Chapter Eight: In which a surprising amount of information is revealed
Ron, Hermione and Neville had been swimming down the tunnel for twenty minutes. The water was getting colder and the further they went, the darker it got. Pin-pricks of light filtered through the rock, barely outlining the three teenagers as they slowly swam forward. Hermione’s grip on the Amplector Stone tightened; we don’t have much time left.
“Bet Loki’s having a right laugh at this,” muttered Ron grimly. “This seaweed keeps going up my nose. Ouch!”
“Oh stop complaining, Ron,” said Hermione, “we’re nearly out of the tunnel.”
“I’m not complaining,” insisted Ron, “it’s just that the seaweed has become overly attached to my nostrils.”
“Look, up ahead!” cried Neville.
The tunnel was getting lighter. As the group turned the corner, the narrow walls grew into a large, bright cavern. They were there.
“Yes!” cried Ron, flinging the seaweed aside. “We’re here!”
“Wherever here is,” commented Neville. The cavern wasn’t as large as it appeared, being about the size of a large dining room. The ceiling was fairly high and, as Ron placed his hand on the wall, the sides felt unusually smooth. On the wall opposite them stood a slab of brown rock that jutted out from the floor and reached right up to the ceiling. Carved across the rock was an elegant, curly line.
“What’s that?” asked Ron, pointing straight at the carving and looking expectantly at Hermione.
She sighed, “I don’t know. It looks like a plaque of some sort… a mural maybe?”
“It looks like a snake to me,” commented Neville, hovering beside the entrance.
Snake? Closing her eyes, Hermione mentally recalled the rhyme on the last scrap of parchment:
Take an apple from my belly
Underwater snakes are heavy.
“Of course!” Hermione cried, pushing her feet against the wall and gliding towards the plaque. Ron gave a little cry and Neville watched patiently as she dipped down to touch the debris on the floor.
“They’re puzzle pieces!” she exclaimed excitedly, pocketing the Amplector Stone and pulling out her wand instead. “Sorry, Harry “ here we are. Wingardium Leviosa!”
Nothing happened.
“Wingardium Leviosa!” Hermione frowned and tried again, but the dark scraps on the floor didn’t move.
“Hang on,” said Neville, appearing beside her. “Let’s try together. Maybe it’ll work then.”
They tried, and failed. The debris stayed still on the floor. Ron joined them and all three teenagers yelled the incantation and swished-and-flicked wildly, causing nothing but a few bubbles to crawl out of their wand tips. Frustrated, Ron reached down and tugged at a large scrap of metal. To everyone’s surprise, it came loose easily in his hand.
“What?” Ron pulled up the slab of metal and studied it, turning it over in his hand. “What’s going on?”
“Loki said we should be able to use magic,” muttered Neville, frowning.
The three of them looked at each other nervously.
“Anyway,” interjected Hermione, “we should begin working on the puzzle. It looks like it might take us some time, so let’s get started right away. Ron, you grab that piece over there.”
*****
There was a loud clang and George glanced up to see Loki storming back into the room, fury smeared across his face. Smirking slightly, George crumpled the paper further up his sleeve and watched.
“I don’t believe this,” muttered Loki, pacing up and down the room and scowling. “I don’t believe this! Of all the cheek! I knew it! I knew they were on to me -”
“Baa,” asked Fred, mischief glinting in his eyes.
“Something wrong, Loki?” asked George innocently.
Loki shot him an angry look, before snapping: “We have to move.”
“Baa?”
“Downstairs,” Loki snatched up the loaf of bread lying beside his chair. “We’re moving downstairs in the cave. They’re on to us.”
Holding the bread between his teeth, Loki snapped both fingers. George cried out as the floor lurched and the walls blurred. Quickly, he grabbed onto Fred and pulled him against his chest. Now was not the time for broken goat legs.
“Baaaaaaa!” cried Fred, and with a thump, they landed on the cold, rocky floor of a smaller cavern. George cried out and curled up on landing, pain shooting through his left leg. A strong wave of cold air hit him and he shivered violently. There wasn’t a fire here, or chairs or rugs. Just an uneven floor and dark shadows in a small room.
Fred squirmed and climbed out of George’s arms. He was unhurt. Bleating quietly, he nuzzled George nervously, as if to say: “You alright, mate?”
“I’m fine,” muttered George, slowly pushing himself upright. Standing beside them was Loki, a mixture of amusement and irritation displayed on his face.
“Baa,” snarled Fred, turning towards him and banging his hoof on the floor.
“You’ve got a lot of explaining to do, Loki,” said George, standing up. His smile returned to his face. “Guess what we found?” Lifting his right hand up dramatically, he reached down his sleeve and pulled out the crumpled piece of paper.
The look on Loki’s face was priceless.
“Where did you get that?” he snapped, fretfully checking his pockets. “How did you get -”
“Baa!” answered Fred, who George swore was laughing.
“Don’t try anything,” said George, “we know all about it now.” Unfolding the piece of paper, he cleared his throat and began to read:
“By the order of the Aesir, we condemn Loki “ son of Giants “ to eternal confinement within the caves of Aurlandsfjorden. He has committed the grave act of murder and will spend eternity withering in agony until Ragnarök: the end of the world.”
Loki had gone very quiet.
“It goes on,” said George, waving the letter at him, “and on and on, but I think we can sum it all up pretty easily, don’t you?”
“Baa,” agreed Fred smugly.
To their great surprise, Loki’s face broke into a smile. He laughed.
“You’ve caught me out,” he said cheerily, walking forward and snatching the piece of paper out of George’s hand. “Well done. I suppose you also know that you can’t do anything to stop it.” He chuckled as he crushed the piece of paper into a ball; tossing it over his shoulder casually. “Go on then, summarise it. I’m dying to hear.”
George glared at him, half-smiling. Fred scraped his hoof against the floor. “You planned this all alone,” explained George. “The other Norse Gods took your amulet away and locked you up, didn’t they? Cause you killed… you killed…” He scrunched his eyes up, trying to remember his Norse mythology correctly. “Never mind. You killed someone and they locked you up in here as punishment.”
“Baa,” added Fred.
“Oh yeah, good point, Fred “ and also because you were going to cause the end of the world.”
“Ragnarök,” corrected Loki, slightly irritated. “Not the end of the world, just the end of those flipping, big-headed Aesir gods.”
“Baa!” cried Fred.
“You can’t get out of this cave, can you?” George went on the offensive, stepping forward. “Not without your amulet. It was all described there.” He jabbed a finger at the ball of crumpled paper on the floor. “You put some of your power in that amulet and you can’t get out of this cave without that extra power. You’re stuck in here and your amulet was put outside “ with us wizards “ so that you can’t escape. Am I right?”
Loki chuckled. George felt a nervous shiver run through him, as though someone had brushed an icicle down his back. “Very good, very good,” praised Loki. “I’ll explain all once we get our sound and visuals back. I, for one, wish to see how those four youngsters are getting on, don’t you? Your sister depends on it.”
*****
Harry was surrounded by cold, blue mist. He’d been standing there for a long time, watching the vapour curl past his eyes and waving his arms about, trying to make it go away. He couldn’t see anything and this worried him. Where were Ron and Hermione? Neville? Was he dead?
No, the cold mist pressing painfully around him told him that he was still alive. But where was he?
Walk forward… that’s right. He should walk forward. Standing still would get him nowhere. His feet felt heavy, but they moved easily, the cold, smooth surface of the floor reminding him of the Dursleys’ kitchen tiles and the mist making him shiver. He was sure that “ if he could see it “ his breath would be coming out as steam.
To Harry’s delight, the mist began to fade as he walked. Up ahead, a bright orange light flickered at him. The exit, it had to be. Perhaps that was where Ron, Hermione and Neville were. Perhaps… He began to walk faster. Around him, the mist gave way to deep indigo walls that curved up to the ceiling. He was in a long tunnel. Harry began to sprint. He had to get to the end of it. He didn’t quite know why, but he felt that it was the right thing to do.
The orange light spread across him and he arrived at the exit. Harry blinked twice “ trying to get used to the light “ and found himself in a small, brightly lit room. The walls were made of fine wood and gold leaf lined the beams holding up the cream-coloured ceiling. Two large chandeliers emitted strong orange light and a fire crackled in the corner, warming up Harry’s legs and toes. A large wooden table took up most of the room, chairs littered around it and a large platter of meat placed in the centre. The room was empty.
Then, in the blink of an eye, the room was suddenly full of people; all murmuring and shouting and laughing. Harry jumped and scrambled backwards, terrified of being seen. No-one paid any attention to him, as a large, bearded man had just sat himself down at the table and cried: “SILENCE!”
The guests fell quiet. The old man was very imposing, with impossibly well developed muscles and a missing right eye. A large, long sword hung at his side. Harry decided that he didn’t want to get on the wrong side of him.
The man scowled at the guests. They didn’t recoil, and some even glared back. “I, Odin, have called this emergency meeting of the Aesir. I have received a letter from Freyja documenting Loki’s deceit of four young wizards. It appears that he is using them as avatars in order to complete the challenge we set him.”
“He’s what?” roared a large man in red, as the rest of the Aesir murmured amongst themselves.
“Silence!” yelled Odin again, then: “It appears that he gained an unexpected power source. He’s holding a small girl hostage and forcing the children to take part in our challenge, which he has twisted to his own rules to a degree. Freyja has interfered as much as possible, but the presence of these wizards has increased his power significantly. If he gets hold of the amulet now, there will be no stopping him.”
“We must do something!” cried a young, thin warrior. There was a loud agreement.
“AS IT STANDS,” yelled Odin over the noise, “THE WIZARDS ARE IGNORANT. If Loki releases the girl, he will gain the amulet, set himself free and cause Ragnarök, thus destroying the world.”
“Then someone must tell them!”
“Yeah!”
“Stop them!”
“Kill them!”
Harry’s head was spinning. It was almost impossible to take in. He thought Loki was just playing a sadistic game with them, not using them as tools to cause the end of the world. Well, this definitely puts a different spin on things, he thought, his fists tightening into a ball.
“If only we could,” sighed Odin sadly. “We can barely interfere. That is why we have all come together. If we all put our power together, we should have enough to kill these wizards and prevent Ragnarök. It will take time, but at such a late stage, this is our only option.”
*****
“There,” cried Ron triumphantly. “Finished!”
“Your section, that is,” pointed out Hermione. The snake carving had been larger than they thought, so everyone had taken up a section of it and worked on that. Hermione had finished first, having taken up the middle section. Ron had worked on the tail, while Neville was still sorting through the head. He was nearly finished.
“Do you need any help Neville?” asked Ron, ignoring Hermione and swimming over to his other friend.
Neville shook his head. “I’m nearly done,” he explained, slotting a fang into place. There were barely any plates left on the ground now, revealing a smooth sandy floor. As Neville reached towards the final piece, Hermione’s hand curled around the Amplector Stone in her pocket. They’d been working for at least three hours and the gillyweed was still working. It made no sense “ which infuriated her “ but they were still alive, and that’s what mattered. She didn’t dare think about what would’ve happened if their oxygen had run out while they were solving the puzzle.
Neville placed the piece in with a satisfying click. He swam back, and the three of them stared at the mural expectantly.
A few seconds past, and Ron said: “Well -”
“Look!” Neville cried. “Wow!”
In the centre of the snake “ right where its stomach would’ve been “ a small, red shape glowed. It flickered at first, then the red light spilled out, dying the cavern a light crimson colour and forcing the three friends to squint and shield their eyes.
Take an apple from my belly
Underwater snakes are heavy.
“It’s the apple!” cried Hermione. “Quick!” She pulled out her wand as the two boys lunged for the apple. This was far too easy. Loki had to have some sort of trick involved.
Ron got to the apple first. It was about the size of a Quaffle and it hurt his eyes to look at. Glancing away, he grasped its sides and pulled. The apple’s surface was hot under his palms, but it didn’t hurt. With a firm tug, it came away easy in his hand. The glow disappeared and its warmth faded.
“I’ve got it!” cried Ron, holding it up triumphantly. “Let’s go!”
“Ron, behind you!” Neville screamed suddenly. “Behind you!”
“What?” Something smashed against Ron’s ribs, sending him flying across the cave in a flurry of bubbles. The apple slipped from his arms and Ron realised that he was face-to-face with an enormous snake. The mural had come alive.
“Ron!” cried Hermione. “Ron, move!”
Loki's Amulet by Air Elemental
Chapter Notes: I'm going to finish this fanfiction even if it kills me! (Sorry for the wait!)