The Entire Skirmish in-the Entire Underground Chambers

Template:Dialogue a-b-a-bThis **skirmish** was a battle that took place on ***4 June*** 1992, during Lord Voldemort's attempt to use Quirinus Quirrell to steal the Philosopher's Stone. It was also Voldemort's second attempt on Harry Potter's life.

## Part of Plot to steal the Philosopher's Stone

### Location

Underground Chambers, Hogwarts Castle, Scotland

### Cause

Voldemort looking for a means to return to full strength

### Result

* The Philosopher's Stone was saved\*Lord Voldemort's return to power was delayed

Combatants| * Hermione Granger
* Ronald Weasley
* Albus Dumbledore

Casualties| * Ronald Weasley was injured
* Harry Potter was rendered unconscious for three days

During Harry, Ron, and Hermione's time in the chambers they battled through a set of obstacles that most eleven-year-old children would find near impossible, but succeeded anyway. In the last chamber, Harry defeated Voldemort and kept the stone safe, with Quirrell dying in the process.

## History

### Battle through the chambers

#### Fluffy Template:C

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 File:Fluffy1.jpg  Fluffy was a giant three-headed dog, and Rubeus Hagrid's contribution to the protections put in place for the Philosopher's Stone. In 1992, Quirinus Quirrell enchanted a harp to put Fluffy to sleep while he searched for the Stone; when the music stopped, Fluffy awoke.
Quirrell found out how to get past Fluffy earlier that year by enticing Hagrid into a card game, offering a dragon egg as the stake, and getting him drunk enough to disclose the secret of how to pacify the otherwise vicious dog. After the Philosopher's Stone was destroyed, Hagrid released Fluffy into the Forbidden Forest.

#### Devil's Snare Template:C

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 File:Lumos Solem.gif   File:Lumos-Solem.gif  The second obstacle within the Chambers was Pomona Sprout's Devil's Snare, placed seemingly to soften a deadfall through the trapdoor guarded by Fluffy. However, Devil's Snare was known for strangling its victims to death, and increasing its force of constriction at signs of struggle.
After landing on the Devil's Snare Hermione Granger panicked briefly, before Harry Potter reminded her to light a fire. Hermione just barely managed to save Harry, Ron Weasley, and herself from death by strangulation. She did this by burning the plant with Lumos-Solem.

#### Winged keys Template:C

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 File:B1C16M1.jpg
The third of the Chambers contained several brooms and was filled with Winged Keys, provided by Professor Filius Flitwick, which, at a distance, appeared to be birds. There was a locked door at the end of the room which was impervious to the Unlocking Charm, and could only be opened by identifying and catching the one key among the "flock" that would fit the door's lock.

 File:Harry-Potter and the winged-keys PS.png  Ron Weasley cleverly deduced that the key that would open the locked door must be an old one, to match the old lock on the door. The only old key was readily identifiable, as Quirinus Quirrell had just used it and bent one of its wings. As soon as Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Hermione took off on brooms to catch the winged key, the rest of the keys scattered to make the correct one more difficult to identify again. Harry was, however, able to retrieve the necessary key, which was described as old-fashioned and silver, with bright blue wings, by employing his skills as a ***Seeker***.

#### Human Chess Game Template:C

> That's chess! You've got to make some sacrifices! I take one step forward and she'll take me — that leaves you free to checkmate the king, Harry!
>
> Ron bravely sacrificing himself on the Chess board, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

 File:B1C16M2 Chessboard Chamber.png  The fourth obstacle was Minerva McGonagall's — a giant Wizard's Chess set. Ron took command of the black side, with himself, Harry, and Hermione replacing missing pieces, in order to defeat the obstacle and be allowed to pass. They then proceeded to play an impressive game but which was particularly brutal even by the normal standards of Wizard's Chess.

 File:Ron sacrifice.gif  The most lethal player was the White Queen, which personally took out at least three of the black pieces and nearly won the game in white's favour. In the end, Ron sacrificed himself to the white Queen to allow Harry to checkmate the opposing King. In the end, Ron sacrificed himself to allow Harry to capture the opposing King.

### Mirror of Erised Template:C and the attack

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 File:Quirrell and Harry by the Mirror of Erised.png  Harry, then arrived at the obstacle of Albus Dumbledore — the Mirror of Erised. Standing there was Quirinus Quirrell. Harry was shocked — he had expected Snape. Quirrell explained that he tried to kill Harry, while Snape tried to save him. He said that *he* let the ***troll*** in on Hallowe'en. He then tied up Harry and tried to figure out how to get the Stone. Voldemort told him to "*Use the boy"*, so Quirrell summoned Harry to tell him what he saw in the Mirror. Harry lied and said it was himself winning the House Cup. Being an accomplished Legilimens, Voldemort was not fooled and told Quirrell to allow him to speak to Harry. Quirrell unravelled his turban to reveal the red-eyed and snake-like face of Tom Marvolo Riddle.

 File:Harry sees himself with Philosopher's Stone in Mirror of Erised.gif
After Harry's refusal to join the Dark Lord, Voldemort ordered Quirrell to kill him, but because of Lily Evans' loving sacrifice ten years earlier, Quirrell couldn't touch him without experiencing debilitating levels of pain, and having his flesh burn by when Harry touched his hand, Quirrell's hand turned to stone and crumbled. Also, when Harry grabbed his face, it made his whole body demolish and Voldemort escaped, Harry kills Quirrell by grabbing his face, causing him to turn to dust, abandoning his servant to die. Around that moment, Harry fell unconscious due to his injuries and the pain in his scar. After Voldemort escaped, Albus Dumbledore descended into the chambers. After reaching the Philosopher Stone's chamber he found Harry unconscious and rushed to his aid. If Dumbledore had arrived any later Harry would have died.

### Aftermath

#### End of first year

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 File:B1C17M2 Harry's first Hospital Wing stay.png  Three days later, Harry woke up in the hospital wing to find Dumbledore standing before him. Dumbledore explained that the Stone had been destroyed and Nicolas Flamel would die. He, then, explained the reason Voldemort, and by extension Quirrell, couldn't touch him.

## Behind the scenes

* There were a lot of differences in the Chambers between the films, shown in the following table:

 **Mirror of Erised chamber** | Harry struggles against Quirrell and Voldemort, watches Quirrell die, and passes out when Voldemort's soul passes through him.

## Appearances

* Template:PS Template:1st
* Template:PM
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* Template:HPK
* Template:PAS
* Template:MA Template:BNN Template:Spell card

## Notes and references

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1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Template:PS
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 2.9 Cite error: Invalid `<ref>` tag; no text was provided for refs named `PS17`
3. ↑ Accio Quote!

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