"Let's go!"

BAM!

The door to Fluffy's room slammed open from Evie kicking it down again.

"You do know there is a doorknob, right?" Neptunia asked warily.

"Shut up!" Evie barked. "Anyway, music, right?"

She lifted the wand giving off purple sparks, picturing the scene in her head. A sweet tune came out of the tip, and the dog's head immediately drooped and started snoring. Realizing she had no other hands as she was steadying Neptunia on her shoulder, she scowled and jabbed the wand at the cat. "Hold this."

Neptunia opened its mouth and clamped its teeth around the base of the wand obediently, letting it continue to give off the music. Evie drew two other wands out of her pocket (one sparking blue and the other sparking pink) and expertly waved them in two different patterns. "Wingardium Leviosa!"

A blue haze shot out of the first [blue] wand, naturally, lifting the snoring dog into the air. It was followed by a pink haze from the second wand, which automatically opened the trapdoor on the ground. With a warning of "Neptunia, you'd better not drop that wand!" she leaped down the chute without any hesitation at all.

The music stopped the moment she landed with a thump on a soft surface, and she released the levitation magic on both the dog and the trapdoor. She heard Fluffy's enraged howl and smirked.

"Where are we?" Neptunia asked, releasing the wand into Evie's open hand.

"Eww, cat spit," Evie muttered, wiping it on her jacket. "I dunno, some kind of--"

She froze.

"--Plant trap. Shoot. Must be the second line of defense--"

No sooner than the words were out of her mouth did the plant she had landed on start moving and tangling around her arms and legs. She muttered a curse before something found its way to her mind from the tip of one of her wands...

"...A fire?" She choked out as one of the plant's tendrils curled around her neck. "Whatever, let's do this!" The tips of all three of the wands in her hands lit on fire and she stabbed them downwards at full strength. The plant, which she recognized now as Devil's Snare in the light, immediately curled back, afraid of the light.

"You sure like lighting things on fire," Neptunia commented.

Evie glared at her. "One more word and you're next."

"Yes, yes, whatever you say," Neptunia said sarcastically with a huff.

"Hey, do you know how many teachers are helping to protect it?" Evie wondered as she headed along the passageway.

"Yeeaaaap," Neptunia nodded. "I heard Hagrid telling Harry and his friends the other day."

"Of course it's the half ogre," Evie muttered. "What kind of idiot is he?"

"There was his, Fluffy; Professor Sprout, which must've been the Devil's Snare; and then Professor Flitwick; Professor McGonagall; Professor Quirrell; and Professor Snape. And then I'd guess Dumbledore did something."

"Must be that mirror thingy," Evie commented. "He did mention it was one of his greatest accomplishments."

"Didn't."

"Snap it shut, Neptunia, or I will light you on fire!"

"Do you eat roast cats?"

"I don't know. I've never tried before."

"Oh, that's wonderful."

"Shut up. Look, there's the end of the--what. The. Hell?"

In the open chamber after the passageway, there flitted in the air several of tiny objects. They looked like bugs at first, but Evie recognized them as tiny winged keys milliseconds later. She glanced skeptically at the door on the other side of the room that was most likely locked and back at the keys. Sliding her eyes across the air critically, she was able to pick out the one key that looked like it would fit in the keyhole easily with her perfect vision.

"Hey, Neptunia," Evie said slowly. "You mentioned Professor Flitwick in the teachers, right?"

"Yeaaaap."

"Get that key."

"Mrowwwwww?!"

Neptunia's screech rang throughout the hall as Evie picked the cat off her shoulder and pitched it like she would throw a Quaffle, aiming directly for the rusty old key. Neptunia huffed but pounced for it. The key flitted out of the way, and the black cat smoothly turned to land on the wall before pouncing it again, aiming for its prey.

As Neptunia kept it distracted, Evie cast a spell of invisibility over herself and grabbed one of the broomsticks nearby, zooming through the air. The other keys charged at her defiantly, but she only raised her wand, said "Protego," and eradicated a barrier to keep them out. Neptunia pounced for the key again, and it dodged--only to dodge straight into Evie's waiting hand. Gripping the key tightly and catching the cat smoothly, she zoomed down for the door at a speed only a famous Chaser could go and inserted the key in the lock without stopping in her movements. She dropped the key and the broomstick upon entering the room, and both returned to the chamber.

She stared at the new trial in front of her, shutting the door behind her and replacing the Impenetrable Lock Charm--or whatever it was called. "...A chess board...?"

"Do you know how to play chess?" Neptunia wondered.

Evie shrugged. "No clue." She pulled the sparking green wand and held it out. "But I don't have to, do I?"

She cast a spell in the air, and the dust settled onto the large chess pieces. Wherever it touched, the chess piece became frozen and immobile. She moved past the white pieces (on her side) easily, but when she approached the black pieces, they shuddered and blocked her path.

She sighed. "That's so Professor McGonagall."

"She is a very strong witch," Neptunia mewed in agreement. "You won't be able to shatter this one easily."

"Fine," Evie scowled. "So I just have to play, right? I have no clue how to play chess, but we'll deal with it." She gripped the green wand, which supplied her with strategic tactics, and pointed it forward. "Ready, Neptunia?"

"No. Evie, don't even--"

"Too late. We're turning this game of chess into a game of war!"

She raised her wand and struck the pawn blocking her way. The green sparks on the end of her wand fizzed, and the pawn melted into nothing but rubble.

"...You are an idiot," Neptunia mewed finally, leaping off Evie's shoulder to dodge a blade flung her way and slinking through the pieces.

"You're the idiot!" Evie hollered. She erupted in a hurricane of black magic. Wherever it touched was immediately reduced to ashes. She waded through the mess, picking up her cat at the doorway.

"You're not going to leave it like this, are you?" Neptunia asked skeptically when Evie reached for the doorknob.

Evie sighed and raised her pink sparking wand. "Fine. I'll restore it."

A pink mist flew out and spread around the room, chess pieces magically springing to life and standing their guard again. "Happy?" Evie huffed.

"Yes," Neptunia said.

The two pressed on.

"So the half ogre, the greenhouse lady, the tiny midget, and the old grandma's trials we just saw. After that came turban head--"

"Stop, please," Neptunia complained, trudging along next to its owner. Its long tail flickered back and forth in the air. "The teachers at Hogwarts are all very well known and famous."

Evie gave a mischievous laugh. "So what do you think the turban head did?"

"Remember the troll?"

"How would I forge--ewww it stinks!"

"That would be the troll," Neptunia agreed.

"Ugh," Evie complained, flicking her wand to block out the smell. "Another troll fight?"

"You didn't even do anything last time," Neptunia grumbled.

"Who cares? Let's take this one down!" She declared, swapping her green wand for her purple wand.

"Expelliarmus!" She called, spraying a burst of red magic from the tip and blowing the troll back. But due to its huge size, it only slid back a little big and roared, raising its large club.

"There!" She sent another Charm slamming into the club, which flung from his grasp and sprawled onto the ground. The troll snarled, and she smirked. "Sorry about your stick, you big smelly oaf!"

She raised her sparking wand in the air and spoke as the troll roared and charged forward. "Wingardium Leviosa!"

Not the club, but the entire troll lifted in the air. It turned upside down according to Evie's wishes, despite its growls and bellows, and its head slammed full force into the ground, passing it out cold with a bloody lump on its head.

Evie sighed, scratching Neptunia's ears absently. "That was boring."

"Reset it."

"What why?" Evie complained. "I mean, Quirrell's behind it anyway, right? He'll be able to do it again."

"Whatever," Neptunia shrugged, batting at Evie's hand with its tail.

Evie sighed and continued on. The moment she stepped over the threshold  of the next chamber, purple fire shot up behind her, and black fire in front of her.

"Professor Snape?" She said skeptically.

"Yeah," Neptunia nodded, yawning. "Must be a test of logic. Most wizards are stupid to the point they're pathetic."

"That's just plain rude," Evie said, picking up the parchment with words written on it. "Let's see...yada yada yada--okay, yeah, not reading that." She tossed the parchment back down and approached the black fire with her wand raised. "Disappear."

Picturing the scene in her mind, the black flames sputtered out and vanished. She crossed over easily, and both flames vanished,  automatically resetting.

Evie came next upon the last chamber, which was nothing but a large room housing the Mirror of Erised.

Evie grimaced at the sight of it, remembering her last encounter gone wrong. "Called it."

Neptunia hopped off the witch's shoulder and padded over to the mirror, prodding it with its paw.

"There doesn't seem to be anything special about it," The cat commented, circling slowly around the golden-framed mirror and eyeing every critical detail. "Do you think the Sorcerer's Stone is in here?"

Evie thought, hopping down from the threshold and circling over to where her pet was standing and staring up at her, blue eyes unblinking. "Probably," She said, remembering how Voldemort had brought up the Sorcerer's Stone in her mind when Harry had first showed her the Mirror of Erised (A/N: refer back to Chapter 11: Mirror, Mirror if you can't remember). "But I can't figure out how it works."

"Did you try looking in it?" Neptunia asked skeptically, peering into the looking glass.

"Nope," Evie replied easily. "Not gonna." She remembered how great that turned out last time.

And then Evie heard the footsteps.

She leaped back defensively as a figure appeared at the top of the stairs with a dry "Well, well, well, what do we have here."

Evie stared at him coldly, her multicolored eyes glistening dangerously. "..." She stayed mute, however, not giving the man at the top of the stairs an advantage.

"Evie Mystic. I should have known that you of all people would be the one to beat me down here."

"Yes," Evie raised her chin defensively, plucking another wand from her belt notch and holding the purple and pink ends at the turban-head warningly.

The turban-head--yes, Professor Quirrell.

The poor stuttering Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, the one who never seemed to know how to do anything right--and, Evie might add, the one with a strange obsession of trolls for a DADA (A/N: Btw, for those of you who don't know, that stands for Defense Against the Dark Arts) teacher.

Of course, she had already suspected him from the very beginning. The way he never took off his turban was suspicious. The way he was always talking to himself was suspicious. The way he taught his lessons was suspicious--there are no vampires in Romania. The way he was the first one to tell Dumbledore about the troll in the dungeon during some giant feast and make a huge fuss out of it--heck, what was he doing in the dungeons in the first place?

Evie's sharp mind had picked up on all of these clues and pieced them together long ago, plus the even bigger pieces she received from Snape and Quirrell's constant quarrels. She had never said anything, though, because she knew that before she could take down Voldemort, she needed to gain the upper hand.

And so, she had waited for this moment. Right here, right now, in front of the Mirror of Erised.

For this moment--the fight for the Sorcerer's Stone.

She stepped before the golden mirror, holding her two wands at her side carelessly and her cat lingering at her feet.

"Come at me if you dare, Quirrell," She said in a steely tone, dropping the honorifics. "I'm going to make sure you don't make it out alive."

Her red eye flared brightly.

A/N: Weeee! One step closer to the end! Hooray~ I'm really getting to like this fan fiction...if I finish this, it'll be the first story I finish in years! XD Yaaaaayy accomplishments! Thanks to all of you for reading! Don't forget to read, vote, and comment! Oh, and enjoy. Definitely enjoy it, please. Thank youuuuuuu!

~Princess_Fairytale

Word count: 2198