Rescue the Sorcerer's Stone

The two of them hurried to the fourth floor to find Harry and Ron, but spotted them on the third floor instead. The boys looked utterly dejected.

"Harry, Ron, what are you doing here?" they asked as they approached.

Ron sighed. "Professor McGonagall caught us. She told us not to stay there."

"How did things go on your side?" Harry asked.

Muya and Hermione shook their heads.

"No. I have to get through the passage Fluffy is guarding tonight. We can't let Voldemort take the Sorcerer's Stone," Harry said firmly.

Hermione understood. "Harry, can your Invisibility Cloak cover four people?"

"Four people? It should be able to." Harry nodded.

"It's fine, I still have a bottle of invisibility potion." Muya brushed the dust from her skirt, where it had gotten dirty when she crouched down earlier.

After agreeing on a time to act, they went their separate ways for the moment.

That night, after Shalian and the others had gone to sleep, Muya changed into clothes suitable for moving around, drank the invisibility potion, and left the common room.

Harry and the others should be on their way by now too.

On her way to the fourth floor, Muya ran into Filch. He was holding a lamp and patrolling the corridors.

Muya carefully made her way upstairs.

When she reached the fourth floor, Muya saw that the door to the room was half-open. Harry and the others had already gone inside. Panicking, she hurried over, only to accidentally bump into something.

"Ugh." Muya covered her forehead.

"Is that... Mya Mu?" Ron's voice asked.

"Mm." Muya answered softly.

The three of them lifted the Invisibility Cloak.

"The invisibility potion won't wear off for a while. Hermione, I'll hold your hand," Muya said.

"Okay."

They entered the room. Fluffy was lying asleep on the floor, with a self-playing harp beside him.

The passageway was beneath where Fluffy slept, so Muya temporarily let go of the frightened Hermione and stepped forward to rub Fluffy's three heads.

"Hey, good doggy Fluffy. Can you sleep over there?" Muya gave each head a piece of meat.

Although Fluffy was puzzled by the fact that he could hear Muya but could not see her, he still did as she asked.

Since there were no stairs, they jumped down. To their surprise, there was a net of plants below.

But now the plants had wrapped around them. Muya could not be bothered to struggle, and to her surprise, they loosened after tangling around her for a while. She had already reached the ground. She guessed this was probably her Head of House's idea.

"What are these things?" Ron said.

Hermione climbed down as well. "Don't move yet. This is Devil's Snare."

"So what do we do?" Ron tried desperately to avoid letting the vines wrap around his neck.

"Has Mya Mu made it down? We can't see her," Harry panted, still tugging at a vine in his hand.

"I'm down here, Harry. Try relaxing your body."

Harry followed Muya's advice and stopped fighting the vines. Sure enough, they left him after a moment.

Harry sighed in relief. Having both feet on the ground felt wonderful.

Only Ron was still trapped above. He had heard Muya's words too, but he simply could not relax.

"That's right, we can use fire," Hermione said excitedly to Ron.

Hermione pulled out her wand and cast a spell. The vines around Ron began to loosen, and Ron finally broke free.

They wiped the sweat from their faces and continued onward.

Their footsteps echoed through the passage, mixed with the sound of water trickling down the walls.

A little farther ahead, they heard clinking and rustling noises.

"What's that sound up ahead?" Ron asked.

"It sounds like wings flapping," Harry said.

They reached the end of the corridor, where a brightly lit room stood before them beneath a high vaulted ceiling.

Countless tiny birds, brilliant and sparkling like gems, fluttered around the room.

A heavy wooden door stood on the opposite side of the room.

Ron swallowed. "Do you think they'll attack us?"

"Possibly," Harry said. "They don't look vicious, but if they all rushed at us at once... Forget it. I'll try running across."

Harry took a deep breath, covered his face with his arms, and dashed to the other side of the room.

"Whew, looks like there's no danger," Muya said.

They followed him over. "The door's locked." Harry shook his head at them.

Muya rubbed her chin. "Oh-ho, this feels a bit like an escape room. But this room is so empty... Wait, those flying things look like keys!" She nearly jumped with excitement.

Harry looked around the room. "Oh, those are flying brooms. We need to ride them up and catch the key."

"But there must be hundreds of keys up there!"

Ron went over to inspect the lock closely. "We need to find an old-fashioned key. It might be silver, and shaped like a door handle."

"I see it. It's flying slower than the other keys," Muya said.

Harry nodded, mounted a broom, and flew up. He quickly spotted the target, but there were too many keys around it for him to grab it.

Seeing this, Muya and the others each took a broom to help Harry. With their combined efforts, Harry caught the right key.

After they used it to open the door, it flew back up again, looking exhausted.

The second room appeared completely dark, but the instant they stepped inside, it became brightly lit.

They were standing beside an enormous chessboard. Before them stood a cluster of huge black chess pieces.

"It's Wizard's Chess. Looks like we have to play a game to get through," Ron said.

"How do we play?" Hermione asked.

"I think we have to take the place of the pieces."

In the end, Harry, Hermione, and Ron took the places of chess pieces. Since Muya was still invisible, she was responsible for acting when the opportunity arose.

Harry took the bishop's place, Hermione took the rook's place, and Ron became the knight.

Ron began directing the black pieces in battle. Harry and Hermione silently followed his commands. All three of them were nervous, and Muya could even see Harry's knees trembling slightly.

Whenever one of their pieces was captured, the white pieces showed no mercy. Many black and white pieces had already fallen across the board.

Muya worried for them. Then Ron suddenly said he had to sacrifice himself for them to win. She quickly pulled out her wand, and just as Ron moved forward and the white queen raised her sword to strike him, Muya cast the Levitation Charm, making Ron float over. The horse he had been riding was struck down instead.

"Whew, that was too close, Mya Mu. Thank you for saving me." Ron excitedly threw his arms around Muya.

Hermione and Harry had been badly frightened too.

They passed through the room and pushed open the door to the next one.

A nauseating stench hit them. A Troll lay on the ground, with a huge lump on its head. It looked as though someone had struck it hard.