“Oh, Kitty! How nice it would be if we could only get through into Looking-glass House! I’m sure it’s got, oh! Such beautiful things in it!”- Lewis Carrol, Through the Looking Glass.
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“AARRRRGGGGHHHH.”
A loud, blood curdling scream issued from Cho’s lips as she fell twenty feet into a pool of water. With a loud splash, she fell into the water before her head broke the surface.
Cho began to cough up water as she tried to regain her bearings. She thought that the mirror would lead her back to the corridor where she had started at, but with heaviness in her heart realized that there was just one more obstacle course to conquer before that could be possible. Cho realized with shock and fascination that she was floating in a lake that covered the entire floor space. The chamber was like an underwater cavern. The water and the rough walls were sapphire blue. A beacon of light shone from a large skylight in the curved roof of the cavern. The mirror that Cho had fallen from was positioned twenty feet above the lake-like floor. A large gold was positioned across from the mirror. It didn’t rest on water, but on a small gold platform. A large gold key hung from a hook next to the closed door. Cho looked down and saw another gold key resting on the lakes floor. She looked around again and saw yet another gold key hanging from a hook in the ceiling.
Cho knew in her heart that the two keys which were the easiest retrieve will not open the door. She just knew it. It was just a decoy for the unlucky person to be caught in this cavern to be imprisoned here forever.
“But how am I supposed to get that key. It is twenty feet above me. I can’t reach it,” Cho wondered as she concentrated on that key. “Of course, why didn’t I think of it?’
She drew her wand from her skirt pocket. She raised it over her head and pointed it to the ceiling.
“Accio key!”
Nothing happened. She repeated the incantation again. Still nothing.
Magic was useless in this setting.
“Now what,” Cho asked. She started to float on her back, gazing longingly at the key that hung so far above her head.
Cho started to swim to the wall and closely observed it. It had several deep crevices where the mortar that held the stones together had long since broken away. It was perfect to climb up on. Cho slipped one high heeled shoe from her foot and gripped it with her teeth. Her cold wet fingers clung onto the sandpaper like rocks. She nervously began to crawl up the wall with the grace and agility of a cat.
There were a few moments when she was scaling the wall that she was close to falling again, but the thick texture of the wall and the instant dryness of her fingers regained their hold. It took thirty minutes to reach the place where she had fallen from. When Cho felt the cold metallic frame, she hoisted herself up and climbed onto the platform. She got up and looked down from the mirror. It was so far up from where she had originated from. The lake was about the size of a coffee lid. She looked ahead to see the tantalizing key hanging in front of her.
Cho took the shoe her mouth and, with one hand gripping the frame and the shoe in the other, began the attempt to remove the key. The heel of the shoe combined with the length of her arm was still not enough to pull the key off of the hook. So Cho slipped her shoe back on and resorted to using her wand instead. This time, it was just enough to pull the key off, but it resulted with the key falling into the lake with a “plunk” followed by a loud scream and a larger splash.
Cho opened her eyes and found herself underwater again. The pool was rather deep. The two keys resting at the bottom of the twelve foot pit. It was easy to identify the key that had fallen because the other one was tied up with a length of gold ribbon.
Cho swam even deeper and snatched the gold key. Then she made her way back to the surface. It was getting harder to get to the surface because the weight of the key held her down so much. But a burning fire inside of her made her keep on going. Soon, she saw the glorious beacon of light again as she kicked her way to the platform.
Cho clambered up onto the platform. She shivered slightly from the cold as she pulled the wand out of her mouth and performed a simple drying spell before placing it back in her pocket. With the key, she poked it into the keyhole and turned it clockwise.
“Thank Merlin,” Cho exclaimed when she heard the long awaited click. The gold door swung open, but it the corridor that it led to was so dark, it was impossible to see.
It took several minutes for her to summon enough courage to go through the door. After what she had gone through, she just wanted to go home.
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Cho’s jaw almost dropped when she stepped foot into the new room. It vaguely reminded her of the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles in France. The chamber was decorated in a manner that was better suited for a French chateau rather than the Department of Mysteries in England.
Persian carpets covered the wooden floor while an ornate fireplace took up one wall. Fine antiques, gold clocks, and priceless paintings decorated the room, giving it the impression that Cho had stepped through a time warp and found herself in pre-Revolutionary France. Cho strode over to one of the tall French windows hidden away by floral drapes. She pulled back the drapes covering one of the windows and peered through them. She instantly recognized the setting that lay beyond it. It was the Chair Room. But as she remembered, there were no windows, just doors that appeared at random moments. Puzzled, she continued to investigate further. She pulled back the drapes of other windows and saw rooms that she had been in and rooms that were unfamiliar to her and did not want to enter. She just wanted to find a way back to the Corridor of the Three Doors and to the place where she had met with Jenna, Charlie, and Paul only hours ago (it felt like years in her mind). As she wandered around the fancy room, she wondered how she was going to get back. As she had already found out, the Department of Mysteries was an unpredictable place. One door that one would hope would lead to one place would take the traveler to another.
Upon further investigation, Cho noticed that many of the elaborate mirrors that hung in the Hall of Mirrors led to some place or another within the Department of Mysteries. One of those mirrors depicted a dark room filled with shelves and pearly crystal orbs. Another mirror set in a frame decorated with tiny stars and moons and suns showed an inky black void filled with the planets and the stars. A plainer mirror led into the Veil Room (this one gave shivers down Cho’s spine as she was painfully reminded of her brief encounter with Cedric). But there was one mirror that caught her attention. It hung over the fireplace in a frame with hearts, spades, diamonds, and clubs engraved in the dull silver surface.
Cho gave a squeal of joy, like a small child who had just opened up a birthday present to find a puppy inside. This time, she was sure this was the final room before going home. And she knew how she was going to get back. She ran to the mirror and peered closely into it. It led into the Corridor of the Three Doors. Jenna Barker, Charlie Lee, and Paul Rousseau were standing in front of the three doors.
“Where the hell is Cho,” Charlie asked out loud. “It’s been three hours already. Why don’t we just leave right now? She could be dead or something.”
“No, we are not,” Paul shot back, “she probably got lost or something. Remember when you went into the Department of Mysteries and didn’t come out for twelve hours, Charlie? Huh? Huh? What do you say about that?”
“Cut it out you two,” snapped Jenna. She shook her fist at the two boys. “Give her ten more minutes. If Cho doesn’t come back in ten minutes, we’ll send some one to go find her.”
“Fine.”
Cho stared at the mirror.
“I’m coming guys,” she said. She clambered onto the mantel piece and gripped the mirror frames. At first, she was hesitant to walk through another mirror. The last time she did so, it led her into falling twenty feet into a lake. But, then again, that mirror was so dark, it was impossible to see where she was going. This mirror offered a clear view of its destination.
Taking a deep breath, Cho braced herself for the return back into the average world.
“As I was saying, if Cho doesn’t come back, we let some one else know. I mean, what can happen,” Jenna asked.
“Jenna, you dumbo, we are going to get fired. We are going to get sent to Azkaban. It’s your entire sodding fault,” Paul accused her. “You started this stupid game. Now, we’ll never see Cho again!"
“I highly doubt it,” Cho said as she walked out of the wall.
Paul’s jaw dropped. Charlie looked like he was going to pass out. Jenna had a look of pure relief as she saw her friend come back again, alive and well.
“Oh Merlin, where were you? You were gone for ages,” she shrieked as she hugged Cho tightly.
Cho gasped out loud.
“Oh, sorry mate,” Jenna hastily apologized.
“So, what happened there,” Charlie asked.
“It is such a long story,” Cho said. She reached into her skirt pocket and drew out the bejeweled daisy. “But guess what I found in one of the rooms.”
“Oh, it is so pretty,” Jenna exclaimed.
The four friends turned their backs to the three doors and began to walk out of the corridor as each friend recalled their adventures in the Department of Mysteries.
Though that was such an amazing adventure, I don’t think I would like to come back there ever again, Cho thought to herself, gazing at the gem encrusted flower in her hand as she walked out of the place forever.
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I really want to thank Ritta and Bertiebott12 for helping out with this fic. You guys are the greatest.
Through the Looking Glass by stareyed_in_LA
Chapter Notes: Fin.