Chapter 100 - Troll & Potions
We entered the next chamber and found the next challenge. The smell hit us before our brains could register what we saw. A huge mountain troll lay sprawled across the stone floor. I asked the children to stay put and approached the troll to figure out its condition.
It looked like it was unconscious. But I did not want to take chances. So I transfigured the massive club which was lying beside it into ropes and bound him. When there was still no reaction from the troll, only then did I allowed the children to approach.
It was the same type of troll that had once attacked Hogwarts on Halloween, but this one had already been defeated by whoever had gone ahead. The air was choking with the troll's unpleasant smell.
Harry said after coming near me, "The thief already defeated it."
I nodded, "Its knocked out and obviously somebody did it. Are you guys getting goosebumps from your last encounter?"
Ron nodded without shame, "Yes I still remember that night. We narrowly won against that troll. That was one of the most harrowing Halloween in my life."
I laughed internally, 'Most harrowing Halloween in your life, yet. You are in for a lot of these experiences in the future, Weasley.'
Hermione was silent and I felt bad for taking it lightly for a moment. Then I lead them out of here as the smell was too bad. We stayed alert, stepped around its enormous body and quickly crossed the chamber toward the final room beyond.
The challenge set by Professor Quirrell was already completed, and by himself too.
We stepped through the doorway into the next chamber. Just as we stepped inside, purple flames rose at the doorway blocking the way back and at the same time, black flames rose at the other exit, the way to move forward. The children were alarmed but we still moved ahead.
Unlike the previous rooms, this one was completely silent and ordinary. There were no giant chess pieces, no flying keys and no dangerous plants.
In the middle of the room stood a simple stone table. Upon it rested seven glass bottles of different shapes and sizes. Each bottle held a different coloured liquid. They were arranged from left to right as white, red, blue, yellow, green, black, and purple
Beside the bottles lay an old piece of parchment.
Hermione immediately picked it up and began reading.
"It isn't a spell," she said. "It's... it's a riddle."
I nodded.
"This must be Professor Snape's challenge."
The parchment read:
'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'
The solution depended entirely on logic, not magic.
I looked at three kids and their reactions were very different from each other. Harry looked like he was thinking hard to solve it but could only understand the riddle in pieces. He was trying to understand what the riddle was trying to convey.
Ron on the hand was scratching his head and his face showed that he could not understand a word of the riddle. His expressions were so comedic that I almost lost my control and laughed. But I steeled myself and bit my tongue lightly otherwise Ron will definitely try to kill me.
To stop myself from thinking about it, I looked at the last person of the group. Hermione was now the only hope of the trio, as she always is. She did not try to solve the riddle by words alone. Instead, she carefully studied the seven bottles and matched every clue in the riddle.
Soon she got her answers. She noticed that the bottles at the two ends held different liquids, that the largest and smallest bottles did not contain poison and that two bottles contained the same harmless drink. By eliminating the impossible choices one clue at a time, she identified each potion's purpose.
The smallest bottle contained the potion that allowed someone to move forward through the black flames, while a round bottle held the potion that allowed someone to return through the purple flames. The remaining bottles contained poison or harmless nettle wine.
She picked up both the Blue coloured potion and the Purple coloured potion and turned to us.
"This potion allows one to retreat through the flames...," she raised the purple potion as she described it, then raised the blue one, "...and this potion allows us to move forward."
Harry and Ron were fully confident of her answer and they did not even question her. They did not even wait for my confirmation. Instead they were discussing about another matter.
"Its too little. It seems only one person is allowed to go forward" Harry said worriedly.
"Then what do we do now? Who is going to go forward? And do we really have to go back without even catching the thief? This is not fair!" Ron fired off his questions and complains one after the other.
Hermione replied as a matter of fact, "Of course Arthur will go forward. He is much more capable than all of us combined."
I looked at them as they all turned towards me. There was a clear look on their face that said that they wanted to go ahead. It was true that it was not fair for them to go back after they have completed all the challenges and were just going to see the thief. I asked them,
"Do you all want to go ahead with me?"
They all replied in unison, "YES!'
"I can take you all with me but only if you agree to my condition."
"We agree", they answered without even hearing my condition.
"Wait a minute. First hear me out."
"You will all be inside the Invisibility cloak. I will put the silencing charm on you so that none of you can talk or even the noise of your steps will not come out. Also, you will stay just beside the doorway, not blocking it, just to one side of the doorway and behind the nearest pillar or object you will find, without making noise."
"Remember, there will most certainly be a fight with thief inside and if they see you, they will blackmail me by endangering you all. So, they must not know that anyone else is in the chamber."
"Now, do you guys agree? If not then you all better go back and call a Professor."
They looked at each other and without saying a word, they hurriedly opened the cloak and wore it. Then they looked at me as if waiting for me to put the silencing charm.
I shook my head in exasperation at their eagerness to see the thief. But as they have agreed, I raised my wand and cast "Silencio".
They quickly covered up and positioned themselves behind me. I pointed at the flames ahead.
"Finite Incantatem."
The flames died out and I readied myself to face Voldemort and Quirrell, took a deep breath, and went ahead.
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End of Chapter 100 - Troll & Potions
'A/N - Finally 100 chapters copleted. I took a little long but hope I could it regularly. Your votes and stones are a great motivation. Also, do share your views. Thank you to everyone for their support.'