Chương 23: The Scramble for the Philosopher's Stone begins!
Harry looked rather stunned, as the Greengrass twins flew above his head, leaving his group behind with a cheery wave. He was the Gryffindor seeker, for Merlin's sake! Why hadn't they taken the brooms with them? There would have been no need to sacrifice Ron then! Clearly, the professors had not discussed the contents of their challenges between themselves; otherwise a glaring loophole would have become apparent to them!
"Wait!" Harry said desperately. "You don't understand what's going on, Snape is going to revive Voldemort!"
But they were already gone. Harry steeled his resolve. Whether or not they were on Snape's side, there was too much at stake to let them take the stone. Possessing it would also put them and their family in danger, as Voldemort would stop at nothing to resurrect!
Meanwhile, the Greengrass twins had moved on and reached the next challenge. Except, this one was also already completed. Could it be that the Gryffindors weren't their only competitors in this race? An enormous troll lay unconscious on the ground. It was even bigger than the one they had killed at Halloween! Wordlessly, the two girls decided to move on, but their hearts felt heavier than ever.
They next arrived in a room containing nothing but seven different bottles and a scroll on a table. No sooner had they stepped in the room that jets of fire rose up from behind them, preventing their retreat! At the same time, the way forward was also obstructed by a differently coloured jet of fire!
There was nothing left to do but open up the scroll and read its contents.
"It's some sort of riddle," said Daphne. "It seems like of those seven bottles, one will let us progress forward, one will let us go back, two are wine and three are poison."
Oleandra opened her Mystic Eyes. She could clearly perceive which ones were wine, since they didn't emit magical fluctuations, but her eyes couldn't tell which one was which from the magical lights swirling inside the other five bottles. Thankfully, with this unintended hint, the riddle became much easier, and they finally determined that the smallest bottle allowed one to move on. Oleandra grabbed it and moved to unstopper it to drink its contents.
However, at that very moment, the fire behind them abated briefly, before springing back up again. It had let Potter and Granger through! They both drew their wands, and the twin sisters answered in kind.
"Please believe what I'm going to say," said Potter slowly. "Snape is in there, and Voldemort's probably with him. I survived him once, so I've got the best chance among us to stop them."
Oleandra paused. Did she really think she could best a teacher, not to mention You-Know-Who? That man had almost single-handedly turned Magical Britain over on its head! No, of course not! But Potter seemed to be telling the truth. Or at the very least, he thought what he was saying was the truth.
"In that case," she said haltingly. "I'll let you go first. If you're right, then they have already drunk from this bottle," she shook the little bottle upon saying those words, "which means the potion regenerates. You will go first, and I will follow you when it fills back up again. Deal?"
Granger checked the riddle, then with a nod confirmed that Daphne and Oleandra's solution was right.
Potter turned to Granger and said, "You drink from the other potion. Grab one of their brooms and take Ron to the hospital wing. It'll take you past the drop under the trap door and Fluffy. Go warn a teacher, any teacher, then go to the owlery and send Hedwig to Dumbledore. I might be able to hold off Snape for a while, but I'm no match for him, really."
Oleandra nodded. "Daphne, you'd better go with her and get some help."
Granger's lips quivered, and she threw her arms around Potter, whispering something in his ear. Then Granger and Daphne drank from the backtracking potion, took a broom each and left.
"Good luck, sister…" she whispered back.
Then, Potter downed the contents of the potion and nodded to Oleandra. He walked through the flames, and then he was gone. Oleandra impatiently paced around the room, occasionally peeking at the bottle as it refilled, drop by painstaking drop.
"Finally!" cried Oleandra. The bottle was at last full again. She quickly gulped its contents down, shivering as a coldness spread throughout her body. "Here goes nothing," she thought as she stepped through the curtain of flames…
…and emerged on the other side, to a sight she had not been expecting at all. In the centre of the room stood a tall mirror, bearing an inscription she couldn't quite read. In front of it stood Harry Potter and… Professor Quirrell?
"What the!?" he said, without stuttering a single time. "Greengrass?"
"Kill the girl, so that we may be done with this place," hissed a voice.
Oleandra paled. Potter was telling the truth! You-Know-Who was here, and he was invisible or something!
Immediately, she threw a bunch of acorns across the room, breaking Quirrell's line of sight. It was a good thing too, since a green flash of light blasted a chunk out of a tree she had just grown in front of her. She ran and dodged between the tree trunks.
"Thursaz! Thursaz! Thursaz!" she cried, fingers rapidly forming seals.
Unfortunately, the last one hit, but was somehow rebounded back at her. She felt like a word class boxer had just punched her in the gut as she was sent sprawling in front of the mirror next to Potter. Dazed, she looked up and saw her reflection.
Only, it wasn't her reflection. It was her alright, but she looked like she was in her twenties. She wore her hair short and parted on the sides, and she was wearing strange wizard robes that left her back, shoulders and arms bare. A sash embroidered with stars bound her clothes tightly to her hips. A golden runic sigil she didn't recognize shone brightly on her forehead, and her exposed arms were covered in silvery flickering rune-word tattoos. A faint smile on her lips, she looked on arrogantly as her enemies fled before her might, her hair and robes billowing in the wind!
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