Chapter 6 Stuck
Harry woke up with Hermione and Ron over him. Their worried faces bearing down on him. Hermione’s blood stained face was mixed with tears and Ron looked pallid. As soon as Harry opened his eyes, Ron let out a sigh of relief and Hermione smiled through her tears. Harry was so confused, his head ached and he couldn’t remember anything. He sat up slowly and looking down noticed he was sitting in sand. Before he could ponder what was happening Hermione attacked him with a hug.
“I’m so glad your not dead!” Her words echoed loudly in his ear.
After a moment or two Harry felt a little light headed from the hug. “Hermione?” Harry asked.
“Oh, sorry!” She replied embarrassed and pulled away. Her face was blotchy from crying. Her brown eyes were puffy and swollen. Hermione swallowed hard as she looked at him with a smile.
“Are you alright Mate?” Ron asked apprehensively.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” Harry replied rubbing his head, the pain was still bothering him a bit. “What happened?”
“We don’t know. You just suddenly fainted.” Hermione told him tactfully.
Harry stared at her for a moment. He didn’t know what to believe. One second he was following Hermione through the door and the next he saw Ginny lying on the floor in the Chamber of Secrets. He relived the whole ordeal in the Chamber of Secrets. It was as if someone was reading his memories, but who and why. Harry looked up as he felt two pairs of eyes examining him. His two friends still sitting next to him, looking even more worried.
“Are you sure your alright?” Hermione asked again. She sat kneeling next to him, her pallor face filled with concern. Her lower lip trembled slightly as if she had been crying for a while.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” Harry mumbled, his mind still on the images he had relived. All the feelings had coming rushing back to him and Harry felt even more worried about Ginny.
“You don’t look alright,” Ron stated dubiously, bringing Harry out of his reverie.
“Where are we?” Harry asked trying to distract his friends attention from him. He looked around him only to find that his dream was still coming true. He had seen this place before.
There were large deep puddles of water littered around the sandy areas. The pools of water were wide enough for a middle sized adult to fit into. Harry sat on one of the large sandy areas, with a pool of water to the right and left of him. He noticed that there were no mountains, no trees, or any other vegetation except for the dry seaweed that sat on the sand, even off in the distance. The sky above them was overcast and gray. Harry looked closer at the water and found it to be a turquoise color and as it went deeper became a dark royal blue.
Harry stood up slowly and then wobbled for a moment. His eyes still on the water, a movement in the distance caught his eye and something stirred slowly in between the water pools on the sand. Harry nudged Ron and pointed at the moving figure.
“What is that?” Ron asked as he squinted at the figure.
“It looks like a…” Hermione trailed off as she put a hand over her eyes. “It’s a Fire Crab!”
Harry had never seen a Fire Crab. They resembled tortoises except their shells are made out of jewels. Fire Crabs also shoot out fire from their rear end, but for the most part they are not very dangerous. Harry had read about them in his textbook and was eagerly hovering over the pool, trying to see it. As the Fire Crab came closer the trio gasped as they saw the shell. Like in the books the Fire Crab had a beautiful shell made of sparkling jewels. The assortment of colors and the design on the Fire Crab’s shell was gorgeous.
“Wow!” Hermione breathed, her eyes glowing with excitement. “I never knew they were so stunning!”
“Yeah, now I see why wizards would want to use their shells as cauldrons,” Ron answered amazed.
“Ron!” Hermione complained as she turned to him with her hands on her hips.
“What? I didn’t mean that I want one,” Ron told her innocently.
“Where do you think we are suppose to go?” Harry asked them ignoring their bickering and looking across the empty horizon. “I mean there is no door that I can see in the distance. How are we suppose to get out of here?”
“That’s a good question,” Ron replied trying to change the conversation with Hermione. He followed Harry’s lead and looked around.
“We aren’t stuck here are we?” Hermione worried aloud, the bickering forgotten. She looked to Ron at his shoulder and then felt the deep gash on her own face. “We have to get back soon.”
“There isn’t much more we can do Hermione. We have to go through whatever Bellatrix left behind for us,” Harry said.
“We aren’t even sure if it is Bellatrix. The spider could have been lying,” Hermione informed him softly.
“I do, I’ve know from the start,” Harry replied. His two friends looked at him quizzically. He sighed. Was it was time to tell them? He stared back at his friends and then nodded his head. It wasn’t the time quite yet to tell them. Harry wasn’t even sure if they would believe him. He had to wait until he was sure he could divulge that information.
“Come on, let’s go,” Harry commanded as he stepped forward hoping that they would find a way out of this place and that his two friends wouldn’t ask anymore questions.
“Where are we going?” Ron asked skeptically.
“We’re going to save Ginny,” Harry answered putting his hand over the heart shaped necklace that still lied underneath his robes.
“Do you think the Fire Crab could help us?” Hermione wondered aloud.
“I doubt it could talk,” Ron shrugged.
“Well, everything else we have ran into seems to be able to talk, so why can’t a Fire Crab talk?” Hermione reasoned.
“It’s worth a try to ask for directions especially if it gets us closer to saving Ginny,” Harry stated thoughtfully.
Harry carefully and cautiously made his way towards the Fire Crab. Hermione was a step behind him and Ron followed them reluctantly. On closer examination, Harry found that the Fire Crab’s shell was more beautiful than he had thought earlier. With a gasp behind him, Harry knew that Hermione and Ron also felt the same.
The Fire Crab had it’s behind to them and Harry didn’t want to be roasted. He walked around another blue pool of water and then stopped directly in front of the Fire Crab. Clearing his voice Harry started out lamely, “Excuse me, have you seen young girl with red hair come by here?”
The Fire Crab looked up at Harry then back at the seaweed at its feet and then continued to eat it. Harry threw a look over his shoulder at his friends. Ron shrugged and Hermione nodded him on.
“Do you know how to get out of here?” Harry said loudly, making sure that the Fire Crab would hear. It again looked up lazily from its meal and started at Harry as though to say, I’m too busy to be bothered.
“I don’t think that he talks,” Ron answered. “It’s not worth spending our time here talking to a Fire Crab that won’t tell us anything.”
“It was at least worth a try,” Hermione shot back. Ron just shrugged again. Harry ignored the two and began straining his eyes to find something, anything to help them out. His dream had encompassed this place, but he didn’t remember how he got through it.
“Were there any footprints in the sand?” Harry asked looking hopeful at his two friends.
“I’m sure there are,” Hermione responded. “There would have to be.”
“If there were, we just walked all over them,” Ron solemnly told them, looking back from where they had been earlier.
“We can’t give up,” Harry stated, carefully watching the sand walking back to where they had stood. He looked at the sand hopelessly, there were no footprints. Not even their own. It was as though the sand just covered their tracks. “Nothing,” He called to his friends angrily.
Hermione and Ron still stood by the Fire Crab admiring the beautiful shell. Hermione sighed at Harry’s call. She wiped her face and looked down at her hand that was now covered in blood. Looking down at the pool, she leaned over and washed her hand in water.
“Hermione don’t do that!” Ron chided irately. “You don’t know what is in that water or where it has been. It could be poisoned for all we know.”
“Don’t be foolish! Of course it is not poisoned,” Hermione refuted, but her voice unsteady. Uncertainly she glanced at her hand making sure it was still okay and then back at the water.
Harry by this time had made his way over to them. His mind still busy with the possibilities of trying to leave this puzzle they were stuck in. “There are no doors, no exits, no footprints to follow, a Fire Crab that can’t talk, and just these strange pools of water,” Harry assessed the situation. “What are we suppose to do?”
“I don’t know,” Hermione mumbled examining her hand closely again.
The water in the pool beside them gurgled as a few air bubbles reached the surface. Hermione jerked around to look at it. Ron put his hands on her shoulders and pulled her back away from the pool.
“Something is not right about that,” Ron replied tensely watching the water hole.
Ripples disturbed the waters surface. They all held their breath, waiting for something to happen. After several moments, the water calmed again and nothing happened. Ron relaxed his hands that still encompassed Hermione’s shoulder. He began to furiously blush as Hermione turned to look at him. Harry smiled at the two of them.
“It’s okay Ron. Thanks for protecting me, even though you didn’t need to,” Hermione smiled at him. Ron blushed even deeper matching his red hair. Hermione giggled into her hand.
“Alright, so how do you think we get out of here?” Harry proposed again bringing them all back to the main problem.
Suddenly a strange sort of monkey emerged from the water pool. It looked like a monkey although it had no fur, but instead scales like a fish. Harry stepped back a few paces. Hermione suppressed an urge to scream. Ron quickly snatched Hermione back as they looked at the strange creature. It smiled at them revealing two rows of sharp teeth.