Chapter 4: Some Answers, More Questions
Harry stepped into the brilliant light. The sun shone brightly above them and Harry instantly felt hot, but quickly tried to ignore that fact as his mind jumped to finding Ginny. Looking around, Harry was shocked by what he saw. It had not been what he expected at all. They all stood in front of a huge pyramid. Ron stood gaping at the huge pyramid, Hermione looked quite confused, and Harry shook his black messy hair. It didn’t make any sense to him. He had a dream about all the things that had happened leading up to this. Of course he didn’t dream about the blue flame, but he did dream about the Erkling. The pyramid was not what he would have expected to come next. Harry was sure that he did not dream about this.
“We can’t be in Egypt!” Ron stated disbelievingly. “I know I’ve been there before. And this doesn’t look right at all.”
“Why not?” Harry asked confused by Ron’s statement.
“Because all the pyramids are made out of limestone and granite, not a tan marble,” Ron answered as he still studied the pyramid. Harry looked back at the pyramid and did notice that is was marble.
“Ron’s right! I’ve never heard of marble pyramids!” Hermione informed Harry as she looked around worriedly. “We should go back and get help!”
“We are not leaving Ginny!” Harry firmly replied. He felt his words were a little harsh as Hermione’s face fell. “You can go, but I can’t let Ginny down. She’s in trouble and I won’t leave her.”
Hermione looked at Harry for a moment. She seemed to be debating things in her head, but then nodded and turned around. “The door’s gone!” She gasped. “We can get back!” The door they had all stepped through had disappeared after they had walked through it. None of them noticed since their eyes were diverted by the huge pyramid before them. Where the door once stood only mountains of sand dunes could be seen.
“Great! Now where stuck in the middle of nowhere in a desert!” Ron complained. He turned back the pyramid. “How are we going to find Ginny? If she’s even here.”
“She’s here somewhere. It looks like we’ll have to go through their little maze first,” Harry told them looking straight ahead at the open Egyptian doorway that led inside the pyramid.
“This is obviously and altered reality. We should all be careful,” Hermione informed them. She looked inside the pyramid wondering what dangers lay ahead for them. Although she had decided to return to get Ron’s parents, it came to her that her friends may need her help and besides there was no longer a way to return. She glanced sideways at Harry.
Harry nodded his head his eyes still on the pyramid. His imagination raced as he thought of what was inside. Taking a deep breath, Harry looked down at the ground. Again he saw footprints in the sand. A small pair that he knew belonged to Ginny and another pair of larger footprints that belonged to an unknown. Glancing back up at sand in the doorway to the pyramid something glinted off the sunlight catching his attention. In the middle of the doorway was a silver necklace with a heart charm on it. Harry moved forward and picked up the necklace. Upon closer examination he noticed blood splotches on the necklace. A little diamond set in the middle of the heart instead of looking white was a deep hue of red, covered with blood.
“What is it?” Ron asked as Harry straightened.
“Does this look familiar?” Harry questioned Ron as he held up the necklace.
“That’s Ginny’s! She never takes it off,” Ron exclaimed. His face became instantly worried as he saw the blood on the necklace. “If anything happens to her….I”ll….” Ron stopped as he became very angry. He would kill anyone that harmed his sister. Ron hadn’t even really believed Ginny was here, until he saw her necklace. His face was pale with fear, and knowing that he could not help her more than what they were already doing stated quietly, “I hope she’s alright.”
“Is that blood!” Hermione asked frightened. As she watched Harry shake his head, her knees began to tremble. Ginny had always been like a close sister to her. She never imagined that something terrible like this could happen to her fun loving Ginny. Her heart sank as she entertained the thought that maybe Ginny was already dead. Shaking her head, she drove that thought out of her head.
“If anything happens to her I will make them pay!” Ron finished his threat, his eyes still watching the necklace closely.
“We don’t even know who ‘them’ are Ron,” Hermione told him gently. His love for his sister was very sweet and touched her heart. “We have to find out where Ginny is and go from there. Come on!” Ron glared angrily at the door the pyramid and resolutely walked through the doorway. Hermione followed him looking quite worried.
Harry looked down at the necklace in his hand and then watched his two friends walk inside the pyramid. He looked down at the blood stained necklace again. Making sure his friends did not see Harry undid the latch and put the necklace on. He slipped the charm under his clothes and walked into the pyramid after his friends.
Inside the pyramid was a dark corridor lit by torches that didn’t give off much light. The air inside was cool, but still warm. The smell in the air was like they had just stepped into a musty old basement room. Ron was leading the group with Hermione right behind him, clutching his shoulder. Harry brought up the rear, glancing behind them every so often making sure nothing was following them or going to attack them. They twisted down the corridors of the maze. Every turn and every hallway looked the same.
“I think we’re going in circles,” Hermione told Ron worriedly. He turned his head to look back at her and gave her an annoyed look.
“We’re in a maze! Of course it looks like we are going in circles!” Ron said with a disgusted look on his face. “Everything looks exactly the same!”
“Well, sorry but I just wanted to point out that since you are just taking right hand turns we going to end up in circles,” Hermione informed him with a matter of fact tone, frustrated that he wasn’t being smart enough to figure it out himself.
“I am not!” Ron denied. He glared at Hermione. “Mind you, there haven’t been any other ways to turn.”
“Yes, there was!” Hermione replied angrily. “See you can turn that way!” She pointed to a wall. Harry and Ron exchanged glanced at each other and then looked back at Hermione skeptically.
“That’s a wall Hermione,” Ron said gently as though he were telling a mental insane person.
Hermione looked glared at her two friends and then without another word walked straight through the wall. Harry blinked as he saw her now standing down the passage he could not see earlier.
“Bloody Hell! How did you do that!?!” Ron exclaimed rubbing his eyes.
“I didn’t. It’s been here the whole time,” Hermione smirked. “Hey look there is an arrow on the wall. I bet this point us to the way out!”
“Great let’s get out of this place,” Ron replied and went and joined Hermione.
“Wait, why is it that you can see it and we can’t?” Harry asked perplexed, not trusting the situation.
“My only guess is that sometime there are spells that only work on the opposite sex. Which means a girl cast the spell and was not expecting any other girls to go through,” Hermione explained. She stopped to think about her own words, wondering who put this strange illusionary world together.
“But why the arrows?” Harry questioned. He was still uncertain about following them. Harry worried that it could possibly be a trap. He wasn’t going to follow unless he was sure that it wouldn’t lead them into trouble.
“I dunno,” Ron answered. “Who cares? If it helps us to find Ginny faster, than I don’t care!”
“I bet she didn’t plan on Ron and me,” Hermione began quietly. “I bet she only planned on talking Ginny and Harry. Ron and I stumbled into this unexpectedly. Why only Ginny and Harry? What’s Voldermort trying to do?”
“Hermione, Voldermort can’t be doing this. Remember it must be a girl,” Ron reminded her and then stopped to think himself. Wondering who was doing this other than Voldermort.
“That’s right!” Hermione replied. “But who could it be?”
“It’s Bellatrix Lestrange,” Harry venomously spit out the name. He still hated her for killing Siruis. She would never be forgiven for her murder and Harry would make sure that Bellatrix would get hers in return, by his own hand if necessary. Maybe it was for this purpose that she had taken Ginny. “She’s here somewhere. Waiting.”
“What is she waiting for? Why take Ginny?” Ron asked still trying to fill in the pieces of the puzzle. “It doesn’t make sense.”
“Cause she knows I will come for Ginny,” Harry determinedly stated. Ron looked at Harry as if he had never seen him before. Harry ignored the blank stares from his friends. “I bet she made the arrows so that she could get through the maze faster. Hermione lead the way,” Harry commanded. He was no longer worried about a trap, but about Ginny’s safety and finding Bellatrix to avenge Siruis.
Hermione nodded without question and then turned around and started following the arrows.
Ron and Harry followed her for a long time. They twisted down corridors that they did not see at first. Finally Hermione stopped in front of a large statue head that’s chin rested on the ground and hair touched the ceiling. Something sat in the statues mouth, guarding the way out of the maze. Harry stumbled backwards a few steps and Hermione screamed as they looked at large creature.
Ron simply shuddered and scarcely whispered, “I hate spiders!”
The Forgotten Adventure by Naomi Evans
Chapter Notes: A/N Thanks for all the reviews please keep them coming, I need to know how I'm doing. ;)