Chapter 36: The Stratagem of Luring the Tiger Away from the Mountain, the Eve of the Decisive Battle (Patreon)

Early June brought the muggy heat of early summer to the Scottish Highlands.

Final exams had just ended. While every other student reveled in tossing aside their quills and lying on the lawn to watch the giant squid sunbathe, the atmosphere at a corner of the second-floor corridor had frozen solid.

"Dumbledore's gone."

Harry rubbed his forehead, where the scar throbbed with a faint burn, and his face was as grim as it could be. "Ten minutes ago an urgent owl arrived at Professor McGonagall's office. It said the Minister for Magic, Cornelius Fudge, was in some enormous trouble and had summoned the Headmaster to London in an emergency!"

"Why now, of all times?!" Ron had only just taken the bandages off his hand, and he stamped his foot in frustration. "It's hours from Scotland to London! There's no way Dumbledore can be back tonight!"

"It's a diversion."

Hermione clutched her thick stack of revision notes, her voice trembling slightly. "Quirrell… or rather, the one possessing Quirrell, drew the Headmaster away on purpose. He's going after the three-headed dog tonight, I'm sure of it!"

"We have to tell Professor McGonagall." Harry gritted his teeth, turned, and sprinted toward the Transfiguration office.

Five minutes later, though, when the four of them stood before Professor McGonagall's broad desk, what they got was a bucket of cold water over the head.

"The Philosopher's Stone?!"

Professor McGonagall pushed her square spectacles up her nose, and behind the lenses her eyes were full of disbelief and shock. "How do you know about that?! I assure you, that stone is guarded by the tightest enchantments six professors could devise. No one could possibly slip in unnoticed! Potter, Capet, and you other two—go back outside and enjoy the sunshine this instant, and do not let me hear another word about this!"

Once they'd been chased out of the office, Harry leaned against the stone wall, his eyes resolute. "The teachers just don't believe us. Tonight… I'll have to go down there myself."

"Count me in, mate," Ron said without a flicker of hesitation.

"Me too." Hermione took a deep breath and tightened her grip on the wand in her robe pocket.

"You'll need someone to show you the way." A gentle, calm voice sounded from beside them.

Raven stood with his hands in his pockets, perfectly at ease as he regarded them. "The trapdoor under the three-headed dog is only the first lock. If it's just the three of you, you'd probably get stuck and die at the second obstacle."

Delight lit up Harry's face, and the other two looked relieved as well. With Raven leading the way, most of the despair weighing on their hearts vanished at once.

But just as they were about to settle on a midnight meeting time—tap, tap, tap—the crisp, hurried clack of small leather boots rounded the corner of the staircase.

Draconia walked up with her chin slightly raised. Her dark green robes set off her straight posture, and her platinum hair was tied into a neat high ponytail. She planted herself squarely in front of Raven.

The young lady swept a cold gaze over Harry and the others, then fixed it hard on Raven.

"Capet, I saw you in the common room just now, packing your obsidian carving knives and warming potions."

Draconia folded her arms, and a stubborn light glinted in her watery grey-blue eyes. "Don't think you can leave me behind. I'm coming to the fourth-floor corridor tonight too."

"Malfoy, are you mad?!" Ron blurted. "You-Know-Who is down there! What's a Slytherin young lady doing tagging along?!"

"Shut up, Weasley!"

Draconia shot him a vicious glare, then turned to look Raven straight in the eye. Her breath trembled slightly, but her tone left no room for argument. "I know better than any of you what it means if that Dark Lord returns! If he gets the Stone, my father will be the first one forced to kiss the hem of his robes… I won't allow that to happen!"

The young lady bit her lower lip, a faint, barely noticeable flush rising on her snow-white face, and she glared at Raven as she added, "…Also, with those three reckless idiot lions along, who can guarantee that monster down there won't ambush you? If I'm not there watching, who's going to request leave from Professor Snape for you?!"

Raven watched her put on that harsh front over such obvious worry, and the corners of his lips curved into a faint smile. "Since Miss Malfoy insists so firmly… then stay close."

*

A quarter past one in the morning.

Hogwarts lay so still under the night sky that a dropped pin would have been heard.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione shared the Invisibility Cloak, while Raven and Draconia had each cast [Miniature Wind Spirit Stealth Art] over themselves. Five silent shadows passed through the empty, dim corridors and reached the heavy forbidden door on the right side of the fourth floor without incident.

The door stood slightly ajar.

"The lock's been opened." Harry lowered his voice, his heart suddenly racing. "Quirrell's already inside!"

Raven pushed the door open gently.

A thick animal stench hung in the room. Fluffy, the three-headed giant dog, easily the size of a lorry, lay sleeping on the floor.

Beside its front paws, a golden harp was playing itself by magic, and soft, ethereal music drifted through the hall.

"It'll wake up as soon as the music stops," Hermione whispered.

"No need for all that trouble."

Raven gripped his ebony wand. With a slight flick of the tip, an exquisitely fine [Infrasonic Hypnosis Art] settled soundlessly over the giant dog's three enormous heads. Fluffy's snoring only grew deeper.

The group stepped around the huge paws, and Harry bent down to pull open the brass-ringed trapdoor in the floor.

Below lay a bottomless, pitch-black void, and a damp, rotting scent of plants and earth drifted faintly up from it.

"I'll jump first," Raven said without hesitation.

"Wait!" Draconia grabbed his sleeve before she knew what she was doing. Her fingertips were cold.

Raven turned his head and gave her a small smile in the darkness. "Follow me down in three seconds."

With that, his black robe billowed, and the slender figure of the boy dropped straight into the bottomless abyss.

"Capet!" Draconia clenched her teeth and, before Harry and the others could react, gathered up the hem of her robes and leapt after him, the second to go!

Harry, Ron, and Hermione stared at one another, then bit down hard and jumped into the darkness one after another.

Whoosh—the wind roared in their ears for barely two seconds.

Thump! The five of them didn't smash onto hard flagstones. Instead they landed in a huge, cold, soft, slimy, damp heap of green vegetation.

"Lucky there's all this weedy stuff to cushion us!" Ron rubbed his bruised backside and started to get up.

But the next second, those soft vines that had looked so harmless suddenly came alive like venomous pythons waking from sleep. They coiled madly up everyone's ankles and wrists and, at an astonishing speed, even cinched around Draconia's slender waist!

"Ah! What is this thing?!" Draconia cried out, and the more she struggled, the tighter the thorny vines squeezed!

"It's Devil's Snare!" Hermione screamed. "Professor Sprout covered it in Herbology! It loves dark, damp places, and the more you struggle, the tighter it strangles you!"

"Then use fire, quick!" Ron hung in mid-air, his face purple from the squeezing.

"Fire… fire… I don't have any matches on me!" Hermione was so frantic she was nearly in tears.

"You're a witch, Hermione!" Harry shouted, coughing as the vines squeezed his chest.

Just as everyone fell into a panic, in the nick of time—

"Begone." A steady, composed voice sounded calmly from deep within the vines.

The vines hadn't bound Raven's wrist even slightly.

At the tip of his ebony wand, a storm of pure, dazzling white sunfire suddenly burst outward!

[Ancient Radiance: Dawnbreak Scorching Flow]!

"Szzzzzt————!!"

Blinding light and scalding heat filled the cramped underground space as if a midsummer sun had descended!

The Devil's Snare, terrified of light and warmth, let out a shrill, desperate shriek of withering. The thick vines recoiled madly, like mud touching molten lava, as if they'd been electrocuted!

Thud! Thud! Thud! One by one they dropped from mid-air and crashed onto a dry, level stone floor.

Draconia rubbed her aching wrist and climbed to her feet. A smear of black dirt marked her delicate little face, and she stared at Raven, still shaken. "That move just now… was a hundred times better than the Lumos Professor Sprout taught us."

Raven reached out and pulled her up, then turned his gaze toward the long, dim stone corridor stretching deep underground.

From the far end of the corridor came a sharp, rapid whistling through the air, as dense as a rainstorm hammering on metal.

"The first trial is cleared."

Raven tightened his grip on his wand, and his black eyes glinted with a cold edge in the dark. "Let's go. The second trial… is the Winged Keys."