Harry Potter and the Portkey of Time

CHAPTER 14

That night the trio sat in the common room silently. No one tried bothering them. They were all doing their own thing. Hermione was reading through textbooks in hopes of finding something that could help get through the enchantments they were to face, Ron seemed to be deep in thought, staring at the wizard chess board he and Harry were currently using and Harry was haphazardly playing while trying to force his brain to remember what they were about to face. Every time he drew a blank. He was just going to have to face it blindly like the first time. Eventually, the clock hit 10 pm and curfew had started. When they stood up to grab the invisibility cloak and go to leave, Neville stood in their way.

"Where are you guys going?" He asked nervously.

"Oh, hi Neville," replied Harry, "We just thought of something really important and need to speak to a teacher."

It was the best excuse Harry could come up with on the spot.

"You're not going to go find that... stone thing, right?"

The trio was taken aback. How did Neville know about the Philosopher's stone?

"How do you know-" Harry started only to be interrupted by Neville.

"I heard you talking to Professor McGonagall earlier. I didn't mean to, but I thought we were friends and you guys hadn't been talking to me much. I wanted to ask if we could do something when I overheard you. Professor McGonagall seemed pretty stern when she said you shouldn't go looking for it. I don't think you should..." He looked worried they would be mad at him.

"Neville, it's really important," said Ron.

"Yeah. I promise we won't get caught," chimed Hermione.

"I- I don't think you should. I don't want you guys getting hurt."

"We know you mean well Neville, but stopping us will do more harm than good," Harry said. "I'm really sorry about this." He sneakily pulled out his wand, making sure Neville couldn't see it and whispered, "Confundo" under his breath. He intended for Neville to be confused about why he was talking to them and go to bed. It worked.

"Ok, let's go."

Hermione once again had a bewildered look on her face at Harry's level of magic knowledge but didn't press the subject. Instead, they all rushed to the third-floor corridor.

Reaching the top of the stairs, Harry peered around, making sure that there was no one to be seen. Despite the invisibility cloak, Harry was on high alert, just in case anything was to go wrong. As he glanced around the floor, something caught his eye. The door. It was ajar.

"He's already here..." Harry muttered to himself. Ron and Hermione glanced at him in concern, and together they rushed forward to the door, pulled by Harry. Hermione reached out, and carefully opened the door, her eyes wide as a small creak escaped. Before anyone was able to react, Harry lurched forward, taking the cloak and his friends inside the room.

Harry stood silently and felt his friends freeze beside him. Right in front of the trio, breathing all over them, was Fluffy. Harry silently pulled out a flute he had placed in his back pocket from when they were at Hagrid's and placed the instrument in his mouth. As soon as he blew, Harry could see the music take effect and Fluffy's eyes drooped dramatically. He heard one of his friends gasp behind him but continued, determined not to make a mistake. As Fluffy became more trance-like, Harry slowly took a step forward, towards the trapdoor. With no immediate reaction coming from the animal, he took another step, this time in sync with his two best friends. Slowly but surely, they reached the trapdoor, and not a minute too soon, as Harry was starting to run out of breath. Ron grabbed hold of the trapdoor, and yanked it open, causing a loud noise to echo throughout the hall. The trio froze. Hermione slowly turned her head to see Fluffy's reaction, when she came face to face with the dog itself. Hermione stifled a scream, stumbling back, knocking all three of them into the darkness below.