keys weren't moving too quickly.

Harry regretted thinking that as the keys rapidly picked up speed once he and Daphne entered the upper section of the room.

"Shit!" He swore as several of the keys broke formation to swarm them. Harry went into a quick dive and swerved around several of the columns to break apart the swarm. Daphne had lost her swarm by flying through several of the… beams. Harry couldn't bring himself to call them by their actual name and still maintain his composure.

"What are we looking for?" He shouted as he pulled up alongside Daphne. "There are hundreds of keys up here!"

"Shush." Daphne said flatly, her eyes fixed on the swarms. "Currently looking. Cover me."

Harry sighed and broke apart a few swarms that had started to dive towards them. He really hoped Daphne knew what she was doing, as he had no idea how to pick out a particular object from a crowd.

"Found it!" She shouted triumphantly. "That key, the large silver one, is flying in a separate pattern from the other swarms. I'd wager it's the one we're looking for."

Harry didn't think that was sensible. After all, wouldn't it make more sense to not have the correct key stick out? Then again, there were probably technical issues involved with animating this many keys. It was honestly incredible that McGonagall was able to do all of this.

"So… what now?" He asked.

"We catch it." She replied, her tone still flat.

Right, she was clearly in one of those states where she was so focused on something she forgot to emote. This happened with her every once in a while. Harry ignored it and went after the key instead. Now that Daphne had pointed it out, it was easy to pick it out in the swarm. Harry was doing his best to tail it, but it was using its small size to make moves that he couldn't make on his broom. It was clearly designed to take full advantage of the room's architecture.

While Harry was trying to tail the key, Daphne was attempting to intercept it, trying to determine its path and swoop in to grab it from the side. It was when she was making one such attempt that she nearly bowled into Harry.

Harry groaned. "This is impossible! How are we supposed to catch a key like this while we're on a broom!?"

"Seekers do it all the time!" Tracey shouted from the floor.

"Quidditch is dumb, Tracey!" Daphne shouted back.

"So," Harry said, interrupting Daphne's oncoming anti-quidditch rant before it could begin, "if we can't catch the key directly, then we'll need some other approach. Know any spells that would be useful in this situation?"

Daphne shook her head. Well, so much for that idea.

"What are you two talking about up there!?" Hermione yelled. "We can't hear you!"

"We need a spell to stop the key!" Harry yelled back. "The damn thing is too fast and we don't know how to catch things while flying!"

"Why don't you just cast an Impedimentor at it!?"

"A what!?"

"An Impedimentor! It's… Get down here! I am not yelling my whole explanation!"

Harry glanced at Daphne, who shrugged, before the two descended. "What the hell is an Impedimentor?" He asked as he hovered just above the floor.

"It's a hex that slows down an object for a few seconds. Didn't you go through the 1970 Edition of The Standard Book of Spells: Grade 2 like I told you to?"

Harry exchanged a glance with Daphne to confirm that neither one of them had done it. In their defence, Hermione had done it during her brief period of exam obsession before Daphne talked her out of it. Hermione apparently had it in her head that they needed to not only study their textbooks, but the textbooks for the next year, as well as old editions of those same books that had several spells that had since moved elsewhere in the curriculum. Naturally, Harry, Daphne, and Tracey had ignored Hermione's weird impulse and continued their own studies.

Hermione sighed and put her hands on her hips. "Well, let this be a lesson to all of you to study the materials I tell you to. The Impedimentor is a spell that slows down an object for a few seconds. The wand movement is simple, but the pronunciation can be tricky. Like so."

The wand movement really was simple, Harry noted. The intonation was a bit tricky for him to get down — tricky enough that it took him almost a dozen tries to actually get it right. Once he and Daphne had successfully cast it a few times, they moved back to the upper areas of the room. Harry scanned the flock of keys until he picked out the one that was flying on its own. His target spotted, he leaned forward on his broom and gave chase.

He flicked his wand at the key. "Impedimenta!" Unfortunately, aiming a spell while riding a broom was only marginally easier than wildly grasping at an object while on a broom, and the spell went wide.

"Impedimenta!" Daphne's shot was better aimed, but hit another key that flew into its path.

Harry aimed again, taking care to compensate for the motion of the broom. "Impedimenta!" His aim was true, but the key dove down just before the spell would have connected.

"Is this thing trying to infuriate us?" Daphne asked… rhetorically? It could be hard to tell with her.

"Maybe." He replied.

He kept his eye on the key's pattern for a while. It was following a set path, but seemed to have a limited ability to dodge spellfire. What he needed was a way to make sure that it couldn't dodge…

"I've got it!" He said before diving after the key. Daphne followed behind him, taking the occasional potshot at it, though none of them hit. Harry waited for the key to get to the part of its path where it spiralled up along one of the columns…

There!

"Impedimenta! Impedimenta!" He shouted. The key was currently in between two of the… the buttresses… Harry snickered at the name again. Really, why would anyone call a support beam a buttress? Whatever, that wasn't important. What was important was that the key had one to the top, one to the bottom, and the column to its side. It had only one direction it could dodge — the location he'd aimed the second spell.

Harry's giggling about buttresses caused him to lose some speed, so Daphne overtook him and snatched the stilled key out of the air. "Got it! Now let's get going."

The two of them descended to the bottom part of the room, leaving the brooms where they found them. Daphne turned the key in the lock and started down the hallway with Hermione not far behind her.

As Harry and Tracey followed, he leaned over to Tracey and whispered "Buttress."

The two of them burst into hysterics as Daphne and Hermione looked on disapprovingly.

"This is the forbidden corridor?" Neville asked quietly as they snuck down the hallway. "I thought it would look more… abandoned."

"Abandoned how?" Ernie asked as he checked to make sure that they weren't being followed.

Neville shrugged. "I thought it would look all dusty and have cobwebs everywhere. I mean, it hasn't been used all year, so you'd think it would actually look abandoned."

Draco scoffed loudly — far too loudly for the sneaking they were supposed to be doing. "Obviously they don't want it to look abandoned. If it looks abandoned, then everyone would want to sneak down here because it would be so suspicious."

They rounded the corner to the part of the corridor that was actually forbidden. Neville could tell because everything was covered in a layer of dust and there were cobwebs everywhere.

"Oh, come on!" Draco pouted, stamping his foot on the ground.

"Who's there!" Filch shouted from behind them.

"Crap. Run!" Ernie yelled. Neville pushed himself to run faster than he ever had before, reaching for the door handle and shaking it wildly in an attempt to get away from whatever punishment Filch would sic on them.

"Open the door, Neville!" Draco yelled.

"I can't — it's locked!" Neville exclaimed.

Ernie whipped out his wand and pointed it at the door. "Alohomora!"

The door clicked open and all three of them shoved themselves through the door before Neville slammed it shut behind them.

"That was close…" Ernie said as he caught his breath. "I thought for sure we were doomed."

"Guys…" Draco said slowly.

"Where did you learn that spell, anyways?" Neville asked. "I don't remember it being covered in any of our classes. Did I miss a class or something?"

"Guys…" Draco said a little more loudly.

Ernie shook his head. "It was in one of the spellbooks, but it isn't taught in class. I skimmed the books for any spells that seemed useful, and that one caught my attention."

"Guys!" Draco shouted. "There is a sleeping cerberus over there by that trap door!"

Neville turned to where Draco was pointing, and confirmed that there was indeed a sleeping cerberus near an open trapdoor.

"Well that's not something you see every day." Ernie remarked.

"Quick, let's get going before it wakes up!" Draco hissed while waving them on. He hunched down over the trapdoor entrance, trying to get a look at what, if anything, was at the bottom.

Neville was starting to think that this was a very dumb idea.

"Look," Draco explained, "We don't know what's going to be down there, but it doesn't matter, because we'll do everything possible to stop Potter from stealing the Philosopher's Stone."

"Right." Ernie confirmed. "We're Gryffindors. We'll charge into whatever situation faces us because we have to."

Draco made a face at that remark. "Come on, then. Let's do this."

Draco jumped into the darkness and Ernie followed. Neville hesitated for a moment before the dog huffed in its sleep, which was all the persuasion he needed. He didn't want to be around when the dog woke up, so he jumped into the darkness after his friends.

Neville regretted jumping almost as soon as he did it, since he quickly realised that the jump was much deeper than he expected it to be. What was the sense in having a trapdoor if the resulting passage was so deep that dropping down would kill a man instantly? Of course, that concern was addressed as he felt his descent slow near the bottom. There must have been some sort of slowing charm to keep people safe. That made sense — Hogwarts's architecture was malevolent at the worst of times, but it was never truly dangerous.

When Neville landed in the room, his attention was quickly drawn to the action that was already unfolding. Draco and Ernie were letting loose as many fire and light spells as they could manage — which wasn't many, since they were first years — against a huge mass of devil's snare. Neville's eyes widened as he saw them losing the battle, and he realised what he had to do.

Neville had never successfully cast this spell before, but he needed it to work right now! He waved his wand as closely as he could remember to the diagram shown in the books, and shouted "Expelliarmus!"

A pale blue bolt of light shot out of his wand and sent Ernie's wand flying from his hand. Feeling emboldened, Neville did the same thing to Draco, sending his wand flying into the pile of vines to join Ernie's.

"What the hell do you think you're doing, Longbottom!?" Draco shouted as he began to wrestle with the grasping vines."

"What am I doing!?" Neville asked incredulously. "I'm not the one who was torturing that poor devil's snare!"

"It attacked us! It's still attacking us!" Draco said as he tried to throw off the vines that were binding his arms together.

"Of course it attacked you! You just fell into its nest from the ceiling! You'd probably also be freaked out if something fell through the ceiling of your house while you were just sitting around!"

"It started grabbing at us and squeezing us! It's doing the same thing to you right now!"

Neville looked at the tendril-like vines that were currently exploring his form, leaving slime trails all over his robes. "That's just it being curious! It's trying to check you out!"

Ernie made some muffled noises as the snare wrapped him tighter.

"It's a man-killing plant, Longbottom! Sprout said as much in her lecture!" Draco shouted.

Neville put his hands on his hips and glared at Draco. "It's 'dangerous' because most people are stupid and provoke it! Now, stop being mean to this poor, misunderstood plant and let me handle this!"

Draco collapsed as further layers of vines dragged him down. "If we die here, then I'm blaming you!"

Draco needed to stop being so pessimistic about this — one would think he'd never wrestled with dangerous plants before. Neville had been doing it for years at this point!

"Excuse me," Neville said to the mass of vines, "could you please let those two go?"

The vines wiggled at him in disbelief.

"Yes, I know they were very rude. It's obvious that they were never taught how to act."

The wiggling became more aggressive.

"I'm sorry, but I need them alive. They're of no use to me if you eat them."

The vines' wiggling slowed.

"How about… if you let them go now, then I'll bring you something even bigger tomorrow? You'd have to wait a bit, but you'd get even more food than if you ate these two. They're not very big, after all."

The vines paused. After a minute of consideration, they retreated, relinquishing Ernie and Draco, who both took deep gasping breaths.

"See?" Neville told them. "You can accomplish a lot if you just use your words."

"It nearly ate us!" Draco exclaimed.

"Don't be so hard on it! It didn't know any better, and it was hungry. Besides which, you scared it."

"You are so weird, Longbottom." Draco said as he stood up and walked to the door.

Well it wasn't his fault that Draco never learned how to act around plants! Really, the nerve of some people…

Daphne watched as Tracey pushed open the door to the next room, which slowly lit itself as they entered. A giant chessboard dominated the centre of the room, with several replacement pieces sitting around the edges.

This would be Flitwick's challenge. It was also one they were very poorly equipped to deal with.

"Chess." Daphne said flatly. "It had to be chess. I don't suppose any of us are any good?"

The question was mostly rhetorical, of course. Daphne had never really figured out how to play chess well, and Tracey lacked any tendency towards strategy, and usually lost in less than twenty turns. Harry's upbringing certainly didn't give him room to learn to play games, let alone become good at them. That left…

"I might be able to." Hermione said. "My grandfather on my dad's side was a champion chess player, and I played against him a few times before he passed away."

"Perfect!" Tracey shouted. "Onward to victory!"

"I never won a game, though!" Hermione desperately tried to explain.

"But you know how to play, which makes you our best chance!" Tracey said as she pushed Hermione towards the chess board. "Besides, we're the good guys and good guys always win."

They were doomed. So very doomed. Daphne always knew that she would die as a result of one of Tracey's schemes — she just didn't think it would be this soon.

"Okay, um…" Hermione looked at the board. "Am I… How am I supposed to move the pieces? I doubt I could push them…"

Tracey stared blankly at Hermione until Daphne couldn't take it anymore and piped up. "It's magical chess, Hermione. The pieces move where you tell them to."

Realisation dawned on Hermione's face. "Oh… Yes, that makes sense. Um… Okay, fourth pawn, two spaces forward!"

None of the pieces moved.

"Did… Did I not use the right term to command it to move?" She asked.

"No, that was an acceptable way to command your pieces." Daphne said, observing the board quizzically. "There must be something we're missing…"

There really was something that they were missing. A chess game was hardly a worthwhile obstacle. There had to be a "shitty twist", as Mrs. Davis would have referred to it.

"I've got it!" Tracey exclaimed. "We have to substitute ourselves for some of the pieces on the board!"

Oh. Yes, that would indeed be a "shitty twist". Daphne mentlly reaffirmed that they were doomed as Tracey explained her "reasoning", if it could be called that.

"Obviously, it's some sort of trial. It requires some measure of personal risk that a regular game of chess wouldn't offer." Tracey said. "It also alters the rules of play, as one has to protect their own piece in addition to the king."

The reasoning was just twisted enough that Daphne was now certain that was how the chessboard had been designed. She warily eyed the stone weapons wielded by the statues and desperately hoped Tracey was wrong.

Hermione looked over the pieces. "Okay, um… Tracey and Harry, you two play rooks. They're usually too valuable to sacrifice, as they're the best pieces for checkmating. I'll play the… right-hand knight, and Daphne can play the queen."

Daphne's fears were confirmed as the mentioned pieces moved off of the board. They were in so much trouble…

Harry and Tracey took their places without complaint. Daphne grabbed Hermione's shoulder as she started to move and turned her around so they were facing each other.

"Be honest with me. Do you really know what you're doing?"

Hermione just gave a sort of helpless shrug in response.

"Don't worry, Daph!" Tracey shouted from her position. "I've got a fool-proof plan we can fall back on if things go wrong!"

They were so very doomed.

As Daphne and Hermione took their places, the game began, with the opposing side making the first move. Daphne watched with apprehension as the pawn moved forward. And thus, the game began.

It quickly became clear that Hermione was a very defensive player. She was definitely a better player than anyone else with them, but she played so defensively that nothing happened for several turns until she finally slipped up.

The opposing bishop cleaved through the stone of their side's pawn. Daphne winced. That was brutal even by the standard of Magical Chess.

"What was that!?" Hermione shrieked. "A piece is just destroyed when it's captured!?"

"Does Muggle chess not work that way?" Tracey asked. "That seems rather boring. The destruction is what makes it fun!"

"I don't know…" Harry added. "That's about how my cousin played the game the one time he got a chess set."

"That's barbaric!" Hermione exclaimed.

"That's Magical Chess for you, Hermione." Daphne said in resignation.

"I was referring to Harry's cousin being barbaric, actually…"

Harry laughed. "That's definitely true."

"Just make sure we don't find ourselves on the wrong end of those weapons." Daphne said. "I'd like to make it out of here in one piece. Literally."

Hermione gave a solemn nod. "Okay, so let's see here. I can attack that piece, but if I do…"

Daphne didn't really follow the game that well as it continued. She knew that experienced players were able to plan things several moves ahead, but she had never really been able to grasp how to do that herself. It was hard enough even being able to keep track of the game when she was able to look at it from above. The state of the game was downright inscrutable from this angle.

She was pretty sure the game wasn't in their favour, if the expression on Hermione's face was anything to go by.

Their side was down to the four of them, their king, a bishop, and two pawns. The opposing side had an additional bishop at the expense of a knight, and they had claimed a second queen by crossing the board — a move that Daphne hadn't even known was possible until it happened.

Hermione was currently observing the board with a pensive frown.

"Crud." She said quietly. "We're three turns away from being checkmated unless one of us is sacrificed."

"That means that it's time for Plan B!" Tracey shouted. "Just follow my lead!"

Daphne watched with resigned exasperation as Tracey moved across the board so that one of the opposing queens was positioned between herself and the opposing king. She wasn't really about to sacrifice herself… was she?

"Tracey, don't do it!" Harry yelled. "Winning the game isn't worth getting maimed!"

An arrogant grin spread across Tracey's face. "Who said anything about getting maimed?" She said as the white queen turned towards her. "I did say that I have a plan, and getting maimed is not a part of it!"

Tracey's wand ejected itself into her hand from her holster. A quick twirl and a shouted "Flipendo!" sent the queen sliding backwards into the king, shattering them both.

"And that's how you win a game of magical chess!" Tracey said triumphantly. "By using magic!"

The remaining pieces on both sides evidently objected to Tracey's strategy, as they all drew their weapons and prepared to attack.

"Now this is chess!" Tracey cheered as she began dodging the pieces' weapons. "Why can't all board games be this exciting!?"

Daphne would have liked to give a sarcastic answer, but at the moment, she was too busy trying not to get split open by the other queen that was on the board when Tracey — once again — decided to forego all subtlety. Daphne kept trying to let off some knockback jinxes at the queen, but it seemed to expect that move after Tracey's stunt, and kept grounding itself when the spell hit. It was also too good at keeping herself in close quarters to Daphne for her to put some much needed distance between them. One swing of the queen's massive broadsword came far too close for comfort, and she could feel a faint buzz of magic as the blade passed near her.

It was bad enough that these weapons were heavy and sharp, but they were also enchanted!?

She wasn't about to take any more chances. Daphne ducked under the queen's next swing and thrust her wand at the ground and yelled "Cascado glaciallus!" Large spikes of frigid ice shot up from the ground in a wave in front of her. Most of the ice shattered harmlessly as it shot up against the queen's arms, but her lower half was entombed in frost. Daphne took the chance to get some distance between them before letting off a knockback jinx at the queen's exposed torso. The now brittle stone shattered easily under the force of her spell.

Her nearest foe dispatched, Daphne ran over to Harry and Hermione, who had the good fortune to be near each other when Tracey pulled her little stunt. The two had formed a surprisingly tight formation near the edge of the room, with Harry focusing on keeping the pieces at a distance while Hermione wailed on them with every damaging spell she knew.

Daphne did not know a lot of combat magic. The closest that she came was knowing an uncanny amount of ice and frost spells, not that most of those were of any value here. The Glacial Cascade was the only one she knew that actually created ice, as opposed to just cold, and it was absolutely exhausting to cast at her age. She doubted she could use it more than three times and still be able to maintain consciousness. If she had some sort of water, then maybe she could freeze it, but…

"I don't suppose either of you know the water conjuring charm?" She asked them.

Hermione just shook her head as she flung another cutting hex at a statue's arm, which finally fell off after taking several such blows.

"Isn't that, like, sixth year material?" Harry asked as he nailed an approaching pawn with a knockback jinx. "We've studied ahead, but not that far ahead."

"Y'all need water?" Tracey asked as she slid past the sole intact bishop. "I've got a canteen here."

Of course Tracey brought the canteen her mother had given her for her birthday a few years back. Mrs. Davis had gifted Tracey with a "survival kit", and Daphne learned that when Mrs. Davis said "survival", she really meant it. Why anyone would need a tent that was warded to withstand nuclear blasts, Daphne had no idea.

"We need more water than that. We'd need enough to cover the floor…"

Tracey grinned. "Looks like I'll have to spoil the surprise. I was hoping to show you guys this later, but needs must. Cover me for a moment."

Daphne did her best not to get distracted by… whatever it was that Tracey was doing, but her curiosity got the better of her, and she spared a glance backwards. Her jaw nearly dropped as she saw Tracey magically suspending a ball of water in the air with her wand. The orb was far bigger than the amount that could be stored in the canteen, and looked to be getting bigger by the second. Tracey's face was contorted into an expression of total concentration.

Harry's elbow jabbed her in the side. "Focus, Daphne."

She turned her attention back to the remaining pieces, all of which were battered, but many of which were unfortunately intact.

"Okay, I think that's about as much as I can manage!" Tracey grunted from behind them. "On the statues, right?"

"Yes, just make sure it stays away from us!" Daphne confirmed. Oh, please let this work. She was not prepared to keep going like this for however long it would take to deal with the rest of the pieces.

"Right, one water bomb coming up! Watch out overhead!"

An absolutely massive bubble of water shot over their heads before bursting and showering most of the room. The floor was covered in at least an inch of water, though Tracey was able to keep the floor around them dry, the waves of water magically stopping when they got too close.

Right, time to end this. Daphne thrust her wand downward and shouted "Cascado glaciallus!" The puddle covering the room flash-froze, the water acting as a conductor for the spell as large spikes of ice spread across the room like ripples in a pond.

"Shatter them!" Harry shouted. He and Hermione immediately started letting off knockback jinxes to take down the immobilised statues. Daphne raised her wand to do the same, but was struck by a wave of dizziness before she could do anything. She tried to blink the black spots out of her vision as she leaned against the wall. Morgana, the wall was cold now. Had her spell really been that thorough?

"You alright, Daph?" Tracey asked from beside her.

Daphne nodded, but her slight loss of balance as she tried to stand up exposed her fib.

"Easy there, Daph." Tracey said as she helped Daphne keep her balance. "Here, eat this." She added, pulling out two bars from her pack.

Tracey began eating hers as Daphne sniffed at it. Well, it didn't seem to have anything she disliked, so she bit into it. The taste was a little strange, but she couldn't deny the rejuvenation she felt flow through her body as the food hit her stomach. "What is this?"

Tracey shrugged. "Something my dad fixed up for my mom's use. It's a calorie and protein dense food blend with some magical ingredients mixed in to help stave off the worst effects of magical exhaustion. It's no miracle cure, and you'll still be a bit tired for a day or two, but you're not likely to pass out any time soon. We'll just have to make sure not to overexert ourselves again, or we'll be in real trouble. Hopefully, we're better prepared for the remaining challenges."

Daphne nodded as Harry shattered the last chess piece with a final Flipendo. "How did you make all of that water?"

Tracey grinned. "Alchemical replication. I've been practicing it for a while, and I finally made some headway recently. I can only do it with water, since it's a simple liquid, but I can do it!"

Daphne stared at her. "When have you had time to do this without the rest of us noticing?"

"In the shower, of course!"

Daphne paused for a second as she took that in. "Do you mean to tell me that all of the times you spent hours in the shower, it's because you were practicing alchemy on the water?"

Tracey nodded enthusiastically. "Of course! What else would I be doing in the shower?"

"Are you two alright?" Harry asked as he brushed frozen rubble off of his robes. "Whatever you guys did obviously took a lot out of you. Where did you learn that ice spell, Daphne?"

"Fifth year battle charms textbook from the restricted section."

"You got a fifth year charm to work?" Hermione asked jealously.

Daphne shook her head. "Just the one, and I can only use it a few times before I exhaust myself. You two probably know more spells than I do, but…"

"Daphne has an affinity for ice spells." Tracey explained. "She can learn them more easily than other spells. And that's why I call her the Ice Queen."

"Don't. Call. Me. That." Daphne hissed.

"Affinities?" Hermione mouthed to Harry, who shrugged in response.

Daphne sighed. "I'll have you two over this summer — my mother can give a better explanation of magical affinities than I can."

Harry nodded. "Are we ready to move on, then?"

"Yup!" Tracey said, jumping to her feet. "C'mon, Daph, let's go!"

Daphne sighed and pushed herself up. Tracey was going to be the death of her someday — she just knew it.

Draco took in the sights of the next room. It took him a moment to realise what exactly it was, but once he saw the broom and connected it to the weird birds in the air, he couldn't keep the smile off of his face.

Oh, this was perfect. It was as if whoever designed this test made it with the express purpose of helping him stop Potter.

"Stand back you two." He told Neville and Ernie. "It's time for the youngest seeker of the century to save the day."

Ernie shook his head. Clearly, he couldn't believe the tremendous luck that was on their side. After all, not many people would be so fortunate as to have the youngest seeker of the century on their team for a flying challenge.

As Draco took to the air, he realised that there was a slight problem. "How in the bloody hell am I supposed to figure out which key to catch!?"

Neville moved towards the door and examined it a bit. "Look for a key that matches the lock. Something large and bulky, probably silver."

Draco's eyes scanned the air. He was used to looking for gold, but silver wasn't too far off…

"I found it." He said as he spotted a large silver key flying around the room's pillars. It gave him a good chase, constantly ducking and bobbing as if it knew he was trying to catch it. Luckily for him, he had plenty of experience dealing with such movements during quidditch games. Unluckily, he had little experience dodging around support beams while chasing a snitch, so what should have only taken him a minute ended up taking closer to ten. Luckily, Draco, The Youngest-Seeker-of-the-Century™, had earned his title and was able to catch the key in the end. It squirmed helplessly in his hand after he grasped it, trying to free itself to no avail.

"Good show, Draco." Neville said as Draco landed back on the ground, key still in hand.

"But of course." Draco replied, preening under the praise. "Of course, I could have gotten it done sooner if it hadn't relied so heavily on the columns and beams for cover, but I got it in the end, didn't I?"

"Yes you did." Ernie said as he grabbed the key and turned it in the lock. The door swung open silently and the key freed itself, returning to the air. "Alright, well that's that. I hope the next challenge isn't too hard."

"I'll be fine with anything so long as it doesn't try and strangle us. Really, that devil's snare has no place being in a school."

"I told you that it was just scared!" Neville said forcefully. "I mean, really, if you just acted natural and respected it's boundaries, none of the trouble you two were in would have happened! It just goes to show that all you have to do is-"

"Great job, Draco." Ernie whispered in his ear. "You've set him off. Let's get moving and hope the next room will distract him long enough to make him forget what he was going on about."

"Ready?" Tracey asked as she grabbed the handle to the next room.

Harry nodded. He could feel the thrum of power in his wand from the recently absorbed blood.

"If the smell coming through the door is anything to go by, then this room most likely houses the troll." Tracey explained. "So we want to hit it hard and fast. A blood Lumos should blind it long enough for us to hit it with some simultaneous tripping jinxes. From there, we'll make a break for it. Hopefully, the room should be small enough for us to get through before it recovers. If not, fall back on Impedimentors before letting loose some more tripping jinxes. Alright?"

Hermione and Daphne nodded.

"Right, then let's do this."

Tracey slammed the door open, and Harry ran inside and shut his eyes before yelling "Lumos!"

He didn't hear anything aside from the high pitched hum of his spell. He expected the troll to groan in pain or maybe stumble, but the troll didn't seem to be making any noise at all.

When the light dimmed down to reasonable levels, Harry opened his eyes and let his vision adjust. He could see something large crumpled up against one of the walls. He slowly stepped towards it until he could make it out.

"It's already unconscious." He shouted back to the others. "Quirrell must have gotten it before us."

"Are you kidding me?" Tracey said with a pout. "We spend all of this time preparing to fight the troll and we don't even have to do anything!"

"I'm not about to complain." Hermione said from the back. "It was bad enough having to run from a troll on Halloween. I'm fine with this turn of events."

"You have no sense of adventure, Hermione." Tracey chided.

"Believe me, Tracey, fighting my way out of losing a chess game gave me my fill of adventure for the year." Hermione deadpanned.

"And just imagine all of the excitement that's yet to come!" Tracey said as she grabbed Hermione by the shoulder. "You'll go beyond having a mere fill of adventure and be positively sated. Imagine. The thrills will never end. Ever."

"Tracey, stop trying to freak Hermione out and let's get a move on." Daphne said as she turned towards the door. Harry couldn't make out what she mumbled to herself afterwards, but he did catch the word "immature" being said more than once.

Ernie did his best to tune out Neville's ongoing rant about "misunderstood plants" and focused on the door ahead of them. He pushed it open and shivered as the cold of the next room washed over him. "Merlin, it's cold in here. Think that's related to the challenge?"

"It's chess." Draco remarked. "What does cold have to do with chess?"

"Maybe it's the charms needed to animate a set this big?" Neville proposed. "I mean, most magic chess sets are small. Maybe they need to be kept cool to work properly at this size?"

"They wouldn't need to be kept this cold." Ernie explained. "Look at all of the ice everywhere." He'd never heard of any charms that required this level of cooling, let alone something as mundane as chess.

"I bet it was Potter!" Draco said passionately. "He probably froze the chess set solid so he wouldn't have to play. Clearly, he's even more dangerous than we realised."

Ernie successfully resisted the urge to facepalm. "Draco, even if Harry Potter is the 'boy-who-lived', he's still just a first year student. A bookish and talented first year, but still a first year."

Draco scowled. "That's just what he wants you to think. He lures everyone into a false sense of security by pretending to be a normal student, then he unleashes his boy-who-lived powers and cuts down all of his opponents before they realise what's wrong. It's become more important than ever that we stop him before it's too late."

Well, somebody had been reading far too many boy-who-lived adventure books. Ernie made a mental note of that fact in case he ever had to blackmail Draco out of doing something extremely stupid — something he was certain that he would have to do at some point.

Still, he didn't want to waste anymore time listening to Draco's fantasies. "Alright, come on, let's play. Which pieces should we each play as?"

"What?" Neville and Draco said in unison.

"Well, it's obvious, innit? The chessboard is large — large enough that a person could take the place of one of the statues. Every challenge so far has had a twist to it, and simply being able to play the game isn't really enough. Obviously, we each have to play as one of the pieces."

Given the slightly skeptical look that Draco was giving him, he supposed it wasn't as obvious as he'd first assumed. Really, Draco read Boy-who-lived adventure novels, but he'd never read Gilderoy Lockhart's Cracking Puzzles and Plundering Tombs — Riddles are Best Solved Quickly? Substituting oneself for a game piece was a classic gauntlet challenge according to that book!

"Look, even if you don't believe me about it, would you at least believe Gilderoy Lockhart? I learned this from one of his books, after all."

Draco's skepticism lessened, but Neville's eyes widened a bit. "This isn't dangerous, is it? I mean, Gilderoy Lockhart fights monsters and does all sorts of curse breaking. We're just kids."

Ernie was about to assuage Neville's fears when Draco jumped in. "Of course it's dangerous, but that doesn't mean we won't do it. We have to stop Potter from getting the Philosopher's Stone, or there's no telling what sorts of things he could do with its power under his control!"

Surprisingly, that seemed to do it. Neville nodded resolutely. "Right, because we're Gryffindors."

Draco's expression contorted into one of disgust, but he nodded.

"Right then…" Ernie looked at the chess set. "I'll take the queenside rook. Neville, you take the kingside knight, and Draco, you-"

"Will also be a knight." He interrupted in his haughtiest tone.

Ernie was about to point out the difficulty of keeping both knights alive versus keeping other pieces alive, but the corresponding pieces had already moved off the board once Draco made his choice. He sighed. "Right, you'll also be a knight. Okay, places everyone."

They all stepped onto their spaces on the board, trying not to slip on the ice.

"You there," Ernie said, pointing at a pawn. "Move to E5."

The pawn moved two spaces forward… and then kept moving forward as it slipped on the ice, until it crashed into the opposing pawn on the opposite side of the board.

"Um…"

One of the opposing pawns moved to attack it, but it also slipped and knocked both pieces out of play.

Ernie sighed. He had a feeling that this was going to be a very annoying match.

Tracey cast the last of her detection charms, trying not to show the strain she was putting herself under in doing so. These detection charms were third year material at the earliest, and she was still feeling the exhaustion from the alchemical replication stunt she pulled in the chess room. Much as she was embarrassed to admit it, she just didn't have the same kind of power to throw around that the others did.

Then again, neither did her mom, and that didn't stop her from becoming one of the most coolest people ever.

Still, she definitely hoped they'd be done soon, as she didn't think she could use those charms more than one or two more times before she passed out. Hell, she probably would have passed out by now if her dad hadn't sent her those snack bars when she told him that she was doing a heist. He was very insistent that if she was going to do something like that, then she should be as prepared as possible.

The next room was much smaller than any of the others so far. The moment that they all stepped through the doorway, bright violet fire roared to life behind them, while deep black fire blocked the way forward.

Seven bottles sat in a row on a table, with a piece of parchment laying in front of them.

"Seems this is Snape's room." She remarked. Dear Morgana, she was tired. She opened up her bag and pulled out a small thermos full of tea and began drinking.

As Tracey let the Lady Grey tea rejuvenate her, Hermione picked up the parchment and looked it over. "It's a riddle." She explained. "That's got to be the best defence so far. I mean, most wizards don't have an ounce of logic."

"Normally, I'd object to a generalisation like that, but in this case, you're correct." Daphne remarked. "Now then, let's take a look at that riddle…"

Tracey sighed as she finished the last of the tea. That ought to help her with the physical aspect of her exhaustion, at least.

As Hermione and Daphne continued to murmur over the riddle, Tracey sidled up to Harry. "Isn't this fun!?" She asked excitedly.

She saw a slight smile appear on Harry's face before he schooled his expression. "Yeah, this has been the most interesting thing we've done all year. I'm almost disappointed that the troll was already taken care of — dealing with it would have been a fun challenge."

Tracey laughed. Oh, Harry was awesome. Befriending him was the best choice she had made this year. "I appreciate the sentiment, but Daph and I are still a bit worn out from what we did back in the chess room. I don't think we would have been up for fighting the troll." Her especially, though she'd never admit that out loud. She was too prideful to openly admit her shortcomings.

Morgana, she really was tired, wasn't she? She was normally way better about avoiding introspection.

Well, at least the tea stopped her from yawning every half minute.

"So, we're close to the end, right? I mean, of the challenges we've completed, we've worked through Hagrid's, Sprout's, McGonagall's, Flitwick's, and Quirrell's. This one is obviously Snape's, and that should be all of them, right? None of the elective teachers have had a room so far, so there probably aren't any. The only one after this is Sinistra, and that's assuming she has a room in the first place."

Tracey sighed and patted Harry on the back. "Harry, Harry, Harry, you're forgetting the most important challenge of them all — Dumbledore's. There's no way Dumbledore would go through all of this trouble and not add a challenge of his own, especially when it came to defending an artefact as valuable as the Philosopher's Stone."

Harry looked abashed for a moment before schooling his expression again. "Ah, yeah, that's true."

His ability to suppress any displays of his emotion was impressive, even if it came about through depressing means. Tracey wondered if her mom would kill his relatives if she asked? Probably not. Her mom was very insistent that killing someone's annoying relatives was best reserved as a courtship present, not something done among friends. She didn't want to give Harry mixed signals at such a young age, after all.

Maybe in a few years…

"I still can't believe that they're keeping a powerful magical artefact like that stored in a school…" Harry muttered.

Tracey shrugged. "I mean, it's a bit weird, but there's always strange stuff going down in magic schools. Dad sometimes tells me about all of the crazy adventures that he and his friends got up to when they were at Hogwarts. Mom went to school in the States and she also has similar stories about the mischief and adventures she and her friends got up to. It's just a universal fact of life that strange things always go down in magic schools."

"So this kind of stuff is normal?" Harry asked.

"More or less, though it can be hard to say what will happen from one year to the next. Some of the upperclassmen told me that, a few years ago, someone started a rumour about Hogwarts having 'cursed vaults'. It was utter nonsense, but sent most of the school on some crazy scavenger hunt to find these nonexistent vaults. I even heard that-"

"Got it." Daphne said, interrupting her. Daphne held up the smallest bottle. "This potion is used to move forward through the black flames, while this bottle," she picked up the round bottle on the end, "is used to move backwards through the purple flames."

"There's not a lot of potion in the small one." Hermione observed. "It looks like there's only enough for a single dose."

"It obviously refills. Consider that we still haven't run into Quirrell, which means he must be ahead of us, as he left his harp in the cerberus room. That means that Quirrell made it past this challenge, yet the bottle is full. Therefore, the bottle refills."

Hermione nodded slowly. "That does make sense."

Harry picked up the bottle. "Well, bottoms up."

Tracey snatched it from his hands before he could open it. "Whoa, whoa, whoa. What the hell do you think you're doing!? Have you forgotten Potions Safety 101!?"

"According to Professor Snape, Potions Safety 101 is 'don't be a dunderhead'." Daphne said in her best imitation of Snape's dour tone.

Tracey snickered, but immediately pushed the feeling to the back of her brain. No, this was serious! Serious, serious stuff! There would be time to giggle about Daphne's impression later! "The first rule of dealing with potions is 'don't drink something you can't identify unless it was given to you by a licensed medical professional or a licensed potions master'. This potion was just lying on a table in the middle of a deadly gauntlet."

"But the riddle said-" Hermione tried to reason before Tracey cut her off.

"Bollocks to the riddle! I'm sure you solved it correctly, but what if it was trapped!? What if Quirrell switched the bottles around to throw off pursuers!? No, we are going to be sensible and identify this stuff before we use it."

Tracey pulled out her various identification tools from her survival kit. Okay, so the first thing she should do was a general poison check… A few drops on the testing parchment and that test came up negative, so there were no dedicated poisons. She'd still have to rule out other forms of toxicity, but dedicated poisons were the most dangerous.

Hmm… extremely low viscosity, that ruled out a large number of harmful interactive poisons… No odour, that ruled out a lot of medical and cosmetic potions…

Tracey held up the potion to get a better look at its colour — cyan and turquoise were similar but could indicate different things — and was surprised to find that the bottle was wet. She looked down at the slowly spreading puddle beneath where she'd put the open bottle.

Superfluidity, huh? Well that really narrowed it down. Less than fifty known potions were superfluids, and if she cross referenced that against its colour index…

She was pretty sure she knew what this was, but she pulled out her reference text just to be sure. Cyan, superfluid, nonpoisonous, which meant…

"It's flame-freezing draught." She told the others.

Daphne blinked. "You're kidding me."

"Nope, it's the only thing that matches the criteria. It's definitely flame-freezing draught."

Daphne spun around and pointed her wand at the black flames. "Ignis Frigidum!"

The spell impacted the wall of fire, dispersing into it. Daphne held her breath and stuck her hand into the flames, sighing in relief when nothing happened.

"I can't believe it was that simple." She said with audible exasperation. "Come on, let's go before my spell wears off."

Tracey shrugged and packed up her things, placing the potion on the table with the others before stepping through the flames and into the — hopefully — final room.

Neville shivered in the cold chess room as Ernie checkmated the opposing king. Or rather, he did something close enough to a checkmate that the game was considered won in his favour. He was pretty sure that chessboards weren't designed to work when covered in ice.

"Great job on the checkmate, Ernie." Draco said, clapping the other boy on the back. "That was a brilliant way to use the terrain to your advantage."

Ernie nodded resolutely. "Yes, that's exactly what I was attempting to do."

"Well, it was absolutely brilliant — putting you in charge of the chess set was my best idea yet."

Ernie blushed under the praise while Neville wondered just how sarcasm-blind Draco was.

"Now then, let's see what this next room has to offer." Draco said as he slammed the door open, only for all three to step back when the smell hit them.

"Dear Merlin, what is that?" Ernie asked as he pinched his nose.

"It smells like stinksap mixed with rotting flesh." Neville said. It was a combination of smells he was very familiar with from his work in the greenhouses, as they were both used in certain fertilizers.

"It smells like a troll…" Ernie said faintly, his eyes locked on the shadows in the room ahead.

Well that was very specific. Sure, trolls were supposed to smell bad, but when would any of them have had a chance to know what one smelled like?

Draco followed Ernie's gaze. "It is a troll."

Wait, really? "How in Merlin's name are we supposed to get past a troll? For that matter, how did Potter get past the troll? What if it ate him!?" Neville rambled.

Draco rolled his eyes. "I think it would be pretty hard for the troll to eat him given that it's unconscious."

His eyes widened. "They actually managed to knock out a troll? How?"

"Dark magic." Draco snarled. "Trolls are immune to all but the strongest magic, which he clearly used here. Come on, let's get a move on before the troll wakes up."

Neville was beginning to suspect that Draco read too many Boy-Who-Lived adventure books. He knew that none of the things in those books were real, right?

Violet flames burst into life behind him as soon as he entered the next room, nearly singeing his robes. "What was that?"

"It's the challenge for this room." Ernie said as he picked up a parchment that was lying on the room's only feature — a large table with seven bottles. "It looks to be a riddle of some sort. One of these bottles has a potion that will let us move ahead while the other has a potion that will let us go back. The rest are filled with poison or wine."

"So we just have to solve a riddle to move ahead?" Draco asked. "This'll be easy!"

Ernie nodded. "Okay, so, those two are the same, and then… But that means… And then those aren't poison… but then… Hmmm…"

Neville wondered if they might be here for a while.

While every room thus far had been connected either directly or with a hallway, the exit from the potions room led to a descending staircase. The change in architecture led Hermione to believe that this was, in fact, the final room of the gauntlet.

The room itself was lit with a pervasive, warm light — a drastic contrast to the earlier rooms and corridors that were illuminated sparsely with blue light. The room was circular, with concentric steps leading down to a flat centre. Eight columns circled the room, each placed halfway down the steps. At the bottom of the steps, in the dead centre of the room, sat a gorgeous, gilded mirror. Hermione didn't recognise it, but given the way that Harry tensed at the sight, she assumed it was the mirror that he and Tracey had encountered over the holidays. She never was able to figure out what the mirror did, as Harry simply described it as "terrible", while Tracey described it as "amazing".

None of that mattered at the moment, though. Before they deciphered the mirror's puzzle, they had to deal with their adversary — who was gazing intently into the mirror. Quirrell didn't even bother to turn around as he addressed them, looking over their reflections in the mirror instead.

"I wondered if you lot would show up to try and stop me." He remarked. "Though I'm surprised to see that all four of you made it. Snape's potion riddle didn't slow you down?"

"The correct potion was a flame-freezing draught." Daphne said slowly. "I just applied the charm to the fire and we all passed through."

Quirrell scoffed. "That's just like Severus, isn't it? He sets up some sort of complicated task to weed out anyone without a brain, even though the actual solution is simple enough that a fourth year could do it." He turned around to face them. "Or four first years, in this case. So, you're here to stop me?"

Tracey nodded, her face set in a determined grimace. "We can't let you steal the Philosopher's Stone."

Quirrell's mouth turned upward into a smug smirk. "How righteous of you."

"Because we'll be stealing it for ourselves!"

He froze, stunned, before he burst out in laughter. This continued for almost a minute before he managed to regain his composure. "You must excuse me — I wasn't at all prepared for that answer. Here I was expecting that you were here on some noble crusade to stop me, when in fact we are only rivals because we both desire the same thing! The irony is quite delicious."

Tracey stepped forward. "It's over, Quirrell! We have the high ground! Also, you're dying and we outnumber you four to one!"

Quirrell laughed again, though this time it was more of a dry, sardonic chuckle. "Believe me, my oncoming demise is not as much of a hindrance as you might suspect." Hermione watched in equal parts awe and horror as his eyes flashed red and lightning crackled around his body.

"Is that normal?" Harry whispered to her.

Hermione shook her head numbly. That was most definitely not normal. Even Daphne seemed shocked.

"Now then, let's parlay." Quirrell said calmly, only for him to spring into action with speed that belied his appearance. His wand was in his hand faster than Hermione had thought possible, and two enormous blue fireballs came screaming at them. She and Harry were the fastest to react, pushing Tracey and Daphne to the sides as the spells passed over them. Harry was the first to recover, pushing himself off of Daphne and casting a smokescreen charm to give them cover. That move likely saved Hermione's life, as a fire whip grazed less than a foot from her just after the smokescreen covered the area. Tracey finally seemed to have snapped into gear, pulling Hermione back as one of the pillars fell where she had just been.

The two of them quickly made use of the toppled pillar as cover. "Well, this is looking to be more complicated than I anticipated." Tracey said far too calmly.

"No shit." Hermione deadpanned.

"Any suggestions for how to deal with this?"

"Strike a killing blow before he has a chance to realise what's going on." Really, how was that not the obvious course of action? "We need to hit him hard. I don't suppose you can pull off another stunt like the one you did in the chess room?"

Tracey scratched the back of her head. "Yeah, that won't be happening again anytime soon. Even if I was up to it, I used up all my water back there, and I doubt I'd be able to take him by surprise. He'd see a move like that coming from a mile away."

"Great." Hermione said, tone dripping with sarcasm. "Well, unless you happen to have any high yield explosives on you, then I'm out of ideas."

Tracey perked up. That was ominous. "Explosives? Yeah, My mom put some of those in my survival kit. I've never used them before, so can you cover me while I get them set up? I need to make sure I do this right."

"Why do you…? You know what, I don't want to know. Just get it done." Hermione turned around and glanced out from behind the pillar. It was impossible to see anything through the smokescreen, but Quirrell's attention seemed to be focused elsewhere. Hermione moved slowly, and was surprised when the smokescreen suddenly let up.

Quirrell had used some sort of wind charm to create a clearing where he was relentlessly hammering Harry and Daphne with spells. For his part, Harry was doing a surprisingly good job defending himself from the onslaught, levitating chunks of a destroyed pillar to intercept the spells. Unfortunately, this was keeping him purely on the defensive, with no windows for him to retaliate. Daphne was doing her best to stay offensive, but she was nowhere near as fast at casting as she and Harry were. Hermione made her move to give them some additional cover.

She could have cast another smokescreen charm, but Quirrell still had a wind barrier up, so it would be quickly dispelled around him.

So instead, she fought fire with fire — or, as this case would have it, wind with wind.

She'd never attempted to cast this charm before, but she wasn't about to let that stop her.

"Ventus!" She shouted as she moved her wand in the flowy shape described by the book.

It was slow, but the wind around her did begin to pick up. Tendrils of smoke began to creep out of the cloud towards Quirrell, which drew his attention to her long enough for Harry to get in a shot.

"Imflammare!" A stream of liquid fire shot out of Harry's wand, engulfing Quirrell for a moment, only for the flames to splash away harmlessly a moment later. His robes looked a bit singed, but Quirrell seemed to emerge from the fire no worse for wear than when he started.

Dammit, what did they have to do to hurt this guy?

Daphne wasn't idle during this time, though, and closed the distance between her and Quirrell as quickly as she could. Another cast of the Glacial Cascade spell had his legs encased in ice and one spike piercing through his left forearm.

Hermione mentally cursed again. If that spike had hit his wand arm, then it might have at least crippled him long enough for them to gain the upper hand. At least they had him stuck for the time being. Hermione cast every agitating curse she knew — boils, dancing, impeding, tripping, jelly legs, leg lockers, and several stinging jinxes for good measure. As she did that, Harry levitated a chunk of pillar in front of him and launched it at Quirrell with a well aimed Flipendo. Daphne followed up her glacial cascade with several weaker freezing charms — not enough to freeze him further, but definitely enough to induce minor hypothermia through sheer quantity.

Somehow, Quirrell was still alive even after taking an ice spike to the arm, a boulder to the head, several freezing charms to his torso, and enough minor jinxes to cripple a normal person.

Something was really, really wrong with Quirrell. How had no one noticed it before now?

"Everyone take cover on me!" Tracey shouted from behind the intact pillar. "Plastic is prepped!"

Harry grabbed Daphne's arm and pulled her along, as Daphne seemed a bit too dazed to react as quickly as needed. As Hermione was taking cover, what Tracey said finally caught up to her. Plastic? When she asked about explosives, she was expecting some sort of potion or magical compound! Not a Merlin-be-damned C-4 charge!

Tracey lobbed the charge over the pillar, detonator wire trailing behind it. She looked around to make sure that everyone was as safe as they could get before grabbing the detonator and pushing the lever down.

Chunks of stone and rubble fell over them as the mirror — which was still intact despite the explosion — flew over their heads and crashed loudly into the wall nearest to them.

"Well, if that didn't do him in, then I don't know what will." Tracey commented.

"Good." Quirrell's voice snarled from the other side of the pillar.

Oh no. How!?

The pillar they were using as cover lifted off the ground and was flung to the far side of the room. Standing where it used to be was a much worse-for-wear Quirrell. Most of his robes had been burned through, and his turban was gone completely. His body was covered in fresh, bloody burns, and his eyes were filled with a crazed madness.

"How?" Hermione asked. "How are you still alive?"

"Lord Voldemort teaches many secrets to those who serve him loyally. I was taught a great many things in exchange for my efforts to secure the Philosopher's Stone so that he may be born anew."

"Voldemort is dead." Harry said quietly.

"I am not dead, for I cannot truly die." A new, raspy voice said from the same place as Quirrell. "Did you truly think I was stopped all those years ago? No, I was merely inconvenienced, and now, all these years later, I have my chance for both resurrection and revenge in the same place. Kill them all, starting with the boy."

Hermione raised her wand in Harry's defence, but a single twitch of Quirrell's wand sent all of them flying backward through the air. She had just enough time to see Daphne get thrown against a pillar and Tracey get thrown down the steps before her head impacted against the stone wall with a loud crack, knocking her unconscious.

Draco was resisting the urge to bash his head against the wall as Ernie struggled with the Riddle.

"Okay, and then if those two aren't poison, then that means… But that means that one can't be… Dammit, I have to start over."

Draco only barely resisted the urge to scream. Didn't they understand that Potter was probably obtaining the Stone as they spoke!? At this rate, they'd be too late!

He was only saved from bashing his head against the wall again by the sudden explosion that rocked the room.

"What was that?" Neville asked. "What blew up?"

"Potter." Draco said quietly. "He's unleashing his full power to try and obtain the stone. We have to hurry, Ernie!"

Ernie nodded and turned back to the puzzle. "Right. So… those two… are the same, and that one's not poison… So that means that they're either…"

Draco did scream that time.

Tracey ached horribly. She'd really hit those stairs hard when Quirrell did that area banisher on them. She glanced around the room, trying to take stock of their situation. Hermione was definitely unconscious, since she apparently hit the wall hard enough to leave a bloodstain on the stone. Daphne was also unconscious, as she was flopped inelegantly on the stairs, and there was no way she'd ever be so inelegant when she was awake. Harry was in the same location he was before — apparently Quirrell's banishing charm didn't affect him — but he was also clearly under the effect of a body bind, as Quirrell was standing there gloating at him.

Okay, so that left Tracey as the only person who was capable of taking action against their clearly superhuman teacher. Those were definitely not ideal odds, but she wasn't about to let that stop her.

Daphne and Hermione were too far from her to rennervate, so whatever she had to do she had to do alone and without attracting any attention from Quirrell. Quirrell, whom she was now noticing had a second face on the back of his head — one that most likely belonged to Voldemort, if the earlier comments were to be believed — and therefore had a much wider range of viewing than normal.

Bollocks.

She was really out of options here.

If only she had a gun, then she might be able to get in a good shot, but her mom was very insistent that she not carry firearms on her until she was at least fourteen and properly trained in their use.

The only thing she could think of in her survival kit that would help her was her hunting knife, and there was no way she could get close enough to Quirrell to use it without him spotting her. She could throw it, but she was completely untrained in knife throwing, let alone knife throwing when pretending to be unconscious. Her C-4 was the only thing she could use at a range, and she'd used all of it trying to kill Quirrell in one go.

She scanned the room for anything else that could be useful. There was lots of rubble, but Harry had established that sending rubble flying at Quirrell didn't seem to do any lasting harm. Aside from that, the only thing left in the room was…

Wait… That could actually work. With that positioning and that angle, if she cast at the exact right moment…

Tracey did her best to focus on what Quirrell was saying through the ringing in her ears.

"…hope it was all worth it. I believe it's time we said goodbye, Harry Potter. I won't miss you. Now then, let's see if you survive this a second time. Avada…"

Now! Tracey flicked her wand and whispered "Trin." A pale grey bolt shot at Harry just as Quirrell finished his spell.

"…Kedavra!"

Tracey's spell hit first, the tripping jinx knocking him over and out of the path of Quirrell's curse. Quirrell whirled around to face her just as the killing curse struck the mirror that now sat on the room's edge. The spell diffused as it hit the mirror, making the entire thing glow green before the curse was reflected back where it came from, striking Quirrell right in his back. An unearthly scream echoed through the room as a mass of dark smoke ripped itself out of Quirrell's body, only to flee after shooting Tracey a glare of absolute loathing.

Tracey stuck her tongue out at the fleeing smoke. Serves him right!

Now then, time to do what they came here for…

Tracey glanced at Harry, who was still lying on the floor, rigid. She released his body bind, but given the way his body fell limp, he had clearly fallen unconscious. She considered rennervating him, but you weren't supposed to do that to people who'd suffered head trauma.

Oh well, if she could get the stone, then she would be sure that they'd all be fine. She'd just have to brew up some elixir of life, which, really, how hard could it be?

Tracey limped over to the mirror and stared at her reflection. The image contained within was just as beautiful as it was last time, though it was less enrapturing to look at now. The only other difference was that her reflection now held the Philosopher's Stone as well as a taunting grin on her face. She stared at her reflection for some time, trying to decipher the puzzle of how to retrieve the Stone from within. She wasn't sure how long she was at it before movement to her right caught her eye. Dumbledore had just entered the room. He took in the carnage with wide eyes, until his eyes fell on Tracey, the only conscious person in the room. She decided to say the only thing she could think of in this set of circumstances.

"We did it, Professor! We saved the day!"

Dumbledore's gaze swept across the room once more before he let out a very deep sigh.

A/N (Tendra): Before I get into my rambly thoughts about this chapter, I have an announcement to make. By popular request, I have created a discord for my fics. Chapters will be released there one week before being posted on ffn and ao3. You can join us at 6YwQewK

So, yeah, this chapter is a long time coming. First, writer's block happened, then I caught COVID, then I had to get used to chronic rib pain caused by me having COVID.

Yeah, it's sucked. I didn't mean to leave this thing on a cliffhanger for six months, but the long awaited climax is finally here!

Those of you who have played Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (PC) will note some similarities between this fic and the game. Truth be told, I absolutely adore the old games and love to play them. I have done and will continue to draw on them for this series. Also, they have soundtracks done by Jeremy Soule. You can't go wrong with his stuff.

Yes, Boy-Who-Lived adventure books are canon to this fic. Most people know that they're fiction. Draco does not. I also deliberately decanonized what little I know of Hogwarts Mystery. Really, I gave the game a try and it just seemed… stupid.

Beyond that, this chapter reveals some things that I've been working with for a while. Tracey is canonically the weakest of the group. Her determination to be better than everyone in spite of that is why she was able to be sorted into Slytherin, despite her Gryffindor-ish tendencies. Hermione is absolutely ruthless when she needs to be. Daphne has an affinity for ice spells. Affinities were already brought up in one of my other fics, Departure from the Diary. I'll be giving a more involved explanation of them in this fic early in book 2.

I'm also sure that many of you have further questions about Tracey's mother. She'll appear… eventually.

E/N (Xgenje): Ok, so I got a lot to say and I'm not in a fit mental condition to fully elaborate. First, considering that Tracey is based off of me… I feel I should be more offended than I am. But none of it is technically wrong per se…

Second, I was giggling like a Madman while reading most of this chapter. As Ten can confirm. I ironically was requesting Ten to add in an acetylene torch to Tracey's tool kit before the C-4 scene… I'm sorry for doubting your understanding of my Madness, Ten.

Third, Thems getted Yeeted.