The Man With Two Faces (Harry/Ron/Hermione)

It was time. Time to do what Harry, Hermione and Ron had planned. Earlier that day Harry had stated something Hermione and Ron would've understood. "We're going into the corridor again," their first meeting with the groundskeeper's dog wasn't that enticing but Harry had to find out what was truly going on. After listening to that conversation between Professor Snape and Quirrel, he needed to stop Snape above all else as well

Using the invisibility cloak they quickly went down to the third floor corridor, and no one understood they were there. Peeves hovered around too close to them for a while but soon gave up.

Entering the corridor, they walked, still under the cloak, to that one locked door. It was unlocked. No surprises there. "Well there you are," he sighed, "Snape's already got past Fluffy," he sighed once again disappointed. But he wasn't giving up. He turned to the other two, his best friends, and closed his eyes, "If you want to go back, I won't blame you," he said. "You can take the Cloak, I won’t need it now," he told them, readying himself for them to leave.

As Hermione, Harry, and he made their way down to the trapped door under the massive three-headed dog, Ron couldn't believe they were doing this....again.... But, they couldn't let Snape get his hands on that stone. No matter what, they had to stop him. Looking at Harry when he said they could go, he shook his head and put a hand on his friend's shoulder. "Nah, mate. Not sending you in alone. What if you need help?" he said with a half-grin. Harry was Ron's best friend next to Hermione, and he certainly wasn't just going to turn him over to Godric knew what without someone to help.

Hermione followed the boys, but shook her head when Harry told them to leave. "I'm not going anywhere without you two," she said, smiling proudly. She wasn't going to let the boys do this on their own. They'd need her and she was sure of it. She was a little afraid, sure, but she knew that she could handle this. She had to be brave.

Harry nodded and then pushed the door further open. As the door creaked, low, rumbling growls met their ears. All three heads of the dogs laid soundly asleep. Entering, Harry held onto the cloak, "Be quiet then," he warned through a whisper as he began to walk towards the trap door. The harp played a wonderful tune and fluffy did not even dare wake up.

Getting to the trap door, Harry tried to budge it open, but Fluffy had one of its long paws on top of it, "Seems we're running out of luck," he told Ron and Hermione as he still held onto the cloak tightly.

Heeding Harry's warning, Ron followed silently into the room. Seeing Fluffy sleeping made him sigh slightly. At least he wouldn't try to eat them this time... Hearing the harp playing, he made a slightly disgruntled face at knowing that Snape had beaten them here and was already ahead in the game. As Harry commented about how what little luck they had was quickly running out, Ron moved to harry's shoulder and noticed Fluffy's paw on the door they needed to get through. "Hmmmm.... Hermione, you got any ideas?" he asked looking over at her. He thought of just moving his paw, but really, there had to be another way. Ron didn't want the massive dog to wake up and make puppy-chow out of them.

Hermione thought for a moment. "Well, I suppose we could just move his paw," she said. She turned to start to move it, but she heard a growling noise, and noticed that the harp had gone silent. "Ummm that might be an issue," she said, her voice shaking slightly.

Shrugging, Ron's mind went to the idea of moving the dog's massive paw and becoming a snack when Hermione's comment made him stop and listen. The harp had stopped playing... Glancing back at the now still strings, he faintly heard a rumble from behind him. Fluffy's just snoring.... Fluffy's just snoring.... As his mind tried to reason with him over what he was hearing, he felt something hit his shoulder. Looking, he reached up and touched whatever it was and immediately regretted it. "Ewwwwww! YUCK!" Ron said, a little louder than he meant to as he realized it was Fluffy's drool. Looking up, he frantically slapped Harry's arm to get his attention and look up as he was. The massive dog stood above them snarling.

Harry looked up along with Ron and Hermione, as Fluffy growled at them, sending a gust of wind towards them. They screamed in unison, but ducked, and Harry noticed his paw was no longer on top of the trap door, and so, moving quickly Harry opened it, and motioned for Hermione and Ron to come along. They each jumped, first Hermione, then Ron, and then Harry, into that dark hole, that showed no sign of having an end.

Falling through the darkness, Ron immediately thought this was not the best idea in the world. What if the hole had no bottom and they fell forever or it was a bottom with spikes to impale them on... Wait, this is Hogwarts and we are searching for that blasted stone so Snape doesn't get his mits on it... There has to be a bottom and not one that ends in death below... Just as he finished his thought, he landed on something....soft. "What in the bloody hell is this?" he asked feeling the springy thing they had landed on. Looking at it, something in his mind said it was familiar.

Hermione jumped down the hole, unaware of what might be at the bottom, but all she could do was hope that it wasn't painful. When she finally landed, it wasn't at all what she had expected. She looked around, and noticed the plant moving. She scurried away from it, and then she realized what it was. "Don't move!" she yelled out. "It's devil's snare. The more you move the tighter it gets." She tried to think back to Herbology lesson when they learned about the plant. "Oh, what was it that Professor Sprout said? Oh! It likes dark and damp," she recalled.

As they fell through the hole it suddenly hit Harry that, Snape knew the chamber. And if the trapdoor was the only way out...or, down, it would definitely have some sort of end. Landing on top of a soft surface, his brow furrowed. Looking around, even though it was dark he understood that was some sort of plant.

Hearing Hermione Harry stopped dead in his tracks. "Well I think it's where it likes now isn't it, since this place is pretty damn dark and damp," Ron said and instead of being quiet he began squirming, as the plant latched onto him. It soon caught Harry as well, "Hermione,..think!" Harry shouted for her to hurry up, or soon they'd be crushed.

Hermione thought for a moment. "Just relax!" she told the boys. She continued to think about how to kill the plant, and it finally came to her. "Fire!" she shouted. "Devil's snare hates fire." She pulled out her wand, doing her best to stay out of reach of the plant. She muttered something and bluebell flames shot towards the plant, and it unraveled itself from the boys' bodies, wriggling and squirming away from them. Hermione smiled slightly, proud of herself. "Let's get going then," she said.

Relax! Right, like that's gonna happen! Ron continued to squirm as the plant's grip grew tighter and tighter around him. Through his slightly panicked eyes he spotted some blue flames heading his way. When they came close and hit the plant squeezing him, the plant let go and moved away from Hermione's blue flames releasing him. Getting up like nothing happened, he dusted himself off and offered Harry a hand, helping him to his feet. "Wooo... Good thing we didn't panic, right?" he said sheepishly. "Thanks, Hermione. Let's go," Ron added smiling slightly at her.

Harry swat away his clothes, still shivering at the fact the plants tired to crush him. He tried to smirk at Ron's words but shook his head, "Yeah we didn't panic," he told him and then turned to look at a dark doorway. "This way," ’ said Harry, pointing down the stone passageway which was the only way to move on.

Walking slowly all Harry could hear apart from his footsteps was a soft rustling and clinking, that had to come form up ahead. "...Wings," Harry whispered with his brows furrowed. Looking up, he could see light ahead, and something moving as well.

Reaching the end of the passage way, Harry was stunned, because before him stood a beautifully lit chamber, its ceiling aching right above him. It was filled with small, jewel-bright birds, fluttering and tumbling around the room. Looking at the other end of the chamber was a huge, old, heavy wooden door.

"Okay, I'm gonna run towards the door. If they attack, do something," he smiled back trying to assure his friends he'd be okay.

Taking a deep breath he passed a hand by his hair, and began to run. He expected to be pinched and clawed whilst he ran, but instead, he reached the door. Untouched. He tried to pull the handle. Of course, locked. He frowned then, turned back and motioned for Hermione and Ron to follow.

Ron shrugged at Harry's comment, with a grin. Everything had been under control... Maybe he might need to start paying attention in class... Following Harry and Hermione down the hallway, his ears listened for what Harry was hearing, and soon, he heard the same fluttering sound. Although, it sounded slightly metallic to him. As they entered the chamber, Ron nearly ran into Harry who had stopped right before him looking at what was before them. The chamber was huge and the light making it that much more stunning to him. High above, Ron could see something moving and while he didn't want to think what the movement could be, he sided with Harry's thought that they were birds.

Drawing his wand to be ready to save Harry should he need it, Ron watched as he ran for the door on the other end of the room. Glancing up, the movement above them didn't change. His ears heard the sound of Harry trying the door, and when he looked down, he saw his friend wave them over. "Come on," he said to Hermione, before running to Harry. Getting to the door, he asked, "Locked?" Without even waiting for an answer, he pointed his wand at the lock and said, "Alohomora!" Giving the handle a few tries to no avail, he turned back to them and shrugged. "What? It was worth a shot," he said.

"These glittering birds are really pecul- wait, glittering?," Harry asked himself. Looking up he saw the 'birds' soaring overhead. "They're not birds!" he suddenly said. "They’re keys! Winged keys – look carefully. So that must mean ..." he looked around the chamber.
"...Yes, Ron, Hermione, look! A broomstick! We have got to catch the key to the door!" he exclaimed.

Ron looked up at the keys that were flying overhead and then back at the door. If they needed the key to it, what were they looking for? Studying the handle and lock, he had it. "We’re looking for a big, old-fashioned one – probably silver, like the handle," he said, jogging over to the others. When he saw the broomstick Harry spotted, he grinned. That helps things out a wee bit...

Hermione followed the boys over to the door, and she was surprised at Ron's attempt to unlock the door with a spell. She was even more surprised that it didn't work. But she knew that the birds must have had something to do with it, and she realized just a moment before Harry did that they weren't really birds. "Harry, you're the best at flying of the three of us," she said. "You should probably be the one to get the key. But which one?" She looked at the birds flying above them, trying to figure out which one was the one that they needed.

Harry nodded , "One of them," he whispered, then, seized a broomstick and kicked off into the air, soaring into the middle of the crowd of keys. He grabbed, snatched, grasped but the bewitched keys always dived or danced out from his hand. It was close to impossible catching one.

But, Harry was the youngest seeker in decade. His eyes had a knack for catching things others missed. After a minute of simply hovering on top of the broom, his eyes seemingly zoomed past his spectacles, focusing on a large silver key, with a bent wing, which implied it had already been either caught or used.

Grabbing the tip of the broom with both hands, he flew at lighting like speed towards it, and after a lot of swings, zig zags, and dives, Harry pinned it against the wall.

Once he did so, the other keys suddenly stopped hovering around senseless and all turned to him. Holding the now battered rusty silver key in his hand, he looked over his shoulder and saw all the keys come at him like sharp arrows.

Diving down, the keys did exactly the same coming after him, "Ron, Hermione, take the key," he shouted at them and hurled the key their way. It was so exhausted from running from Harry it couldn't fly anyway and now, it flew towards them just like a baseball would. Pulling the tip of his wand before he hit the wall he flew up, going around in constant zig zags to distract the keys.

Hermione reached up and caught the key, rushing to unlock the door so the killer keys wouldn't get to Harry. She opened the door and set the key free once again, the poor thing looking very torn up after being caught twice. "Come on," she said as she pushed the door open.

Ron watched as Harry flew about and finally caught the needed key. Throwing it down for them, Hermione grabbed it and quickly unlocked the door. Making sure she got through, Ron slipped in and whistled to Harry so he could join them and not get impaled by the angry keys that flew after him. Standing behind the door, Ron pulled Hermione out of the way so Harry had plenty of room to get through and readied to shut the door to keep the rest of the keys out.

The whistling sound rang in his ears as Harry dived down, he turned to the left and passed by the doorway, hearing Ron shut the wooden door behind him. Pulling the broom hard it stopped flying dead in its tracks. Jumping from it, Harry landed next to his friends, and then began to look around, with difficulty, because the room was so dark he could barely see.

But as he took a step forward light suddenly flooded the room, revealing Ron, Hermione and harry were now standing in the middle of a huge chessboard. Harry looked over his shoulder and sighed, "There's a door over there..." he pointed behind the white pieces. He tried to walk to it but the stone white pieces suddenly came to life and took out their weapons, threatening to harm Harry.

He took a step back, then looked at his friends, "Now what?"

Jumping when the white pawns draw their weapons, blocking their path. Ron looked around at what was the point of all this. Each room they had been in had a puzzle, and this one was no different. Then it hit him. "We have to play across the room..." he said, turning to Harry and Hermione. "Once we beat the game, we can get through. Harry, you take the empty Bishop's square. Hermione, you take the Queen's side Castle," he told them. "And, as for me, I'll be a knight," Ron said as he mounted his horse and readied to play. Looking at his friends, he managed a smile and nodded. "White moves first and then, we play..." he said raising his eyes to the pieces, waiting for white's first move.

At the sound of Ron's instructions Harry nodded and took the place of the bishop. Ron was the best at Chess from the three of them, nor he nor Hermione could deny that. Looking on at the white pieces, he noticed a white pawn moving forward two squares. And so it began...