Chương 47: Unconventional Solutions
"Alright, what next?" Harry asked in a bored tone as he followed Quirrell into the next room, he looked up and saw a small army of winged keys flying in circles overhead, near the entrance were some floating brooms. Quirrell didn't immediately answer and instead walked to the other end of the room, Harry sighed and walked after him, the two stopping at a locked door.
"T...this door is l...locked," Quirrell said as he looked at Harry. "It w...won't unlock with a simple unlocking charm, h...how would you unlock it?" He asked.
"Hmm," Harry frowned as he looked between the keys, the door and the brooms. "my guess is that one of those keys are needed to open the door and the brooms are there so you can get the key." Harry paused and looked at the keys. "Hmm, one of them has a damaged wing," Harry noticed. "if I had to guess then I'd say that would be the key you need."
"Hmm, perhaps you should g...get it, Mr P...Potter." Quirrell suggested.
"If I must, but I've got a simpler way." Harry said as he took his wand out and aimed it above him. "Immobulus," Harry calmly said, the freezing spell shot out of his wand and hit the key with the damaged wing while also affecting several nearby keys. "diffindo." Harry said, sending a severing charm at the wings of the key, cutting them both off. "Finite." Harry said, his counter spell hitting the key, countering the freezing charm and causing it to fall to the floor.
"Hmm, 'finite' a...and n...not 'Finite Incantatem'?" Quirrell asked as Harry walked over to pick up the key.
"They're the same thing," Harry shrugged as he went over to pick up the key. "The first just targets a specific target while the second acts over an area to terminate spell effects." He said before tossing the key to Quirrell who caught it.
"E...excellent, t...wenty points to S..lytherin f...for advan...advanced s...spells and sp...spell k...knowledge." Quirrell said as he opened the door, he walked into the next room with Harry following after him. This room was different from the last few, in it was simply a giant chess set.
"Let me guess, we have to get past the chess set?" Harry asked as he looked at Quirrell who nodded in response. "Brilliant." Harry paused and looked at the chess set, he spent several moments analyzing it before he aimed his wand and aimed in the direction of the opposing King. "Flippendo!" Harry yelled, putting a fair amount of power into his spell. Harry's knockback spell shot towards the king and passed in-between the other pieces before hitting its target, the king piece fell off the board and broke as it landed. "Let's go." Harry said to Quirrell before he began walking towards the exit.
"W...why did you do t...that?" Quirrell asked as he followed after him.
"The objective of chess is to attack the opponent's king," Harry reminded him as they reached the door, unbothered by the other pieces. "I could have played until we reached checkmate or I could just skip the middle man."
"Very c...clever." Quirrell said as they entered the next room, there was no door leading into the next room, but the exit was covered in black flames that prevented them from leaving, as soon as they had entered the entrance behind them was suddenly blocked off by purple fire. In front of them on a table was seven potions, all labeled in numbers and a rolled up piece of paper.
"Potions, I'm assuming this is Snape's doing." Harry said as he took the note and began reading 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 drinker back instead,
Two among our number hold only nettle wine,
Three of us are killers, waiting hidden in line.
Choose, unless you wish to stay here for evermore,
To help you in your choice, we give you these clues four:
First, however slyly the poison tries to hide
You will always find some on nettle wine's left side;
Second, different are those who stand at either end
But if you would move onwards neither is your friend;
Third, as you see clearly, all are different size,
Neither dwarf nor giant holds death in their insides;
Fourth, the second left and the second on the right
Are twins once you taste them, though different at first sight.'
"Well P...Potter, what are you g...going to do?" Quirrell asked.
"Brain thinking, hush." Harry said as he reread it. "Hmm, one bottle to help us move on, one bottle to help us move back, two bottles of nettle wine and three bottles of poison. There is always a poison on the left of nettle wine. According to this the biggest bottle - number six- and the smallest bottle - number three - don't have poison." Harry said to himself. "Hmm...okay, I've got this." Harry said after a few seconds of thinking.
"D...do you?" Quirrell asked.
"Yeah," Harry nodded. "it's simple." Harry said as he picked up what he believed to be the correct potion.
"Well P...Potter, best get to drinking then." Quirrell replied.
....
"E...Excellent Mr P...Potter." Quirrell said when the two arrived into the next room, the room was empty, but there was one thing in the middle of it that interested Harry.
"The mirror of erised?" Harry breathed.
"You know of it?" Quirrell asked, with an hungry look in his eye. "There is an object inside of the mirror, can you get it?" Quirrell asked, looking at Harry. He expected several different responses from Harry, what he did not expect was for Harry to suddenly start laughing, loudly. "Why are you laughing?!" Quirrell demanded.
"You forgot." Harry chuckled as he walked to the mirror, he began walking in a circle around the mirror, keeping his eyes locked on the mirror. As soon as he walked behind the mirror and out of view, Harry discreetly let Jet slither out of his sleeve and quickly climb onto the frame of the back of the mirror.
"Forgot what?" Quirrell asked when Harry appeared back in view, Harry stopped in front of the mirror and turned to Quirrell.
"Your stutter." Harry said calmly with a shrug as he held his hands behind his back.
"W...what?" Quirrell asked.
"Oh it's too late now, Quirrell." Harry said in an amused voice. "It's funny really, you kept that act up for most of the year, only to mess it up now." Harry said, he watched as Quirrell suddenly stood up straighter and began glaring at him.
"It was a most tiring act to maintain." Quirrell said in an annoyed voice.
"An incredibly annoying one as well." Harry replied. "I mean honestly, the stuttering got old by the first hour of your first lesson." Harry added. "It took you more than two minutes just to get through the bloody class attendance register."
"You knew it was an act?" Quirrell asked.
"I suspected." Harry admitted. "I've got to admit that it's only really my curiosity that brought me here."
"What do you mean?"
"You were giving off plenty of warning signs, the biggest one was when you brought me into the forbidden corridor." Harry replied. "I was tempted to escape but then I figured why not? I was rather interested to know what was in the corridor, there's the mirror but there's got to be more to it than that. You said an object was inside it, what is it that you're after? What is in there?" Harry asked, as he gestured behind himself to the mirror.
"The philosopher's stone." Quirrell answered as he calmly walked over to Harry and stood in front of the mirror before turning to Harry, "An incredible invention, a brilliant magical artefact with astonishing powers. The stone will transform any metal into pure gold, it also produces the 'Elixir of Life', which will make the drinker immortal."
"Hmm, and you want it, that makes sense." Harry hummed. "The troll, you were the one who let it in, weren't you?" Harry guessed. "You were hoping to use it as distraction so you can get the stone."
"I was." Quirrell nodded.
"Yeah, you see that makes sense. But what doesn't make sense is the fact that you brought me with you," Harry pointed out. "you could have brought a seventh year or even a sixth year, probably could have tricked a Gryffindor or Hufflepuff into helping you, you could have done it all on your own, why bring me?"
"Because I wanted to test you," Quirrell answered. "you're not like the other students. You could have gone into Gryffindor but you went into the noble house of Slytherin, not only that but you are also a parsletounge and any person with a brain can see that you're in charge of the other Slytherin's in your year. My master has expressed an interest in you."
"Hmm, your master?" Harry repeated. "So the stone is not for you?" Harry asked. "Who is your master?"
"Let me speak to the boy." A raspy voice spoke, sounding like it came from behind Quirrell.
"I'll assume that's him then." Harry said in a dry voice, even though he was quickly looking around to see if he could spot the owner of the voice.
"Master, you're not strong enough!" Quirrell protested.
"I have strength, enough for this." The voice replied. Quirrell looked like he was going to protest again but stopped before doing so, he took in a small breath before turning around, his back now facing Harry. He reached up and began removing his turban, when he was done Harry took a step back before he could stop himself, the sight in front of him was a shocking one. There was another face where the back of Quirrell's head should be. The face has red eyes and a snake-like slit where the nose should be, it was a very disturbing sight. "Harry Potter," The face breathed. "see what has become of me? What I have been reduced to since that fateful Halloween night? Mere shadow and vapor... I have form only when I can share another's body... but there have always been those willing to let me into their hearts and minds... unicorn blood has strengthened me, these past weeks... and once I have the Elixir of Life, I will be able to create a body of my own."
"Halloween? Wait...you're Voldemort!" Harry realized.
"Yes, yes I am, or at least was." The face replied, it took every bit of Harry's will power to stop himself from running. His body wanted him to run, but he knew that if he did then it wouldn't end well for him.
"You're supposed to be dead." Harry breathed, finding it extremely hard to believe what was happening.
"Many believe me to be, but I am far from ready to die." Voldemort hissed. "I am now but a mere shade of my former self. But when I have the stone I will return to my full power."
"You know, bringing the guy who killed my parents - and is responsible for me being an abused orphan - to his full power is not exactly the best sales pitch." Harry said in a calm voice, he was ignoring his internal panic. He needed to think, he needed to focus, if he could survive Uncle Vernon's breath and Dudley's 'silent but deadlies' then he could survive this.
.....
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