[Chapter Twenty Six: Unexpected Visitors. Edited.]

We faded into the background at dinner, and sat apart in the common room afterwards. We weren't disturbed by anyone the whole night; we were widely hated. Hermione was skimming through all her notes. I was flicking absent-mindedly through a book about Chess, it was a bore so I threw it at Ron. He turned back to me after ten minutes, "What the hell is this book? It's so like gloomy! Chess sacrifice? Come on! We all know that we have to sacrifice pieces every now and then."

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

"Better get the cloak," Ron muttered, as Lee Jordan finally left, stretching and yawning. Harry ran upstairs for a moment and hopped back down to the common room.

"Good luck you two," Ron said softly "I hope you make it alright."

"What are you doing?" said a voice from the corner of the room, I jumped, giving me a weird déjà vu feeling. Neville appeared from behind an armchair, clutching Trevor the toad, who looked as though he'd been making another bid for freedom.

"Nothing, Neville, nothing," said Harry, hurriedly putting the cloak behind his back.

Neville stared at our guilty faces.

"You're going out again."

"No. We're not." My voice was too high-pitched. "We're... We're... I don't have an excuse. We're going out."

"No, no, no," said Hermione, giving me a wide-eyed look. "No, we're not. Why don't you go to bed, Neville?"

"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 steeling himself 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! Go on!" Neville took a swing at Harry.

Harry turned to Hermione, desperate, "Do something."

Hermione stepped forward. "Neville, I'm really, really sorry about this." She raised her wand."Petrificus Totalus!" she cried, pointing it at Neville.

Neville's arms and legs locked together. His whole body went rigid, he swayed where he stood and then fell flat on his back, stiff as a board. Neville's jaws were jammed together so he couldn't speak. Only his eyes were moving, looking at us 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.

I scooted over and grabbed a pillow with my left hand. "If I can, Nev, I'll punch Voldemort in the face," I crouched and moved the pillow under his head. "In your honour, of course."

Harry threw the cloak over the pair of us and we crept out of the portrait hole. It was a tense five minutes before we reached the corridor. The door was locked.

"Wait for us here," Harry said, gripping my shoulder. "Don't face Fluffy on your own."

"I won't." Harry squeezed my shoulder and went back to the common room to get the others. I heard his soft footsteps disappear and, moments later, they were replaced by different footsteps. Someone heavier than Harry, but someone alone. I crept back into the shadows, away from the door, and watched.

Professor Quirrell walked up to the door, not hunched in his usual way either. He was striding. Confident. It was unsettling. He glanced around the corridor, unlocked the door and entered the room.

I decided that Harry would have wanted me to snoop, so I did. I crept over to the door and peered in the keyhole. A harp was playing now, Fluffy was falling asleep. I saw robes fly as Quirrell jumped down the trapdoor. Using my wand, I painted a message on the door for the trio.

Harry, Ron, Hermione,

Quirrell is the one who has gone down the trapdoor. He is the one who wants to bring Voldemort back. I'm going to make a head start, I'll see if I can catch him before he gets there. I'll see you guys soon. Good luck.

Willow.

I unlocked the door and snuck into the room. The harp had stopped playing by the time I entered; Fluffy was twitching back to consciousness.

I did the first thing that came to mind: I sang.

It was another of my dream-memory-whatever things, except I wasn't lying in someone's arms. I was in a cradle, probably. There were voices singing at me, but I couldn't see faces. I could hear their words, and I sang them now, in the room with Fluffy.

"We will fly / Way up high / Where the cold wind blows / Or in the sun / Laughing having fun/ With the people that she knows / And if the situation/ Should keep us separated / You know the world won't fall apart /And you will free the beautiful bird / That's caught inside your heart /Can't you hear her? / Oh she cries so loud /Casts her wild note /Over water and cloud /That's the way it's gonna be, little darlin' /We'll be riding on the horses, yeah / Way up in the sky, little darlin' /And if you fall I'll pick you up, pick you up..."

I spent my time singing to a) charm the harp to play again, and b) jump through the trapdoor. I fell down, down, down, into darkness, before landing on a squishy plant.

You know, I should have just waited for the others. I'm useless on my own.

"You're not useless, but you are being strangled by a plant."

The voice I didn't recognise startled me again, but it wasn't wrong. The plant that broke my fall had completely wrapped itself around my legs and was squeezing them, tight.

So this is how I die. Alright.

"Oi! Stop Voldemort. Use logic."

"Okay," I said aloud. "It's an – ow – plant. So that's – ouch – Herbology from Professor Sprout. Ouch!"

"You're doing great!"

"Um, ow, so, crap, it isn't prickly. It had no mouth – OW! – There's hardly a leaf on it. It – ouch – could be a Snarfalump, but they're not aggressive..." The plant had worked its way up to my waist.

"I'd hurry up before you get strangled."

"Oh, right, yeah. Uhh – Oh-ow-oh! It's Devil's Snare!"

I made a tiny flame and managed to escape the plant and drag myself to the door. I set the door on fire as I left, to see if that would help Hermione, Harry, and Ron.

"One down." I walked along a corridor, hearing the unmistakable sound of fluttering. "Only... some to go."

In the next room, there were glittering birds flying above me – no – they were winged keys. It was likely they unlocked the door ahead of me. My eyes fell to a broomstick hovering a few meters to my right – I was going to have to fly to get the key.

So the accident-prone, uncoordinated weirdo is about to use a broomstick. Fantastic.

"If you die, I'm going to be annoyed."

I don't know what to say to that.

I mounted the broom, my heart pounding with fear, and zoomed up into the air. I seemed to have reasonable control of the broom, but an excruciating fear of heights, which made the whole situation a little terrible. The key I needed had a broken wing, which I snapped off so my friends could join me sooner.

The next room was dark. Upon entering, the door behind me slammed shut and flames erupted in torches along the walls. I realised a few things, a) I was standing on an enormous chess board, b) I was going to have to play my way across, c) I did not know the rules of chess.

"Help."

"I'd love to help, but I'm in your mind and don't know the rules of chess."

"Uh, thanks?"

I chose the position of a castle, because castles are cool, and soon discovered how to lose a game of chess – or rather, how to almost lose a game of chess, and make non-living-but-animate objects feel overconfident in such a way that they could lose to me.

"Who knew chess pieces could be overconfident?"

Who knew I could win a chess game?

I was allowed to pass into the next room.

"Sprout. Flitwick. McGonagall..." Who's next?

The next room contained a troll. A much larger troll than the one at Halloween, but a much more unconscious one. It smelled awful, and I crept through, holding my breath.

Once I entered the next room, where a simple table had many bottles on it, flames erupted at both doorways.

"Great. Thanks. Just what I need."

I picked up a roll of parchment on the table before me.

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 bidden in 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 onward, 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.

"Okay, first of all, it is illegal for me to drink at eleven years old, so whoever set this task is breaking the law." I stopped myself when I realised I was talking to no one. I had no one to rely on, except myself. I can do this. "Alright. So if the two bottles second left and second right are the same, then they're poison. Then this one on the end is nettle wine, and this one probably takes me backwards..." There was no way I was going back. "If neither dwarf, nor giant is poison, then the littlest one takes me forwards... Or I'll die. Whatever." I took the smallest potion from the line and drank it. It sent a shiver down my spine. I walked through the flames and into the final chamber.

"That was excellent!"

Quirrell turned on me as I walked through the door and instantly bound me with magical ropes. I flew through the air at his command, and landed beside the mirror.

"How did you get in here?" He snarled.

"Same way you did."

"I don't believe you."

Not even five minutes later, Harry walked through the flames. My head start didn't get me very far, or help me save the day. It did literally nothing, except put us all in more danger. I breathed deeply – at least Harry would know Quirrell was the bad guy, not Snape.

"You!" Harry cried looking at Quirrell.

Or not. I quit.