Last time:
During his lesson the next day, Harry’s eyes kept swaying to the chairs Hermione and Ron usually occupied. He just couldn’t take his mind off of their mysterious disappearances. People didn’t just vanish from certain maps. By now, the entire school seemed to know that something must have happened. Even the teachers seemed to be nervous and distracted. After his last class, which luckily was around noon, Harry wandered to the common room and onto the dormitories to drop his things. Once again, he opened the Marauder’s Map and checked it. Suddenly, he jumped up. Near Moaning Myrtle’s he had seen a dot sporting Ron’s name. He was about to run out of the room when he spotted something on the windowsill. Lying there in the sunlight, slightly covered by one of his jumpers Harry probably had cast there last night, were two wands. Hesitantly, he stepped closer to examine them. He knew that his wand was safely tucked in his pocket. He moved his clothes away and dropped them to the floor. Cautiously, he stretched his hand out to lift one of the wands.
“Impossible,” he whispered.
He had seen this wand in action a thousand times. Two letters were engraved at its handle: H and G. The wand he was holding belonged to Hermione Granger, and Harry was sure that the other wand would turn out to be Ron’s.
Harry’s eyes were fixed upon the two wands in his hand. ‘Just how did those get here? Except if…’ Harry’s eyes narrowed in suspicion as no other than Malfoy chose this peachy moment to join him.
Grinning, the pale boy asked, “Well, Potter? Worrying about the blood traitor and the Mudblood?”
“MALFOY! What did you do?” Harry yelled in rage. There was only one way for the wands to get into the Slytherin quarters: one of the room’s occupants must have carried them inside, placed them on the ledge deliberately for him to find. Just how bold was Malfoy? Harry had a feeling he had underestimated his arch-enemy quite a bit.
But Malfoy’s grin only grew wider at the accusation. “Nothing,” he answered innocently, flashing Harry his angel-white teeth. Secretly, Malfoy drew his wand.
“How do you think these wands found their way into the dormitory, then?” Harry questioned him, waving the wands in front of Malfoy’s face. Coloured sparks were emitting from their tips. His eyes bored into Malfoy’s, he could feel the anger raising, mixing with fear. What had happened to his friends?
“No idea,” Malfoy drawled, again brushing the accusations aside with a lazy shrug. “Just do me a favour and don’t ruin my hair, will you? I don’t like looking like I’ve never seen a brush up close like you do.” He cocked his eyebrows, daring Harry to explode.
“Liar!” Harry could sense the lie; see it in Malfoy’s grey eyes.
“So, what exactly are you going to do about it?” Malfoy sneered. “Interrogate me with another one of your famous second year curses?”
Harry’s frustration grew by the second. He felt like throwing hex after hex at his hated opponent, until the other would be obliged to tell Harry where Ron and Hermione were. However, their last duels were all too clear in Harry’s mind. He would need back-up, or lose again and give Malfoy another chance to try and hurt him as badly as possible. Unfortunately, he would have to leave the dormitory to get help and Malfoy was blocking the way.
Draco’s eyes were transfixed onto Harry, taking in every single movement. Waiting.
The door handle was pushed down and a third party entered.
“Simon! Good to see you out of the Hospital Wing. Did Pomfrey finally let you go?” Harry asked a bit too cheerily.
“What is it this time?” Simon rolled his eyes as he stepped inside.
Malfoy, thwarted by a chance to curse Harry, changed to tale-telling. “Potter’s suspecting me of kidnapping that Mudblood,” he spat, “as if I’d ever lay hand on such filth!”
Simon narrowed his eyes, but remained silent.
“Malfoy did something to Ron and Hermione and I got proof right here,” Harry exclaimed and handed the wands to Simon. The older boy examined both, then lightly waved Hermione’s wand. A small black rose erupted from its tip.
“Nice wand,” he commented. “So, Draco, do you have anything to do with this?”
Malfoy glanced at Simon, some what uncomfortable.
“Screw you, Simon.” The look on Malfoy’s face was hard, defiant.
“Language, Draco,” Simon said in a quiet voice, holding Draco’s gaze. Harry knew that Simon was invading Malfoy’s mind. Even though he was staring into Draco’s eyes as well, Harry could only detect fear. Finally, Simon let it go. “They’re inside the Vanishing Cabinet,” he said.
“You’re such a…” Malfoy started, but was stopped short by Simon.
“Watch what you’re saying,” he warned.
Malfoy grinded his teeth but kept quiet. Instead, he turned to leave.
“Hold it. You’re staying. You got yourself into this, you’re gonna help clean it up,” Simon told his cousin.
“Me?” Malfoy retorted, “I didn’t do anything and you know that!”
“Alright. You and your goons,” Simon corrected himself.
“You let me take the blame for everything, just so that y”“
“You sure you want to finish that thought?” Simon’s voice was low and had a menacing tone to it.
Harry was shocked by Simon’s outburst. Judging by the following silence, Simon was using Legilimency to force Malfoy to admit the truth. This was brutal, but Harry figured he’d have done the same in such a situation.
“We should inform a teacher,” Harry said cautiously.
“They’ll expel me,” Malfoy stammered.
Nice side-effect, Harry thought, and he’d be taking Crabbe and Goyle with him.
“Na, Harry. We don’t want anyone expelled,” Simon stated. Apparently, Harry’s Occlumency was at a low point.
“What? Remember Frederic? And how he turned out last year after he had been pushed through the Vanishing Cabinet?” Harry asked. “He temporarily lost his sanity and stayed in the Hospital Wing for weeks! We have to get a teacher!”
“No. Draco’s my cousin and I won’t let him be expelled because of such a childish prank,” Simon said, glancing warningly at Malfoy.
“Pah, I can do well without your heroric protection. You’re not yourself anymore. Fooling around with Mudbloods and now using me for your twisted theories “ I’m done here!” Malfoy yelled and stormed towards the door.
Simon locked it with Hermione’s wand, which was still in his hand.
“But they don’t have their wands and are vulnerable “ I’ll go myself then,” Harry determined and started towards the locked door himself.
“No, you’re not going on your own or you’d be just as lost as they are now. We will accompany you,” Simon said and gave Draco a stern look.
“No way, Simon. You can’t order me around.” Malfoy backed away from them and into the wall.
“Oh yes, I alone won’t be able to help Harry “ especially not since my wand was burned and I have to use a borrowed wand, no matter how smoothly it works. And “ you’re not exactly innocent, are you?”
“Simon, it’s enough!” Malfoy was exaggerated.
“You just said you don’t want to be expelled “ so you had better come with us and put right what did you wrong. Anyway, the more we are, the better.” Simon’s tone suggested that there was no room for arguements.
“But it’s dangerous. What if we don’t find the way out again either?” Malfoy was obviously scared.
Simon pocketed both wands and marched towards the door. Harry was next to him in a flash, Malfoy had given up protesting and followed, if hesitantly.
“How do you get in?” Harry asked. A dreading feeling was spreading through his stomach.
“The entrance is on the third floor. Frederic once showed it to me, but he usually stays away from that corner,” Simon explained.
Despite the urgent situation, neither of the three walked very fast. They were all afraid of what would expect them once they had entered the looming cabinet. Finally, they turned into a dark, sinister corridor Harry had never seen before. At its end an enormous oak door threw a long shadow across the narrow hallway. The door frame was engraved with blood-red letters. They read:
When all colour leaves,
The prowler’s on his strive.
Collect the torn pieces,
Solve the puzzle to survive.
The foreboding message didn’t quite raise their spirits. Though Simon’s face stayed calm, Malfoy had paled even more and Harry continually shifted from one foot to the other.
“What’s in there?” Draco asked with a whiney voice.
“I don’t know,” Simon admitted. “It’s stated in Hogwarts a History that all creatures students had to face were removed once it was closed, but maybe a boggart got in. This must be the old warning, used to shake contestants up a bit.”
The boys edged closer to the door, but no one felt like strechting their arm and turning the knob. Each one waited for the other to cross the final meter and be the first to face the unkown.
“Curiosity killed the kid.”
All three boys jumped when Peeves’ voice whispered into their ears. The insufferable ghost threw several stinking bombs at them and started singing a lullaby.
“Peeves!” Filch’s echoing footsteps could be heard hurrying nearer.
“Now or never,” Simon urged the other two boys through the cabinet’s ominous doors into utter darkness.
Slowly, their eyes got used to the simmering shadows. They seemed to be a room about seven meters wide and ten meters high. At one side a huge crest covered the wall. It looked like Hogwarts’, but the house symbols were missing. Hermione stood in front of it, studying it. Ron was cuddled at its corner observing the room. Suddenly, the door behind them smashed shut with a loud bang. The three boys turned and the torches at the walls extinguished with a flicker. When a faint light returned, the room had changed drastically. The door, their only exit, had vanished. The room itself was much bigger. Shapes not unfamiliar grew around them. Hermione and Ron were gone, so was the crest. Instead, black and white stripes decorated the walls, floor and ceiling.
“You still think this was a good idea, Simon?” Harry asked with a dry mouth.
Simon didn’t answer. He silently studied the room and the changes that were still taking place. Here a stair appeared out of nowhere, there a door materialised and disappeared again. “Solve the puzzle…” he mumbled.
“I want to get out of here,” Draco demanded.
“First we have to find Hermione and Ron,” Harry reminded him.
“Let’s get moving then, the room can’t be that big,” Draco replied and marched towards a hallway that had just appeared to his left.
“Draco, stop. No one wanders around alone. We have to stick together. First we should find out where we are and how to move around without getting lost,” Simon instructed.
Nothing seemed to stay in place for long. Windows seemed to be moving and even parts of the floor vanished and reappeared at times. The black-white stripes all around had a confusing effect on the boys. They tried to recognize the patterns in the vanishing stairs but there were too many. The windows were always black, not giving away any clue of where they could be.
“We’re in the Great Hall,” Harry finally stated.
“Just how thick can you be?” Malfoy snorted; apparently he had recovered from his distress.
“We’re in the Vanishing Cabinet, moron. Three floors above the Great Hall.”
“Harry’s right, now shut up,” Simon intervened before a fight could break out. “This room has the exact measures of the real Great Hall. I have a hunch that the Vanishing Cabinet was charmed to resemble Hogwarts.” Simon looked upwards, his eyebrows furrowed.
“Wait! Hermione was here last night. I saw her on the map!” Harry eagerly groped for the map amongst all the other knickknacks he usually carried around with him.
“What map?” Malfoy had crossed his arms in front of his cheast and watched Harry suspiciously.
But Harry didn’t bother to elaborate. “Here, just as I thought: We are in the Great Hall. See for yourself.” He almost shoved the map at the other two boys, who looked at the map with unbelieving faces.
“Look, here!” Simon was pointing at a spot on the map. “It says Hermione. Can’t be far away from here, let’s go.”
“But in what direction?” Harry asked.
“Where’s east?”
Draco was slowly turning around. However, the Great Hall seemed to be turning with him. The door, through which they had entered, had moved several meters to the left. Harry placed his wand onto his hand and said, “Point me.” The wand spun around until it pointed sharp north. “That way,” he announced.
They hurried towards a greyish door, behind which a dark corridor lay. Only a few meters inside, they met a crossing.
“What now?”
Simon, who had taken the part of keeping an eye on the map, pointed to the right. Several doors lead from the right hand corridor to unknown places. Some were covered in spots and long, deep scratches, whose origin was better left unidentified. Here and there, faint, eerie sounds could be made out. Simon, knowing more about the cabinet than the other two, preferred to stay away from their sources; Harry was fixed upon finding Ron and Hermione. But Malfoy’s curiosity was triggered by the unknown sounds. Furious with Simon pushing him around and Harry for being Harry, Malfoy deliberately fell behind. He intended to show them what he really was capable of, maybe even scare them out of their wits in the process. When he heard another screech, there was already a good distance between them. Then, Simon turned around.
“Hey, what are you doing? Catch up!”
Malfoy ignored him and quickly stepped through the next best door, slamming it shut behind him. He’d find a way out on his own. He locked the door with a spell and cautiously tiptoed through the room, trying to block out the banging and shouting from the other side of the door. If there were any creatures left in here, the racket Simon and Harry were creating would certainly attract them.
The room had the same black and white stripes as the corridors. The walls were lined with black paintings. It was hard to see in the dim light. Suddenly, he heard a wailing. It was close, too close for Malfoys’s taste. He raised his wand and slowly, very slowly turned around.
“AAAIII!”
There was no mistaken the cry. Malfoy fired a spell in its direction and stumbled over his own feet as he tried to run back to the door and cover his ears. He fell to the ground and hurried along the floor until he hit the wall, the banshee on his heels.
At the other side of the door, Simon and Harry heard the banshee cry. Malfoy’s screams were certainly a match. Horrified, Simon bombarded the door with his fits. Harry pulled him back.
“Hold it, that’s useless. Cover your head,” Harry said and raised his wand while using his left arm to protect his own face. “ Reducto,” he yelled and the door exploded, showering them with tiny soft black and white glitter.
Amazed, the two boys look at each other with raised eyebrows. Another scream form inside the room brought their attention back to the situation at hand. Malfoy was cuddled into a corner, his wand lay forgotten in the middle of the room. His robes were torn and red lines shone brightly against his pale skin. The banshee was towering above him, currently distracted by the black and white glitter which was still flying all around.
Simon stormed forward and pointed Hermione’s wand at the creature, yelling all silencing spells he could think of. But nothing happened.
”Harry, do something!” Simon yelled.
Harry shot the first spell that came to his mind at the banshee. “Silencio!”
The banshee yelped and turned its attention away form Malfoy and towards Harry. Harry’s eyes bulged but he took another step closer, looking braver than he felt. Determined, he shoved his wand toward the banshee and shot a Stinking hex at it. The banshee seemed to howl in pain, but luckily, Harry’s silencing charm was strong enough. Finally, Harry was in front of Malfoy. He took a deep breath and looked the banshee straight into its dark eyes. He sent it running with another taste of the Stining hex. Out on the hallway, they could hear its hurried steps echoing into the distance.
“You’re such an idiot!” Simon said through gritted teeth. “You could have gotten yourself killed!”
“Whatever.” Malfoy stared back, defiantly. He was busy examining a scratch on his arm.
“Come on. We lost enough time already,” Harry said and pulled Simon by the sleeve. Malfoy followed them quickly. They returned to the corridor and consulted the map. Hermione was still at the same spot as before. They walked on, though quieter, closer together and with all their senses on guard.
Finally, Simon stopped in front of a small, brown door. “This should be it,” he whispered.
He cautiously opened the door. Behind it, there were several stairs, some connected to platforms, others leading into darkness. Some platforms, however, seemed to be levitating freely in the air. On one of those, Hermione was cowering. Her eyes were hurrying across the room, obviously scared, and looking for a way out. She hadn’t noticed the three boys yet.
“Hermione!” Harry shouted out to her.
The bushy-haired girl exhaled a loud breath, hope showing in her eyes, as she spotted the Trio.
“Hold still, we’ll levitate you back here,” Simon called out.
Harry raised his wand and steadily pointed it at Hermione. “Wingardium Leviosa!”
Hermione presented them with a thankful smile, though eyed Draco suspiciously. “Thanks, how did you get here?” she asked and hugged Harry tightly.
“We came to look for you and Ron,” Simon answered, handing her her wand. “I started to get used to it,” he commented smiling.
“Where’s Ron, then?” she asked worried.
They consulted the map again, and finally Simon found Ron’s name near the kitchens.
“What a surprise,” Malfoy said dryly.
“I suggest we return to the Great Hall and find our way down to the kitchens from there,” Simon suggested, ignoring Draco.
They silently retraced their steps, but once they had entered the Great Hall through the greyish door, all of them gaped.
“What the--?” Malfoy exclaimed.
For the group had returned to a small, circular room - without a door. The walls stretched above them, until they met a high ceiling they could hardly make out. Only a tiny hole right in the middle of the room promised an exit. Two windows opened to their left, but nothing could be seen outside, nothing to indicate their location.
“Are we in one of the towers?” Harry inquired.
“Of course! This is Trelawney’s class room,” Hermione answered. She edged closer to the hole and looked through it. “Wow, that’s far down, you can barely see the ground.”
“So, it’s levitating once again,” Draco snarled, positioning his wand.
Hermione, however, shook her head. “Good luck, but the distance is too great for the Levitation spell to work properly. You’d drop down halfway across.”
“And how else are we supposed to get down? No clever ideas?” Malfoy pursued his lips.
“Not at all. I, at least, can’t think of any useful charm.” Simon paced around the hole.
“Well, then we’ll wait,” Hermione said and plunged onto the floor. “Tell me, Harry, how did you know where to find me?”
“Are you out of your feeble mind?” Malfoy exploded. “How long are we supposed to wait until some moron comes along and just happens to carry a long enough ladder on his shoulders?”
“I’ve been in here long enough,” Hermione explained. “When you meet an obstacle you can’t overcome, just wait. The room will usually change its structure, presenting you with a new situation and a new way out.”
Harry and Simon grinned, but seated themselves next to Hermione, watching Draco pace around the room like a nervous tiger.
They were deep in conversation, when suddenly the dim light became even fainter. The windows resolved into murky walls until the darkness around them was complete.
“Lumos,” Draco’s whispered voice could be heard nearby. The soft beam of his wand lightened the space around the frightened group. “We are no longer in the tower,” Malfoy stated.
And truly, the walls around them had corners and met the ceiling surprisingly fast. A damp air encircled the students. “Dungeons,” Draco said quietly. “We are in the dungeons.”
“I know this part, it’s near the Slytherin common room,” Harry announced.
“Let’s get moving then,” Simon agreed and got up.
“This is great. Now, we can solve another part of the puzzle,” Hermione said cheerily.
The three boys turned to her, confused looks on their faces.
“The riddle? On top of the arch? Don’t tell me none of you have given this a single thought!” Hermione exhaled an enormous breath and recited, “When all colour leaves, The prowler’s on his strive. Collect the torn pieces, Solve the puzzle to survive.”
“We have to find each of the five house crests and return them to their rightful places. That’s the only way to keep our sanity and find the only way out.”
“If we have to continue looking at these black-and white striped walls, it is inevitably that we loose our mind,” Malfoy commented dryly.
“I already found and returned the Phoenix. So there are four more to go. We should find the Slytherin symbol in your common room, but we have to hurry, the room’s already changing.”
Draco yawned and pointed uninterested in one direction, then took the lead. Along the way, they noticed torn pieces of clothes, obviously former Hogwarts robes from different houses, garning the floor. Whatever tasks the students of past times had to face, all four were happy not to know. The group followed Draco to the stone wall, which opened as soon as they approached it. The room behind it was green. Nothing else, just pure green everywhere. The only light source was too bright for their eyes, so they had to close them. When they finally reopened their eyes, they saw a room which had nothing in common with the room the three Slytherin were used to. It was drenched in green, with the exception of a white circular shape in its middle.
There was the Hogwarts crest, but only Slytherin’s snake was slithering in its upper right corner, the rest was black.
“Oh, now that was tough work,” Malfoy rolled his eyes and marched straight onto the white ground to reach for the snake.
“Hold it!” Hermione grabbed him by the elbow. Instinctively, Malfoy shook her off.
“Don’t you touch me,” he snarled.
“All of us have to be in the circle or we’ll lose each other again,” Hermione explained, shooting him an angry look.
Harry and Simon quickly entered the circle and Malfoy picked up the snake.
Immediately, Harry felt the floor disappear underneath his feet.
Everything around them started to move. Harry felt like being in a carousel, for far too long. Panicky, he looked at the others; their faces were just as pale-green as his. Suddenly, they slumped onto hard floor again. Looking up, he noticed that they were back at square one.
“This is where we came into the cabinet,” Simon said, astounded.
“Look, there’s the Hogwarts crest,” Malfoy exclaimed. But to their surprise it didn’t just show the Phoenix emblem, but also Hufflepuff’s.
“How did that get here?”
“Ron,” Hermione whispered.
“Right, he was by the kitchens last time we saw him on the map. The Hufflepuff common room must be near there,” Harry said.
“Maybe he’s still close,” Simon voiced Hermione’s hope.
Harry eagerly pulled the Marauders Map from his pocket, but couldn’t spot Ron anywhere.
“There are too many dots ““
BOOM!
All four tumbled backwards, scared eyes were searching dark corners for the origin of the sound. Grey smoke circled the crest. Someone sniggered.
“I thought they removed all creatures,” Hermione whispered. Simon’s blue eyes darted around, Ron’s wand help aloft.
“I hope none of you wet your pants, ladies!” A voice sounded from above.
Ron was standing inside the Hogwarts emblem, a reddish lion in his hands. He grinned from ear to ear as he placed it in Gryffindor’s spot, then he stepped down. When he reached the four, who where staring at him incredulously, his paces slowed. He glanced uncertainly at Simon. Unsure of how to act, he stopped several feet away.
“Hi Ron.” Hermione smiled at him.
Ron didn’t answer. He kept staring at Simon. Finally, he found his voice.
“Simon. I…I’m…I guess I’m sorry,” he muttered.
“This is neither the time nor the place for apologies,” Simon said coldly. “We should see that we get out of here.”
“We’re only missing the Ravenclaw emblem. Simon, it used to be your house, lead the way.” Hermione tried to sound cheery, but was clearly unnerved by the short conversation she just witnessed.
With Simon leading, Ron stayed a few steps behind. He surely felt guilty. Knowing that he would have been expelled had Simon told on him, did nothing to improve his conscience. Harry was on edge to inquire Ron’s motives, but forced himself to keep quite until he could talk to Ron in private.
They climbed a few stairs and turned corners, soon Harry was lost. Along the way, they noticed further marks on walls, torn paintings and splatters that sent shivers down their backs. Harry tried not to notice the proof of the creatures and curses the cabinet had inhabited before and kept his eyes on the floor. As they turned another corner, Simon yelped and jumped back. Harry looked ahead and saw a Dementor materializing out of a lock of brown hair. He reacted instinctively.
“Ridikkulus!”
The boggart vanished with a loud poof.
“The common room should be right there,” Simon said quickly, not wasting any time. They moved forward and were again confronted by floating platforms and stairwell leading into dark air.
“It should be on the platform next to the raven-statue,” Simon explained.
Hermione got her wand out and levitated Simon upwards without further comment. Ron snorted somewhere behind their back.
“Those stairs don’t vanish completely, you know. They just become invisible.” Ron crouched at the edge of the platform they were standing on and felt around with his hands. “Here, here it is,” he announced and cautiously put his weight onto his hands.
Hermione blew a strand of hair from her face, while pointing her wand under a spot right beneath Ron’s hands. She performed the counter-curse of the Disillusion Charm and the stairs reappeared. Ron stood back up and walked towards the upper platform where Simon was waiting for them. When all of them were gathered upstairs, they followed Simon towards a wall at the end of a winding corridor. It opened just as easily and gave way to a blue room.
Without a word, the anxious teenagers walked into a similar circle as they had found in the dungeons and Simon reached for the final piece of the Hogwarts emblem.
It worked as it had before, a strong pull somewhere near his navel spun Harry around and when he dared to open his eyes, he found himself and the others at their original starting point. Simon replaced the Ravenclaw symbol and immediately, the room changed. The darkness was driven away by a warm light, the black and white striped stairs and walls became brown wood and most importantly, a huge oak-door materialized in front of them.
Draco hastened forward and tore it open. Behind it, they could make out the shapes of the Great Hall. Relieved, Harry smiled.
Next: Harry might think Simon a good teacher, but there is a reason why you have to go to university first. :- ) So, Snape’s having a bit of fun with Harry’s … skills. *cough*