A Different Story

Chapter 15

4th Of June, 1992

Today was the last defense against the dark arts exam, and they had just finished it, and everyone was happy that the exams were over, yet there was something bothering them.

Harry voiced out what they were all thinking. "Okay, I know what mom said, but I don't think we should leave something so powerful here." Arcturus spoke up next. "I was thinking the same, and I think we should get the stone and send it back to Nicolas Flamel." They all nodded.

"Okay, so we will go there tonight." Damian said, and they all nodded.

**********

That night, they met up in front of the Ravenclaw common room, waiting for Damian to come out. When he finally came out, they all went to the third floor corridor.

Before everyone went inside, Damian said, "I did some reading about the Cerberus and apparently they like soothing sounds, like music. It makes them fall asleep."

They nodded, and Harry opened the door and all of them went inside, but the strange thing was that a harp was already playing, and the Cerberus was asleep.

They decided that whoever was trying to steal the stone was already there, so they would be more prepared, and they all went to try to move the dog's paw from the trap door. It was hard but they succeeded.

"Is it just me or is it a little too quiet?" Harry asked, his self-preservation kicking in.

They looked around and saw that the harp had stopped playing, and then they looked up and saw that the Cerberus was awake and was staring down at them with its teeth out and saliva dropping down. They all screamed and jumped down the trap door.

After the relatively soft landing, "Great that this plant was here to break our fall." Arcturus said with a sigh of relief. That was until the plant started to restrict their movements.

All of them were panicking. Hermione realized what type of plant it was and started relaxing. "Guys, this is the devil's snare. We need to calm down." They all listened to Hermione, and they all fell through the devil's snare. After making sure that everyone was okay, they went on to the next obstacle.

When they reached the next room, they heard fluttering, kind of like a bunch of birds. When they opened the room, they saw that there were thousands of flying keys and a door on the other side of the room.

Arcturus saw a broom and then a golden key, which was different from all of the other keys because all of them were silver. "I think we need to fly to get that key." Arcturus said, pointing to the key. Before anyone could say anything, Harry was on the broom, and he went after the key. After a few minutes of flying, he caught the key and threw it to Hermione, who opened the door.

When they entered the next room, they saw a big chess set. "I think we need to play across. Are we supposed to join you?" Damian asked one of the chess pieces. The piece looked back at him and nodded. And so the game begins. The game was intense, but Arcturus was a good wizard chess player, yet a sacrifice had to be made. For Harry to check the queen, Arcturus had to be sacrificed.

"I must sacrifice myself. Only then can you guys go on." There were many yells of protest, yet he paid them no mind. Arcturus went in front of the queen, and he was thrown from the horse he was sitting on. That gave Harry the opportunity to checkmate the opposing king.

"I'll go and take Arcturus to the hospital wing. You guys should go on." Damian said, worried for his brother.

Everyone nodded, knowing how worried he must be for his twin brother.