73 Chapter 72

After we all fell from the Devil's Snare together, we made our way to the flying key catching section. This was also the same as canon.

In canon, since it was supposed to be difficult, all Harry, Ron, and Hermione had to work together to catch after some struggle. 

"These birds . . . they can't be here just for decoration," said Hermione as I enjoyed the view of hundreds of keys flying around the brightly lit chamber.

"They're not birds!" Harry said suddenly. "They're keys! Winged keys — look carefully. So that must mean . . ." he looked around the chamber while the other two squinted up at the flock of keys. ". . . yes — look! Broomsticks! We've got to catch the key to the door!"

"Yeah, but… aren't there just too many of them?" Asked Neville while looking around. There were hundreds of them.

I decided to help them out a bit.

"Hey, look at that one. It looks like it's already been caught before by something." I said, pointing to one specific key which wasn't in a good condition.

"Yes! That must be the right one!" Harry said, finding it quickly with his seeker trained eyes.

This time, after figuring out the right one, that abused-looking one with crushed and battered wings I just simply shot a fire-making charm (Incendio) all over in its path.

"Well, it was worth a try." I muttered.

As expected, it was at least fireproof. It would be too easy for everyone. Well, Dumbledore wanted Harry to use his flying talent here. That old man could have just kept the key in his pocket if he didn't want anyone to reach the stone.

Looks like we'll have to use the brooms afterall.

But..

The brooms were just too battered for standards. I can just pull out a Nimbus from my pocket but that's just too sus. There's no way I can say that it hidden in my robes, can I?

I began to think. Is there some gadget in my 4d pocket that might help us in the current situation and is small enough that it can actually fit in my normal pocket? I don't want to show more than first or second year magic to Dumbledore, otherwise we would already be chatting with Voldemort.

As I looked at Harry, Neville, and Hermione flying around while futilely trying to catch the snitch, I suddenly recalled a very popular gadget that can fix almost anything. Plus, it is quite small as well!

"Hey! You guys! Come down, it's not going to work with those old brooms." I called out. Actually, we can do it if I join as well, but I have a better solution.

Since I was the de facto leader, all of them came down without much protest.

Hermione was the first one to doubt me, "How else are we supposed to catch it?"

As expected, the one who follows rule and the one who doesn't don't get along.

"It doesn't make sense to fly around like idiots on such slow brooms either. I have a solution to that." I said as I put my hand into my robe pocket and pulled out the solution for fixing all problems of the universe: 

Duct Tape!

The most useful gadget that the muggles have invented. If can't be fixed with duct tape, then you're not using enough duct tape.

"Duct tape?" 2x 

Harry and Hermione were confused. 

"Yeah, duct tape." Since I'm an American, the first solution I can think of is always duct tape.

"Give me all your brooms".  

I bunched 'the three broomsticks' into a triangle and wrapped them up together tightly with the tape. Now, looked like a single but thick broom with their footrests crisscrossing each other.

"Here, try flying this!" I presented the broom to Harry.

"No way! That… can't possibly work, can it?" Asked Hermione incredulously.

Neville also looked at the bizarre broomstick with a weird expression. 

But Harry.... looked curious; like he got a new toy to play with. He took the broomstick from my hands and inspected it while grinning.

He then mounted the broom and took off. 

"Woah!" 

As he flew around, his speed was noticeably a lot faster than before.

"Chris!" He called out.

"We HAVE to try doing this with our Nimbuses. This is amazing!"

This time, Harry got the key on the first try.

I closed Hermione's mouth which was hanging open. 

"You were saying something, Miss Granger?" I asked, switching back to my 'professor tone' for max damage.

"...."

"Don't underestimate the magic of duct tapes," I said as we went through the door for the next trial.

I was brushing up on my chess moves for the next round, but as soon as the door opened, we started to hear strange noises coming form ahead in the passageway.

"What the f-"

There was nothing like this in the Canon…

"Oh sh-"

There might be no chess this time! I barely held myself from saying the f and s words. There are children here.

Though now that I actually think about it, the chess thing seemed just too forced. The only reason it was there was that Ron wasn't good at anything else. Like dude, what was Quirellmort doing when Ron was playing chess? You're making lord Voldemort obediently wait because one of the trials had to be needlessly large since the contestant didn't have any other skill. There were even memes about it in my previous life.->

Now that he isn't here, there's no need for that obstacle.

So, the one for whom this obstacle was made should be… me, I guess?

As we went  further into the the passageway, we started hearing noises more clearly.

*whoosh* *whoosh*

*zing* *zzzinnng*

*creak* *creak*

"The hell?"

"..."

"..."

"..."

What came into our sight was…

*whoosh* *whoosh*

*zing* *zzzinnng*

*creak* *creak*

"H-How are we supposed to… get past t-that?" Neville wondered out aloud.

I just shook my head.

'Sigh… Dumbledore, you filthy old man, couldn't you have gone easy on me?'

Of all the talents I had shown in the school, he just had to pick this one. And McGonagall also went all out...

*Creak* *Creak*

The large chamber which had chess board was nowhere in sight. All that was left was a passageway that looked like the death of me. 

Blades sprouted from the ground, walls, the ceiling continuously. 

Large Logs swung around with enough force to knock a troll. 

Then, there were the ones where the logs seemed to replaced by large and sharp metal sheets shaped like an axe blade.

There was a circle in the middle of the passage, and in the circle was a lever. 

"Oh man... this thing has my name written all over it." I muttered under my breath.

"Is that... a lever in the middle?" Asked Hermione.

"Yeah, I guess we have to pull that thing to stop this." Harry said, while he looked at the broom which he had brought with from the previous room. As expected of a true Griffindore, it looked like he was planning to fly there.

"B-But... how can we even reach it?"

"It does look scary, but it is not impossible". I said, my eyes still on the obstacle course, or death course in front of me.

Hermione looked at me and Harry. "You two... aren't seriously considering going into that thing, are you?"

"No." I shook my head and turned to Harry.

"Harry, you got the previous one. Leave this one to me." I said as I stepped forward.

"No, this is dangerous. I... can't yet you to take risks for me." Harry also shook his head.

I just swatted his head lightly. "Dude, you're saying this to your bro? Won't you do the same for me? Besides, have you not seen me fly? This much is not risky at all."

The key part is the timing. If I time my movements well, it won't be that hard.

It's just that those logs and blades are too scary.

"Step back, let me memorize the timings first." I said as I observed each and every obstacle with occlumency.

As I stepped forward towards the death passage,

"Be careful..." a voice called out to me.

I looked back at Hermione in surprise. 'Huh, so she's not a complete complete b*tch afterall.'

***

A.N.: Get me the 'stuff.' You know what I'm asking for...

P.S.: For those who think the 3 brooms thing won't work, just debate with me. I'm an engineering student, so when I say it can work, I've calculated my stuff. I just now shut a guy who was complaining by giving him the whole calculation.