The Forbidden Corridor pt 2

THE PHILOSOPHER’S STONE WAS AT HOGWARTS!!!

You really had to hand it to Crabbe and Goyle. They were up in arms the moment you came running into the Slytherin common room with your face covered in boils. They even offered to go and rough up Potter and Weasley when you told them what happened. But you talked them down and reassured them that you gave as good as you got. The duo still insisted on standing guard when you went to the student Potions lab to brew your Boil Cure Potion.

And then they helped you further once you cleared the boils off your face and casually brought up Nicholas Flamel back in the common room. It was a longshot but Vincent and Gregory knew their violent history fairly well so you figured they might at least provide you with a way to start.

“I’ve got Flamel on a Chocolate Frog Card,” Goyle had said, “It was one of Draco’s that you opened.”

Goyle was good enough to retrieve the card for you so you could have a look at it. ‘Nicholas Flamel is a French, thirteenth-century alchemist who is credited with the creation of the Philosopher’s Stone. Thanks to the Philosopher’s Stone and the Elixir of Life that it can be used to create - Flamel still lives to this day.’

A stone that kept you alive for centuries? That sounded like the sort of thing you’d use a monster to guard.

Of course, when you did things, you didn’t do them by half. The next day, you dragged Crabbe and Goyle to the library with you and they waited impatiently at a table while you did a quick search on Alchemy. The general basis of the subject was using a mix of Potions, chemistry, and philosophy for creation, combination, and transformation.

It sounded right up your alley. You’d basically be using Potions - your best subject - to compensate for Transfiguration - one of your worst subjects. Hogwarts, a History informed you that the school occasionally taught Alchemy to particularly gifted seventh year students but as a Slytherin you doubted the current Headmaster would allow you to learn Alchemy. That meant it was up to you to figure out a way to learn it outside of the curriculum.

The peak achievement of an alchemist was creating a Philosopher’s Stone which could not only transform metal into gold but could also be used to create the Elixir of Life which would grant the drinker an infinitely extended life for as long as they continued to regularly consume it.

There was a significant chance that Weasley was wrong… as he frequently was. But you lost count of how many times you came across Potter, Weasley, and Longbottom in the library with Granger during November and early December. Whatever they were researching had them taking frequent trips into the History section and couldn’t possibly be on the curriculum if it got the three Gryffindor boys to spend so much of their free time in the library. The mere chance that something as important and valuable as the Philosopher’s Stone was hidden at Hogwarts made it worth checking out.

That was your first reason for investigating the Forbidden Corridor.

Then there was this ‘Fluffy’ business. At the Welcome Feast, Headmaster Dumbledore told the student body to stay away from the Forbidden Corridor lest they suffer a most horrific ****. But that was just the sort of thing an adult authority figure would say if they wanted to keep a bunch of nosy students away from the area in the school where they were hiding a legendary treasure like the Philosopher’s Stone.

You already knew that a dangerous magical creature was being stored in the Forbidden Corridor. Those were more or less the exact words Professor Snape used when you asked him about his injured leg in the Potions class after Halloween. You even did your part to ensure that his story was spread around the rest of Slytherin House. However, you specifically told your surly Potions professor that he could tell whatever he wanted. He used that opportunity to double down on Headmaster Dumbledore’s warning for students to stay away from the Forbidden Corridor. But was the creature really that dangerous?

What Potter and his group didn’t realize was that the two-faced Professor Quirrell was the one to let the troll out on Halloween. He then nearly caused a school-wide panic when he ran into the Great Hall to warn everyone about the troll in the dungeons. A perfect distraction. You and Daphne Greengrass - who was on your back at the time - both spotted Professor Quirrell slipping off in the middle of the chaos that his warning caused.

But Professor Snape was the one who got bitten. He claimed it happened while he was defending the Forbidden Corridor. And that part of his story you completely believed. But he wasn’t defending the corridor from the troll like most people would assume… he was defending it from Professor Quirrell. This idea was further supported by the fact that Halloween wasn’t the only time where you witnessed Professor Snape working directly against the suspicious Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. During the Quidditch match between Gryffindor and Slytherin, you saw first hand that Professor Quirrell was the one jinxing Potter’s broom and that Professor Snape was trying to save him in spite of his severe hatred for the Boy-Who-Lived.

The motivations of both men were clear to you: Professor Quirrell was trying to steal the Philosopher’s Stone and Professor Snape was trying to defend it. And based on that, you could assume that, on Halloween, Professor Snape was so caught up in heading off Professor Quirrell that he let his guard down and that’s how ‘Fluffy’ got him. Was this ‘dangerous magical creature’ really all it was cracked up to be? The name certainly didn’t sound very intimidating.

That was your second reason for investigating the Forbidden Corridor.

Obviously, it would’ve been incredibly arrogant of you to face any kind of magical creature without being prepared. Only a stupid Gryffindor would charge blindly into the unknown. A cunning Slytherin made sure they were properly prepared before investigating a potentially dangerous situation. You reached down and patted the small leather potion pouch that was strapped to your leg.

A day ago, Iago flew into the Great Hall at breakfast bearing a package containing the potions ingredients you ordered. You played up the delivery as a ‘birthday present’ and then spent the majority of yesterday brewing two new potions in one of the student labs. You were now the proud owner of a Fire Protection Potion and a Fire-Breathing Potion. There was even enough dragon horn leftover for you to brew another two doses at a later date which confirmed that a Romanian Longhorn with its notably long horns had been the right choice of dragon.

Care for Magical Creatures class with Professor Kettleburn wasn’t offered until third year. But you still knew that the majority of magical creatures couldn’t stand up to a torrent of blazing hot dragon fire. Hogwarts’ motto was ‘never tickle a sleeping dragon’ but you highly doubted that the ‘dangerous magical creature’ in the Forbidden Corridor was an actual dragon since it was named ‘Fluffy’ which implied that it was some kind of furry animal. Fur and hair were flammable so you liked your chances against this creature.

And where else were you going to find a proper target for your Fire-Breathing Potion?

That was your third reason for investigating the Forbidden Corridor.

It was January first. Your fourteenth birthday. The Philosopher’s Stone would be the ultimate birthday present.

And that was ultimately why you begged off dinner so you could explore the Forbidden Corridor. The significantly reduced number of people left in the castle were still in the Great Hall. Even Crabbe and Goyle with their increased protectiveness following your ‘interrogation’ by Potter and Weasley couldn’t be torn from their evening meal.

They had, however, agreed with your idea that it would be fun to attack some suits of armor with their own weapons. After seeing a number of their comrades noisily crumble to the floor in a messy pile of magical iron, some of the remaining suits of armor started to move and actually fought back and you suddenly found yourself in the middle of an all-out battle. The three of you finally bid a hasty retreat when - sensing the rampant chaos - Peeves the Poltergeist showed up, flew inside one of the suits of armor, and used its halbard to attack anything within arms’ reach. The resulting ‘battlefield’ was left littered with an intermixed mess of armor that Filch - the only Hogwarts staff member who didn’t attend dinner along with the student body - was still occupied sorting out and cleaning up.

“Here goes nothing,” you resolved as you stood in front of the door at the end of the Forbidden Corridor and uncorked your bottle of Fire Protection Potion. You shivered and felt a cold sensation of ice flooding your body as you downed the vial of blue potion. You tucked the empty vial away in the pouch strapped to your leg and withdrew the Fire-Breathing potion from within it. You trusted in your potion skills so you felt no fear as you uncorked the bottle and drank down the spicy orange potion.

Your stomach started bubbling and you felt a prickling heat in the back of your throat. That was how the books you read described the potion so it seemed to be working properly. It probably would have been a lot more intense without the Fire Protection Potion but for you it felt like you just ate something incredibly spicy. Your stomach also felt notably gassy.

The second empty vial was stowed with the first one in the pouch on your leg and you took a moment to adjust your dragon hide gloves before you slapped yourself on the stomach and **** out a short burp. In doing so, a small shot of flame spouted from your mouth. It went out about a foot and during that short time you felt the brief flash of heat on your face in spite of the effects of the Fire Protection Potion. A wide grin spread across your face.

The potion worked. You really did it. YOU WERE BREATHING FIRE!

You gripped your wand with one gloved hand and reached for the door’s handle with the other. Locked. But that was only a minor inconvenience since you learned the Unlocking Charm during your first term. You gave your wand a swishing wave and called out, “Alohamora!”

The door clicked as it came unlocked. Your heart was beating rapidly in your chest from excitement as you slowly turned the knob. You knew there was some kind of monster waiting on the other side but with your wand in your hand and a faint burn in the back of your throat you thought you were ready for anything.

You thought wrong.

Upon opening the door and stepping through you suddenly found yourself face-to-face… to face… to face with a beast out of your worst nightmare.

It was easily the biggest, most massive dog you had ever seen. It filled the whole space between ceiling and floor. It had three heads. Three pairs of rolling, mad eyes; three noses, twitching and quivering in your direction; three drooling mouths, saliva hanging in slippery ropes from yellowish fangs.

Gemma’s warning about Daphne and Tracey from the Quidditch match rang in your ears. “It may not seem like they’re a life-threatening problem just yet......but if you keep pushing and taunting them… those starving dogs are eventually going to snap. And when they do they’ll chase you down, pin you to the ground, and devour you!”

Nearly two months of nightmares that featured you being torn apart by starving dogs suddenly came flooding back as you found yourself standing in close proximity with a colossal, three-headed guard dog that looked more than capable of doing just that.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!” You screamed in sheer terror and in doing so expelled a torrent of fire at the slobbering beast.

The monster dog howled as the fire blasted against it and for a split, fleeting second you thought that your fire was burning its fur. But then the massive dog slammed its body down on the floor and snuffed out all the flames in an instant.

IT WAS IMMUNE TO FIRE! This was a hound straight out of Hell!

Your fire did have one effect… it pissed ‘Fluffy’ off! The three heads were all growling at you as they bared their massive sets of fangs. Two sets of claws scraped on the floor as the towering dogs pushed itself back up to its feet. You cast a quick glance down at those huge paws and spotted a wooden flap built into the floor. A trap door. The Philosopher's stone was probably through there.

Obtaining the Philosopher’s Stone was no longer your objective. You knew the angry - FIRE PROOF - attack dog would never let you through the trap door while it was still breathing. Your only remaining goal was to avoid suffering a real version of your nightmares of **** and dismemberment and escape the room with your life.

A loud, rumbling growl filled the room. The dog was preparing to lunge. Your only hope of survival was that this guard dog would act to defend what it was guarding in favor of mauling the intruder. The moment of truth was upon you: was Fluffy an attack dog or a guard dog?

It turned out… Fluffy was both.

You hastily slapped yourself on the stomach and once again belched out a stream of fire. But this time your target wasn’t the fire-resistant Hellhound. It was the trap door at its feet.

The middle head lunged at you but the other two heads held it back and were more concerned with the fire that was burning the trapdoor it was supposed to guard. The massive beast once again threw itself down on the ground in order to snuff out the flames.

That split second distraction was all the time you needed to yank the door back open and bolt out into the corridor. You flung the door shut, cast a quick Locking Charm, then ran like the hounds of Hell were after you. Because that’s exactly what the damned thing was!

The dog’s thundering chorus of barks followed you as you sprinted the length of the Forbidden Corridor in record time. You weren’t sure where you were running to. Up stairs, down a corridor, round a bend, through an unlocked door... your feet carried you on instinct. The only goal in your terrified lizard brain was to put as much distance between yourself and that Hellhound as possible.

When your breathing returned to normal and the terror-fueled spike of adrenaline wore off, you were finally able to take account of where you ended up. You found yourself in another unused classroom. It was strange how Hogwarts seemed to have so many of those.

Once the blood finally stopped pounding in your ears, you became vaguely aware of a rattling coming from the corner of the disused room. You looked over and saw a dusty old cabinet shaking like there was something stuck inside it.

You swallowed nervously. After your encounter with Fluffy, you weren’t exactly keen to investigate but a vision of Millicent’s pet cat Mittens curiously exploring the castle late one night and then getting trapped in such a horrid place drummed up a well of sympathy inside you and you went over to check it out. You still weren’t completely sure where you were but people didn’t come to disused classrooms like this one very often. And if someone’s poor pet was stuck in the cabinet then who knew the next time someone else would come by to let it out?

As you drew close, the cabinet’s handle started to rattle. You stopped in your tracks. It seemed like the thing inside the cabinet wasn’t trapped in there. Maybe it was a doxy or an imp or some other kind of pest? Either way, the cabinet door slowly started to open. You backpedaled away from the cabinet and squeezed your wand in a **** grip.

And then the cabinet burst open and you started screaming bloody **** as you once again found yourself standing face-to-face-to-face-face with furry abomination known as Fluffy. “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!”

How had it gotten here? You locked it in the room! The massive beast shouldn’t have been able to fit through the door! LET ALONE STUFF ITSELF INSIDE A CABINET!

“AAAAUUUUGGGGHHHH!” Still screaming, you scrambled backwards and tripped over a desk and fell to the floor. The impact jarred something loose and you spat up a torrent of fire. The creature from your worst nightmare let out a blood curdling howl as the flames splashed against it. But this time the dog didn’t slam itself down to snuff out the flames. Instead, the fire continued to burn like the very fires of Hell on the unholy monster’s fur as it let out loud, thunderous barks that shook the room.

This was no mortal dog! This was the legendary Cerberus that Hades himself set to guard the gates of the Underworld!

Your short life flashed before your eyes. And then you saw your **** plain as day as your nightmares manifested and you were torn apart by a ravenous Hellhound.

Your tombstone would read:

‘Marvolo Gaunt

January 1st 1980 - January 1st 1994

The last of the Gaunts aimed for the stars

but met his end at the fangs of a beast from the depths of Hell.’

Suddenly, the classroom door burst open and you found yourself staring up at the back of Professor Quirrell’s turban.

There was a loud crack as ‘Flaming Fluffy’ the Hellhound disappeared and was instead replaced by something else.

“Wha…?” you croaked in surprise as you slid to the side and stared around Professor Quirrell at the instantly recognizable form of Albus Dumbledore. But instead of the cheery twinkle you saw in his eyes whenever he was in the Great Hall for meals… his face schooled into an expression of cold fury.

“Did you really believe that I wouldn’t discover your deception?” the Headmaster asked.

You flinched back from the Headmaster’s intensity and it wasn’t even directed at you. Professor Quirrell didn’t back down though. This wasn’t the timid and stuttering professor from class. The Defense Against the Dark Arts professor now stood with a calm confidence as he waved his wand and cried out, “Riddikulus!”

Before your shocked gaze, the Headmaster aged three hundred years. His already wrinkled skin withered up until he was nothing more than a rotting corpse in an elaborate star-embroided robe.

A high, cold, cruel laugh echoed through the room which sent chills running down your spine and caused the withered corpse of the Headmaster to explode in a shower of sparks which eventually faded and disappeared completely.

But most disturbing of all… the ominous laugh continued… and Professor Quirrell’s mouth was closed in a tight line.

“Wha-what was that?” you stammered like Professor Quirrell in class. At least one of you was.

“That, Gaunt, was a Boggart,” the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor explained, “A shapeshifter that takes the form its victim fears the most. The creature thrives off of fear but can be defeated with laughter. The Boggart Banishing Spell that I used allows the caster to **** the Boggart into a form that is humorous and will provoke the necessary laughter.” Professor Quirrell turned to face you. “But I suppose a more intriguing question would be why your Boggart took the form of a creature that’s confined to the Forbidden Corridor?”

Based on the information he just gave you, you decided that it wouldn’t be in your best interest to question why his Boggart took the form of Headmaster Dumbledore. Or why Dumbledore’s corpse was something he found humorous.

“I wondered why you weren’t at dinner tonight,” Professor Quirrell commented. “It seems you decided to do some out-of-bounds exploration instead. Perhaps you would like to share what inspired you to do something so dangerous?”

It may have been phrased like one but you knew it wasn’t a question. It was a command for an answer hidden behind a veil of politeness. You probably owed him an honest answer. He did just charge in and save you. And even though he seemed to have it out for Harry Potter, the strange professor seemed to like you. After all, you were still alive.

“I’ve known that there was a dangerous magical creature in the Forbidden Corridor since Halloween,” you explained. “The story going around Slytherin is that Professor Snape got bitten by it while he was occupied defending the Forbidden Corridor when the troll was on the loose. And up until recently, that was all I needed to know. But a few days ago, I learned some new information: the dangerous magical creature in the Forbidden Corridor is there because it’s guarding a valuable treasure.”

“And do you know what that treasure is?” Professor Quirrell inquired.

“Someone let slip the name Nicholas Flamel…” you answered, “So that led me to believe that the valuable treasure was in fact the Philosopher’s Stone. I went to the Forbidden Corridor tonight to confirm that theory. The holidays are ending soon so I thought it best to do my search before the castle is crowded again. I heard that the creature’s name was ‘Fluffy’ which didn’t sound overly intimidating. Most creatures don’t stand up well to being set on fire so I armed myself with a Fire Protection Potion and a Fire-Breathing Potion. Of course, I never expected to run into a bloody Hellhound! Where would they even get something like that?”

“The beast belongs to Hagrid,” Professor Quirrell stated. “It is merely the first of seven defenses that were set before the stone. Professors Sprout, Flitwick, McGonagall, and Snape each added a defense. I provided Dumbledore with an especially large mountain troll and I suspect that the Headmaster included his own bit of magic as well.”

Professor Quirrell basically just confirmed that the Philosopher’s Stone really was at the end of that deadly gauntlet of seven defenses. And apparently the most terrifying creature you ever laid eyes upon was least of your worries. Actually obtaining the Philosopher’s Stone was now seven-times more impossible than before.

“The seven staff members who contributed defenses are the only ones who are supposed to know what lies in the Forbidden Corridor,” Professor Quirrell continued. “How is it that you came by this information?”

“Ron Weasley let it slip,” you told him. “He and Potter jumped me the other night while I was doing some extracurricular studying. They did their best to interrogate me and even hit me with a couple of Pimple Jinxes. But I wound up learning more from them than they learned from me.”

“And what did you tell them?” the yet-to-stutter Professor Quirrell asked in a deadly calm voice.

While you refused to reveal Professor Quirrell’s secrets during your interrogation at the hands of Potter and Weasley, you felt no such qualms revealing what Potter and Weasley knew now that it was Professor Quirrell questioning you. As you thought to yourself that night - the worst Potter and Weasley could do was hex you. Professor Quirrell would kill you.

“Well, they’re convinced that Professor Snape is trying to steal the stone,” you replied. “They think he let the troll in on Halloween. I told them what basically everyone else already knows… the troll was already in the castle and on Halloween it got loose. They also thought Professor Snape was the one jinxing Potter’s broom during the Quidditch match. But I had evidence proving that the jinx on Potter’s broom stopped before Professor Snape caught fire... which caused them to jump to the conclusion that I was the one trying to kill him. I had the audacity to defend their top suspect so now I’m his accomplice and am guilty by association. My evidence is gone at this point but if they’re accusing me of doing it then that means they have absolutely no idea who really was behind it.”

It was very important in that moment for you to reassure Professor Quirrell that not only were Potter and Weasley unaware of his **** attempt but also that the evidence you had from the very public event was long gone. And of course, what was implied but not explicitly stated was you knew it had been Professor Quirrell but hadn’t revealed that fact even when you were being ‘interrogated’ for information.

Professor Quirrell gave a slow stiff nod then asked, “Anything else?”

“Potter and his gang don’t actually know about the stone specifically,” you added at the professor’s prompting. “They only know that it has to do with Nicholas Flamel. They’ve been in the library for months trying to find out who he is. My guess is that they’re focused on recent history. They also know about Fluffy… that’s where I learned the monster’s name. They’re pretty chummy with Hagrid so I figure he told them the few things that they actually do know. It was after learning all those things that Weasley became distracted by the magic I had been practicing. He got burned which distracted Potter and allowed me to retrieve my wand and fight my way out. I even managed to beam Potter in the face with the Stinging Hex you taught me.”

The professor grinned. Which was deeply unsettling. “In that case... I believe this belongs to you...”

He reached into his pocket and held out a familiar glass Potions vial. You noted that the professor was holding your lost vial with his bare hand which meant he managed to despell your first successful casting on the Flagrante Curse.

You reached out with one of your gloved hands and took your vial back. The fact that he had it also meant that at some point after your interrogation, Professor Quirrell had gone to the abandoned classroom and retrieved your cursed vial. Was he keeping tabs on that room? Was he keeping tabs on you? Did that mean he knew what you were doing there?

“You’re very resourceful, Gaunt,” Professor Quirrell remarked. “Normally, I’d award you House Points for such ambitious learning but you broke the rules tonight. I can’t, in good conscience, reward such behavior.” It could’ve been worse. You could’ve lost points. “You also seem to know how to keep a secret. Those are signs of a True Slytherin. So let’s test that resourcefulness, shall we? In lieu of punishing you for your gross violation of the rules… I’m going to give you an extra credit assignment.”

You didn’t like the sound of that. But it wasn’t like you had a choice. He had you in a similar position to where you had Granger after you caught her setting Professor Snape on fire.

“What would I have to do, professor?”

“Well, I am the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor… and that dog is a dark creature. So I’m going to assign you an essay where you will be detailing as many ways to get by that beast as you can think of. I believe putting that kind of serious thought into besting the beast will help you to overcome your fear of it.”

You both knew that, even though he worded the assignment that way, the ‘essay’ wasn’t really for your benefit. The two-faced professor was trying to steal the Philosopher’s Stone and was likely stumped on a way to get by Hagrid’s vicious three-headed guard dog so he was outsourcing the problem to you in the hopes that your different perspective might provide him with a creative solution.

“How long do I have?” you inquired.

“I’ll give you to the end of the month,” Professor Quirrell decided. “But since that’s far longer than most of your assignments, I expect you to provide me with something worthwhile. If you can manage that, I’ll not only agree to keep your dalliance into rule breaking between us but I’ll even ensure that you get credit for your work and will give you an extra passing mark on your Defense Against the Dark Arts transcript.”

“That sounds fair,” you agreed with a nod. House Points were one thing but an extra passing mark would be a welcome boost to your DADA grade at the end of the year. Besides, it’s not like you had much of a choice. “And thank you, sir. Thanks for saving me from that Boggart.”

“You have potential, Gaunt,” the professor stated, “It would be a shame for it to be snuffed out prematurely because you made the mistake of crossing the wrong person.”

Yup. That was a very clear **** threat. ‘I may have saved you tonight... but don’t cross me or I’ll kill you’.

You gave a frantic nod of agreement to the back of Professor Quirrell’s purple turban as he left.

Potter and Weasley assumed incorrectly that you were Professor Snape’s accomplice. But now it looked like you were the **** accomplice of the man they were actually looking for.

Nearly meeting your end at the teeth and claws of a monstrous three-headed dog on two separate occasions had completely killed any appetite you might’ve built up after skipping dinner so you made your way back down to the Slytherin common room. But along the way a series of odd questions struck you...

How?

How had Professor Quirrell known where to find you? How did he arrive just in time to save you from ‘Flaming Fluffy’?

He mentioned not seeing you in the Great Hall for dinner. Did that mean he went looking for you? Did that mean he regularly kept tabs on your whereabouts? He was already apparently watching that unused classroom since he retrieved your cursed Potions vial from there. Was he watching you too?

The strange two-faced man already had a notable interest in you and a chill went down your back when you realised that your adventure tonight had likely increased that interest.

Each of your disturbing one-on-one encounters with the non-stuttering, traitorous, homicidal, aspiring thief version of Quirinus Quirrell only gave you more unanswered questions.

Marvolo Gaunt House Point Ledger

Current Total: +66

Points awarded by: SS, RH, QQ