67A/N: I'm shocked, stunned, amazed... Nobody picked up on the guest appearance in the last chapter. You know, the mouse that used to be a banana? Come on, somebody... anybody? It was Dinglemouse; from Bad Jelly the Witch (another British story about magic and children, by Spike Milligan). I don't know; kids these days...
Chapter 15 – The Call
It could be a whisper, a word, a cry or a roar; but (as mentioned earlier) each hero that has ever lived has received a call, and each hero has answered it, fulfilling whatever need that was required of them.
It is important to note that the hero isn't always the one that rushes in to save the princess from the dragon. Likewise, not all who hear the call will answer it and, in not doing so, will miss out on becoming heroes in their own right.
One thing is certain, though, for those that answer the call to step up and become heroes: the experience changes them. It matures them, scars them, changes them in ways they could never have foreseen.
No mater whether they slay a dragon or just bring aid to the ill, they will never be the same again.
~oOo~
In the weeks when followed the day that Hannah had dragged him up to the castle's battlements, Harry had read many books on Divination in his quest to understand what was happening to him, and how to control it.
He had begun with the three books that Madam Pomfrey had given to him (an early birthday present, she had claimed) but had soon found himself browsing the Hogwarts library in an effort to understand just what it was that those three books were saying. All in all, he devoured nearly a dozen books, taken a decent bite or two from more than a dozen others and had had a fair nibble on even more books than he could keep track of.
And what was the grand result of his surprisingly rapid digestion of so much information? He was confused to the point of not being able to work out if Divination was 'proper' branch of magic, or if it was like Astronomy (a subject that just happened to be taught at Hogwarts but which he couldn't see any practical application to magic).
Oh, he was more than willing to believe that there were people out there who were able to use magic and spells to know what the weather was going to do, or where to fish; just like Hannah had mentioned. He just wished that at least one of those people had written a book about it! So far, he had only been able to uncover one fact that each book seemed to agree upon: you needed a clear mind in order to 'focus on the mystical forces'. But did any of those books mention exactly how one could do this?
No!
As for anything else that may have been useful? For each fact that he found in a book, he could easily find three other books that would discredit it. How was anybody supposed to learn about this if the so-called experts couldn't even agree with one other?
In the end, Harry had taken the only solid fact that he had found and had begun a quest for a spell to clear his mind. Again, this turned out to be a nearly-fruitless exercise; only for much different reasons. It turned out, you see, that all the useful-sounding books on such magic that could be used on a person's mind were locked up in the restricted section of the library. He hadn't realised just how dangerous using spells on one's mind could be.
He had just started looking for something else, perhaps a potion (his growing inner hufflepuff just didn't want to let him give up), when the answer came from a most unexpected source. He had just slammed another potion book closed in frustration, when a timid voice asked him if he needed any help finding something. Turning to the source of the voice, he was puzzled to see a young asian girl that looked rather familiar.
It took a moment or two to recognise her as Su Li, the quiet girl from Ravenclaw whom always sat off to the side in class. In fact she was so quiet during classes that he couldn't help but marvel at the fact that this had been the first time that he had heard her speak; to anyone (which also raised the question in his mind about how loud did you need to be when saying a spell).
Realising that she may just know where to look to find his answer (she was in Ravenclaw, after all), he asked her about where he could find some magic that can be used by someone to clear their mind.
She had just stood there, staring at him in mild confusion for a few moments before politely replying and walking away. "Meditation usually works," she had said.
Harry had been stunned. It was a simple answer. It was a logical answer. It was an answer that he already knew!
You see, Dudley and his friends had gone though a Kung-Fu film faze a year or so ago. From what young Harry had managed to see of those films, the old teacher was invariably telling the hero that his mind was too cluttered and that he should mediate. All this time, Harry had been searching for a magical answer when a non-magical one would work. A non-magical one that he already knew about!
With a groan, he had let his head fall forward to thump repeatedly on the closed book before him... only to be quickly thrown out of the library when Madam Pince turned the corner and saw how he was treating her books.
Harry swore to himself then and there that he would never let the prospect of a magical solution get in the way of a non-magical one, especially one that he already knew.
Over the next few days, Harry tried to meditate just like he had seen on the telly, only to fail quite spectacularly. It seemed that every time he tried to meditate, his brain would go off on a crazy tangent and begin turning over the most seemingly useless thing imaginable; most noticeably quidditch. Why Patterson, the seventh-year prefect, had to prattle on with his continual bizarre questions about quidditch, Harry would never know.
The problem Harry was having was that even though he knew what it looked like when someone was meditating, he actually had no idea what they were doing.
In a bout of frustration, he had tracked down Su Li a week later, who was once again in the library where she revising for their end of year examinations which where... two months away? Hmm, he had thought at the time, when was that the right time to start revising?
After a short conversation in which Harry had given a rather vague reason for his need, Su had agreed to teach him some basic meditation. A task that had taken a lot more time that he had expected it would, even given his initial troubles.
Now don't get take that the wrong way. Harry was very grateful for these rather tedious lessons as after only a week he was already showing some very positive results in reigning in his weird future-seeing-imaginationy-thing. He had also been rather pleased when he was eventually able to sit through a whole day of classes again without drifting off to the middle of nowhere or getting distracted by voices that weren't actually there. By the time the end of the school-year rolled around, he was confident that he finally had this rather disconcerting ability of his under control.
It is therefore understandable that on the evening of the day of their Charms exam, he found himself to be suitably confused and more than a little bit spooked when the unexpected happened.
~oOo~
The end of examinations marked the closing of an important chapter in the lives of the first-year students at Hogwarts. Throughout the castle there was jubilation at the thought of surviving the first year of magical education, with each house celebrating in their own fashion.
Hufflepuff House was no different in this fact. However, given that particular house's reputation for consideration, their jubilation was kept to a warded-off portion of their common room which prevented them from disturbing the fifth through seventh year students, who still had a week to go before their examinations would be complete. It was in this portion of the common room where Megan, Hannah and Harry had been sitting, having been taught how to play a muggle card game by Justin.
"I think that's me for the night," said Justin as he failed to desperately to fight off a yawn.
"One more game. Please?" begged Hannah.
"You've still got three players," he replied as he stood up, "That's enough to play."
Megan, who had never played the game before, couldn't see how playing Last Card with just three people would work so quickly scanned the crowd to see if she could spot any other people around her that she knew and was raised in the muggle world. Never before had she realised that a simple muggle game could be so addictive. Finally she spotted a head of black and yellow hair weaving its way towards the girl's dormitory.
"Hey, Tonks!" she called out.
The girl in question stopped and looked around those in the common room, trying to find who had called her. Seeing Megan waving her over, she moved to investigate.
"What's up?"
"Do you know how to play Last Card?"
The older girl blinked at her. "Last Card?"
"Yeah, the game. Justin just went to bed, and I was looking for someone to sit in for him."
Hannah nodded her head in agreement as the Tonks stared at them in slight bewilderment before roving her eyes over the table and the players around it.
"I don't know, I think you might have lost another player too," she said as she cocked her head slightly
Megan followed the girls gaze with a confused frown and spotted Harry staring at a pare of cards in his hand.
"Harry?"
There was no answer.
"Harry, are you awake there?" Hannah asked as she waved her hand in front of his face.
The boy suddenly moved, making Hannah jump in her seat. He was now facing the common room door, and Megan could see that his eyes were looking somewhat worried.
"No," Harry murmured so quietly that only Hannah heard him, before he suddenly launched himself from his seat and took of towards the common room door.
Hannah and Megan sat there for a few moments, both of them in shock over her friends sudden odd behaviour. However, Hannah's expression quickly turned to to panic when she remembered the last time she had seen Harry with a blank expression like that. It had been only moments later when she had had to stop him from jumping from the castle's battlements.
She shared a quick glance with Megan before she them took off after him, with her friend hot on her heals.
"Oy, curfew is in ten minutes!" yelled Tonks as she she watched in confusion at the three first-years dashing out the door.
Shaking her head tiredly, she turned back towards her dorm room. Professor Sprout's detentions had been getting worse as the year drew to a close. She never realised just how much work needed to be done in the greenhouses at the end of the year. It also hadn't helped that Sprout had left her to do all the work by herself tonight.
~oOo~
Cartomancy, also known as the art of using playing cards for divination, had been one of many divination techniques that Harry had read about in the past few months. It was also one of the first ones that had been discredited by most of the books that he had read.
Each one had a slightly different argument, but each one was rooted in the common principle that the interpretation of the cards was too easily changed to be considered a trust-worthy method of divination; unlike Tarot reading, where each card had set meanings. As such, Harry had paid the technique even less attention than any other others.
He would soon discover that this was, in fact, what made Cartomancy so potent.
~oOo~
Harry had waved goodnight to Justin and soon set about picking up the cards so they could be be dealt again. He had almost collected them all when something caught his eye. A pair of cards that were still on the table were lying face up and they tugged at something in his mind.
Blinking in confusion, he placed the rest of the deck back on the table and picked up the pair: the Queen of Hearts and the Knave of Spades. Something about these cards was... off.
Blood. Dripping white, dripping red.
Harry frowned. White blood? Why did queen card remind him of blood? Sure, it was the Queen of Hearts, and hearts pumped blood, but... it seemed like there was...
"Step aside"
"I will not let you go any further."
"Fool, you cannot stop me."
Where had he heard that before? Was this real or just his imagination?
Lights.
Red, green, blue, silver, purple red, blue, mauve; accompanied by a cacophony of noise.
Thump.
A body bounced off a wall and fell to the floor, into a large puddle of blood, by a great shadow.
Where did he know these people from? Why was he thinking these things?
Short.
A bit dumpy looking.
Flyaway hair.
Blank eyes that usually held so much cheer and kindness.
Professor Sprout.
Harry froze at that revelation. What had happened? Was this... was that... had that been the future? Or... what if... what if it wasn't?
Were was Professor Sprout going to be tonight? Was she hurt? Where had all that blood come from? Was she...
Harry snapped his head to the common room entrance. He began feeling a bit light-headed at the mental image of her blank eyes. Was she... was she... dead?
"No," he murmured as he sprung from his seat.
Imagination or not, future or not, he needed to know. He couldn't just pass it off as if she could be lying hurt... or worse.
Racing out of the common room he hung a left an sped down the corridor, heading towards the nearest staircase. Professor Sprout's office was one floor above them, close to where she held her theory lectures.
With each step that Harry took, a sense of urgency grew in him. A feeling that he needed to hurry, that something bad was going to happen unless someone intervened.
Taking the stairs three at a time, he grabbed the railing at the top and hauled himself around the corner. Racing down the Professor's corridor, he saw her office door in the distance. Even when running as fast as he was, it felt like the door was taking forever to get any closer.
Finally reaching his destination, he raised his hand to pound on the door, only for it to swing open on the first knock.
And it was empty.
"No... No, no, no," he repeated to himself as he gripped his hair in his hands.
It looked like she had left in a hurry. There was scattered parchment on the floor; most likely knocked off. Her chair was balancing on the verge of toppling and there was a half-drunk cup of tea on her desk. Harry didn't need to check it; it smelt cold.
At least there was no blood.
The feeling of urgency, however, was still increasing.
"Harry..." gasped Megan as she came up beside him, "why... did you run off like that?"
Harry groaned as he madly scanned the corridor around him, trying to guess where Professor Sprout had gone. He vaguely registered that Hannah had followed him as well. "I need to find Professor Sprout. Now"
"Well, she's probably... waiting for -" Hannah gasped.
Harry spun around to face her. "What? Waiting for what?" he asked frantically. He saw a look of concern flash through his friend's eyes, but shrugged it off; she didn't know what was happening.
Heck, even he didn't know what was happening. Part of him was even beginning to question his sanity at this point. All he knew what that there was some overwhelming... feeling... that he needed to find Professor Sprout.
He needed to find her. Now.
"Well," Hannah began hesitantly, "she's probably waiting for some Gryffindors that we overheard were going to try and get past Fluffy tonight."
Harry turned to look down the corridor towards the other side of the castle. Why would any student be crazy enough to try and get past Fluffy?
Was a student going to hurt Professor Sprout? That shadow...
Fluffy!
"I will not let you go any further."
"Fool, you cannot stop me."
That voice. He knew that voice. He could recognise it, even without the stutter.
Harry's voice contorted in anger. "Quirrell," he growled as he took off running.
Before the girls could properly register the name of one of their professors being spoken with such malice, Harry was running again.
Not much about his environment registered with Harry as he ran. Not the passages, not the doorways and not the last moving staircase as it swung into position to provide Harry with access to the forbidden corridor. Not even as he almost knocked someone over while they waited for the staircase to move back to where it was previously.
There were more important things to worry about. Like the open door that was supposed to be locked.
Harry drew his wand and finally slowed down just inside the forbidden corridor. He didn't bother with lighting it as the sconces along the wall were lit this time. He took a moment to catch his breath though before he carefully jogged down towards the Fluffy's door.
"Harry, stop!"
He finally registered footsteps pounding behind him and knew that he had been followed again. He could see the door to Fluffy's room was open and was almost there...
"Petrificus Totalus!"
Without warning, Harry dropped his wand as his legs snapped together and his arms snapped to his sides. He stood there, wobbling for a second or two, before finally falling backwards, hitting his head on the stone floor. Reflexively, he made to cry out in pain when stars exploded in front of his eyes, but he quickly learned that he wasn't able to even grunt.
"What the hell... do you think... you're doing?" scolded Megan as she leaned over his head, hands on knees, gasping for breath.
She had her wand in her hand, so Harry could only assume that she had been the one to jinx him. He tried to answer, but the only thing he could move were his eyes, which didn't help with the corridor started twisting before them.
The petrification spell was eventually removed by Hannah and his hands immediately went to his head as he rolled over and groaned in pain.
"Harry!"
"Are you all right?"
"Oh, Gods! Harry, I'm so sorry, I didn't realise..."
The piercing voices were quickly cut of and Harry felt a small pair of hands gently grab his head. Before he could ask what was happening, delicate figures positioned themselves within his hair, pressed into his scalp and... 'twisted in both directions at the same time' was the closest way that he could describe the motion (even if he knew that such a thing was impossible). Soon enough he felt a surge of soothing warmth fill his head.
Blinking his eyes open the corridor was thankfully still once again and the pain was gone, and with it the fingers. Harry slowly sat up and turned to face whoever it was that had helped him.
He blinked in surprise. "Su?"
It was the same girl that had taught him how to meditate. What was she doing here?
"The pain is only gone for a short time," she said, her voice soft but clear. "I have not been learning long enough to make it go away permanently."
"How..." Megan whispered, giving voice to the question forming on Harry's lips.
The Ravenclaw opened her mouth to respond, but looked torn about what to say. Eventually she smirked slightly. "A type of magic," she replied.
"Wow," commented Megan, "I've never seen a healer do anything like that before."
Her stunned expression didn't last long, though, as she angrily turned towards Harry.
"And you! What do you think you're doing running though the school like a mad man on fire? And into the forbidden corridor as well!"
Harry's eyes bulged. "Professor Sprout!"
Scrambling, he grabbed his fallen wand and made to stand up only to be surprised to see Hannah holding her visibly shaking wand on him. Glancing at Megan, she too had her wand still in hand.
"Harry, I don't want to have to jinx you again, but you're scaring me. Can you please tell us why you're trying to get yourself eaten by Fluffy," Hannah pleaded.
"Professor Sprout. She's hurt, I know it. We have to help her."
"Harry, you-" Hannah broke off her rebuke as Harry's words clicked home with her. Harry Knew. "You... you know?"
"Yes! She's hurt!"
Hannah hesitated only for a moment while Megan looked at her in confusion, but it was enough time to allow Su's pained voice to sound down the corridor.
"Come, quick!" she called.
The group of Hufflepuffs froze at sound, before turning as one to the spot where the lone ravenclaw had been.
Only she wasn't there any more.
Turning back towards Fluffy's door, Harry saw her sliding down the wall next to Fluffy's door she had her eyes clenched shut and was currently wrapping her arms tightly around herself, as if warding off a bad chill. Obviously, the inquisitive ravenclaw had slipped away from them and decided to check out the open door; but what had she seen to make her react like so?
Making the most of the momentarily stunned nature of his friends, Harry sprang from where he was seated and dashed passed his house-mates.
Upon reaching the doorway, Harry stumbled in shock. Fluffy, the three headed dog that had chased them out of this very room earlier in the year, lay dead. His body skewered by massive silver spikes and his blood slowly spreading out in a large pool.
Shaking himself from his shock, he glanced around the room and spotted off to the side what he had hoped he wouldn't. Professor Sprout, laying in the pool of blood.
"Oh, Merlin," someone groaned behind him while Harry made his way around the fallen guardian. The sound of someone vomiting soon reached his ears.
"Is... Is she..." Megan couldn't bring herself to finish the question from the doorway. As it was, she couldn't stop shaking at the sight.
"She's alive, but she looks bad," Harry replied worriedly as he crouched down and heard a gurgling sound as her chest slowly rose and fell. There was so much blood he didn't know what was hers or what was Fluffy's. He looked desperately towards Megan, his mind still reeling from the shock of seeing his Head of House like this, "I don't know what to do to help her. She needs Madam Pomfrey."
~oOo~
Megan glanced around herself. Harry was crouching next the broken body of their Head of House, Hannah was trying to not to lose the rest of her dinner and the girl from Ravenclaw was still sitting there with here eyes closed muttering in something that clearly wasn't English.
Didn't Harry call her Sue? Since when were there two Suzans in their year? Or was she just a rather short second-year?
"Hannah," she called out, "we need Madam Pomfrey. Go to the Hospital Wing and tell her what's happened."
Hannah grimaced as she spat out the taste of bile before nodding and taking off to fetch the school's resident healer, all the while carefully avoiding having to look inside the room again.
Turning to the ravenclaw, Megan thought of another thing that needed doing. Someone had killed Fluffy and hurt Professor Sprout, meaning that they were probably trying to steal the Philosopher's Stone. Somebody needed to tell a professor.
"Sue. Sue!" Megan snapped her fingers in front of the unresponsive girl, causing her to jump and open her eyes. Megan couldn't help but notice how shaken they seemed.
"You need to find a professor, any professor. Tell them... tell them..." Tell them what? She didn't know much herself. "Tell them what has happened here. And tell them that that the trapdoor is open."
Megan blinked at her own voice. The trapdoor was open? Quickly poking her head back in the room she confirmed that she hadn't been imagining things and the trapdoor was in fact open... and Harry was jumping down!
"Harry! NO!"
~oOo~
Harry pulled his gaze away from Megan and back to Sprout. He had found her, but that sense of urgency was still there. And he now had actual proof that he wasn't going crazy; that he was in fact doing some sort of wacky divination thing.
And boy did Fluffy really need a bath. Not that it would do him much good now...
"My God, that thing smells worse than week old socks"
Harry frowned as the smell of a smelly (and now dead) cerberus was replaced with the smell of Zach's shoes. Why did the memory of Zach's shoes pick now, of all times, to force its was into his mind?
"It's grabbing me!"
Fire.
"There was only enough for one"
Blood.
"Useless boy!"
Death.
Harry groaned quietly as his eyes slid over to the open trapdoor; he recognised another voice. Hermione Granger. She was down there, along with... Longbottom? Harry scowled. He was beginning to understand the animosity Megan had for the general lack of common sense that the gryffindors of their year seemed to share.
But still, Harry thought as he made his way to the trapdoor, the blood made sense as he could see pouring down the trapdoor into darkness, but fire? death? Looking down the trapdoor, he saw... Darkness. A cold chill ran down his spine causing him to close his eyes and take a cleansing breath at that chilling thought.
Just as Su had taught him; in through the nose and out through the-
His eyes snapped open mid-breath as he caught the mental image of Longbottom being tossed through the air. He groaned again and gave into the need to roll his eyes. Somebody was going to have to get down there and stop them from getting themselves killed.
Accepting the inevitable, he jumped down the trapdoor.
"Har-"
Harry landed with a frown on something soft and he looked up wondering why Megan's call had suddenly been cut off. The frown deepened when he couldn't see the light of the room above (he could have sworn he hadn't fallen that far).
"Megan?" he called out.
There was no reply. He was just about to cast the Lumos spell to see how deep the trapdoor was when he heard a squeal coming from above him, causing him to look up.
"Ompf."
"Oww," Harry groaned. That was the second time tonight that his head had impacted something.
"Sorry, I didn't know you were there."
"Ever heard of looking before you leap?" Harry groused as he rubbed his again aching head.
"Ha! Says the boy who jumped first. And I did look... I just couldn't see you," Megan's voice trailed off as she realised how lame that argument sounded.
"So you decided to follow?" he queried. "Didn't you hear me call you?"
"What? No, did you hea-argh!"
"Megan?" Harry called out into the darkness at Megan's scream.
"There something down here!" Megan cried. "Lumos!"
By the light of Megan's wand tip, Harry saw just what it was that had made his landing so soft: Devil's Snare, and it had already wrapped itself around his legs.
He snapped his head up to where Megan was standing amongst the vines. "Megan, don't move!" he called out, a part of his brain remembering having read that Devil's Snare could sense movement.
His friend wasn't listening to him, though, and she wildly moved around, trying to find somewhere safe amongst the deadly moving plant. His eyes widened when he saw her begin to back up to where the vines had tried to grow up and out of the trapdoor.
"MEGAN! STOP!"
Megan continued to back up and screamed once more while Harry watched in horror as the vines moved from the wall and began to wrap around her. With his heart pounding in the realisation that he had may have lead them both to their deaths, Harry's mind kicked into overdrive as he desperately tried to remember what the book that he had read had said about how to evade Devil's Snare.
Devil's Snare, Devil's Snare. How did you stop Devil's Snare his mind repeated over and over again.
He knew it was a plant that was unique in how it thrived in the darkness and hid from the sunlight. He knew that it was a carnivorous plant, and chose to pull its victims beneath the soil where it's roots could burrow into the body. It was a very dangerous plant, one that they wouldn't be studying in detail for another few years. It was... it was...
Harry blinked.
It was a plant. Plants burned.
Fire!
He had seen Tonks light a fire once with her wand. What was the spell she had used? Incidi... insensi... Oh Crap! Where was his wand?
Harry did his best to look around him without moving, using only the faint light given off by Megan's flickering wand (so long as she was still making some sort of noise, she was okay, he mentally tolk himself). He had had it in his hand a moment ago... then Megan landed on him... he had fallen down... his right arm had fallen outwards...
There!
Off to the side was his wand, a pale grey amongst the dark green of the vines. Realising that he would likely only get one shot at this, he twisted around as best he could (he did have Devil's Snare wrapped around his legs, after all) and flung his torso across the vines, his arm reaching out, hand grasping at his wand, fingers closing... around vine.
Crap.
He was too short.
Desperately, he tried to pull himself over the vine, closer to his wand. He still couldn't remember which spell Tonks had used, but without his wand it would be useless information anyway. He knew moving was stupid, but Megan was panicking so it was up to him to get them out of here; so he pulled, he kicked, he tugged, he squirmed, all actions he wanted Megan to not do.
With each twitch of muscle, he felt more vines wrap around him, his legs, his arms, his torso, and (even worse) his head and neck. He felt them tighten and he could feel his lungs begin to burn as the vines began to constrict him.
On the edge of his mind, he registered that Megan's wand-light had failed, but he could still see his own wand a half-foot away from his hand, almost as if it were mocking him, sitting there glowing amongst the darkness.
The glow of his wand was slowly replaced with black splotches and the burning in his lungs began intensifying. Realisation sluggishly dawned on him. He was suffocating. He couldn't breath and his lungs were on fire from the sensation. He felt panic bubble within him and he clenched his eyes shut at the sensation of the burning feeling seeping out of his lungs and into his blood and muscles.
It burned. Oh God, it burned so much, it almost felt like he was burning from the inside out!
~oOo~
Megan struggled against the vines that had wrapped themselves around her as they tried to drag her to the ground. She cried out to Harry to help her, but he didn't. Dear Merlin, she didn't want to die. Not here. Not like this. Not in the Dark.
She let out a desperate cry as her wand fell from her grasp causing the room they were in to be plunged into darkness. Almost immediately, more vines moved in on her and she could feel them coil around her, trying to drag her down below them. Oh Gods, she mentally cried out, she was too young to die.
It was then that it happened.
It started out with the hairs on the back of neck all standing on end and a subtle glow that came from somewhere behind her and allowed her to see the wall before her. It seem that she had been turned around in her struggling. The glow stayed that way for a few moments, in which the vines stilled. Then, quicker than she could slam her eyes shut, intense light burst forth causing the plant to begin writhe around her. Even with her eyes closed, she could still clearly see its brightness through her eyelids.
She wasn't sure how long it was before the light faded, but when it did she realised that the vines were no longer moving and... Gods, she gagged at the stench. It smelled like somebody had burned cabbage. Pushing and pulling at the vines around her, she was surprised to see them break away easily.
Quickly freeing herself, she started feeling around. As soon as her wand was in her hand, the tip was glowing with another Lumos spell and Megan was blinking the spots out of her vision so she could look around.
The plant, vine, whatever it was... was dead, or at least it looked dead. And there, on a bare patch of burnt ground, was Harry... lying there... not moving...
Rapidly making her way to him, she let out a laugh of relief as a groan escaped him before helping him to sit up.
"What happened?" he asked in a daze as he swayed there and looked around the room.
Megan told him what she had seen of the mysterious light and how it had seemed to kill the plant; all the while frowning at the burnt ground around Harry. It didn't take much to convince her that Harry had done something to the plant. But how could he not know what he had done? Was it some type of accidental magic?
Well, whatever it was, it seemed to have taken a toll on him judging by how he was swaying on the spot.
Dragging her thoughts and gaze back to Harry, in the here and now, she noticed that he once again had a blank expression on his face while he stared over towards a low tunnel in one corner of the room. She was about to give him a friendly slap to wake him up when he seemed to snap out of it and began making his way towards the tunnel.
"Harry, you idiot," Megan called out, "whoever attacked Professor Sprout is probably down there!"
"I know he is," Harry replied with a grim voice. "So are some wayward Gryffindors."
Megan stared after him for a moment. What the hell was he talking about?
~oOo~
Hedwig awoke with a squawk. Ruffling her feathers in irritation she eyed the perches around her, looking for the bird that had dared to wake her. Not seeing any, she settled back down again to sleep. Her charge was safe in his underground nest, so there was no reason why she shouldn't rest as well, even if she did have to do it amongst these annoying pigeons.
It had taken a fair bit of work, but she had eventually been able to dominate the majority of the lowly mail carriers. Most had been resistant at first, thinking of her and her parliament to be nothing but common wild owls that weren't worthy of doing the bidding of the magic users. She had soon shown them, though. Her training had ensured that she was able to take on any that dared to say that to her face. She wasn't some lazy mail carrier, she was a trained watcher!
Just as she was drifting off again, a jolt ran through her feet causing her to jump off her perch with a startled squawk. That had never happened before.
Tentatively, she lowered herself onto another perch. She wasn't sure what had just happened but she definitely didn't want it to happen again. Closing her eyes she, again, settled back down for some rest. As if on queue, another jolt ran through her feet causing her to take to the air one more time.
Now she was thoroughly confused. Why would the perches be trying to prevent her from getting any sleep? It made no sense; perches weren't supposed to do that, they were supposed to just sit there, waiting to be used.
She flew a couple of slow circles around the owlery, glaring at the perches that seemed to be denying her her rest. It was almost as though they were doing it on purpose, if such a thing was even possible. But that didn't make sense as there was really only ever one reason why she would need to forsake sleep.
It was that lone thought that made Hedwig freeze in mid-flight, causing her to almost crash into the owlery wall before she caught herself. With a determined flap of her wings, she twisted hard to the right and rolled out the nearest window.
Click-click-hoot and Brill-hic were scouting the path back to Surrey. Hic-hic-twill and Twoo-twick were off hunting. She was all on her own... and her charge was in danger.
~oOo~
"Tell me again, why are we're doing this?" Megan complained as she wiped... something off of her hand. They had been crawling through this tunnel for a while now and she couldn't see the end to it.
"You didn't have to follow, you know."
Megan snorted. "Harry, when are you going to learn? Hufflepuffs stick together."
"Certainly didn't look that way earlier," he murmured quietly
Megan cringed at the edge of coldness in his voice. She had only really seen Harry angry once before and she couldn't help but feel ashamed at being the cause of it that time as well.
"I really am sorry, Harry," she replied quietly. Is was loud enough for the small tunnel though. "You have to admit, though, that it looked to us like you had gone stark raving mad. If you'd just told us before you ran off like that then we probably wouldn't have reacted that way."
Harry stopped in front of her and he saw him lower his head. Even though she couldn't see them, she could tell that he had his gorg... eyes! His eyes closed. There was nothing, nothing, gorge... pret... hans... grrr! Nothing... special about Harry's eyes. Nothing at all. Well, nothing except for the fact that they looked a hell of a lot better than her's.
A rogue, worrying thought violently bounced around her mind before she could shake it off. Harry truly didn't have any type of veela thing going on; right?
"It's... it's... complicated, okay?" he said finally. "I... just... know things; you know? Hannah said it was Divination. But... I don't know any more. I mean, Divination is about knowing something that is yet to happen. But... Professor Sprout... I think I knewthat after it happened.
"Come on, I think I can see the exit up ahead."
Megan blinked at her friend as he moved onwards. Divination. That was just... wow. She hadn't been expecting that answer. Yet, she guessed that it did explain a few odd things about her friend. Following behind him, there was indeed an exit, even if Megan couldn't see it until she was almost through it.
Exiting, they emerged into a large cavern with a lone door at the other end.
"What's that noise?" Megan asked before looking up. "Merlin," she whispered. "How did they get all those birds down here?"
Harry wasn't interested in the birds and was already trying to open a door that was in the room. Running up to join him, she was just in time to hear him growl at the door.
"Locked."
"Have you tried the unlocking charm?"
"Yes!"
"Okay, okay. No need to get snippy. If the gryffindors are down here already then there has to be some way to open it," she responded as she cast her eyes over the room.
Something caught her eye and she moved to investigate.
"Um, Harry? Take a look at this."
Harry joined her and she showed him what she had found. A broomstick. A broken broomstick.
"A broomstick?" he queried. "Well this room is certainly big enough to fly in."
Looking up, Harry was the first to make the connection. "Keys. They're not birds, they're keys!"
"Look!" Megan called excitedly. "Over there, there's one with a broken wing that looks different. That has to be the key to the door."
"See if you can find another broomstick," Harry ordered as he began looking as well.
It turned out that they were out of luck; the only broomstick that was in the room was the broken one. It seemed that whoever was the last one though here had taken any other broomsticks with them.
"Stupid, bloody gryffindors," Megan groused.
"Why would someone leave broomsticks lying around anyway?" Harry asked. "I mean, it's a bit stupid don't you think? Especially when the key is right up there."
Megan raised an eyebrow at that thought. "More to the point, why is the key flying around up there. Locking a door and then leaving the key to unlock it next to the door is pretty dumb."
She saw Harry nod in contemplation at her comment as she made her way back to the door. There had to be another way to open it.
"Harry? When you guys came across Fluffy that first time, you said that Peeves unlocked the door?"
"Yeah," he called out. Megan looked over his shoulder to see him still trying to work out how to get the key. "How did he do it again?"
"He stuck his hand in the lock and did... something... I don't know really, but I doubt we can just jam our hand in a lock like he can."
"Hmm. Well, can we remove the lock?"
"Maybe, I mean it would depend on the type of..." Harry's voice drifted off and Megan began to worry if he was having another... episode.
Just as she was about to go over and shake him back to reality, Harry came bounding over to join her at the door. She could see the excitement in his eyes and it made her curious as to what he had just thought of.
"Last year," he began as he began examining the edge of the door, "my cousin broke the door to his room. My Uncle made me help to replace it and I learned something interesting about doors."
Megan was a bit confused as to why Harry would have to help replace a door that his cousin broke and was about to ask him when she saw him point his wand at a point above him.
"Wingardium Leviosa," he intoned with the necessary swish and flick.
Megan blinked at the odd choice of spell yet she clearly heard a scraping sound followed by the tinkling of metal falling to the floor. Harry turned around to face her with a million-galleon grin on his face.
"Hinge pins aren't fixed in place. They just sit in the hinges."
Megan had no idea what a hinge pin was, but she watch as Harry repeated the process two more times before stepping back from the door.
"Now what?" she asked.
"This," Harry replied before charging at the door, ramming one of his shoulders into it.
There was an almighty crash as the door spun out of the doorway and landed on the floor, along with Harry.
"Harry!" she yelled as she ran up to her fallen friend.
"Ow," Harry groaned as he sat up, rubbing his shoulder. "Remind me never to do that again."
"You prat!" she scolded as she hit him on his other shoulder.
"Hey! I got it open didn't I?"
She chose not to dignify that particular question with an answer. Instead she chose to examine a small brass object that was lying next to Harry.
"So this is hinge pin?"
"Yeah, I... ah... um, Megan? Why is there a giant chess set under the castle?"
"I have no idea," Megan replied slowly as she too took in the view of the seven-foot high chess pieces.
"I wonder if he does"
Megan turned to where Harry was pointing and spotted someone lying off to the side of the chess set. She joined him in taking a closer look.
"Urgh, why did it have to be him?" she complained.
"I know. I wonder what he's doing here, though. I thought it was just Granger and Longbottom
"Oy, Weasley!" Harry yelled and gave a slap the red-haired nuisance's face. It didn't help though, the boy was out cold.
"What are you two doing here?"
The two Hufflepuffs spun around at the new voice. Hermione Granger was standing in a doorway at the other side of the giant chess board, looking at them with a very surprised expression.
"Looking for you, apparently," Megan called out to her.
The young Gryffindor stepped onto the board to approach them, only to squeal and duck as one of the black bishops swung its mace at her. The king next to it joined in and struck out with its sword, causing the young girl to seek refuge back from the doorway.
"Oh no, I'm useless at chess," she bemoaned.
Megan was amazed, Miss I-Know-Everything admitting that she couldn't do something?
"Since when do chess pieces try to take someone's head off?"
Harry's bewildered voice brought her back to reality and was about to answer when Miss I-Know-Everything bet her to it.
"It's called Wizard's Chess. The chess pieces are enchanted to attack when they take one of the opposing pieces. It's completely barbaric if you ask me. Anyway, this is of Professor McGonagall's making and you need to play your way across the board to get to the other side and now it looks like I'm going to be stuck here because I just can't play chess like Ronald can."
Megan could only blink as she realised that Granger had said that all in breath. That girl really had a set of lungs on her. What she had said soon caught up with her though.
"Wait, you're saying we have play our way across the board?"
"Yes, that's what I just said," the gryffindor huffed back at her. "I never would have thought that Ronald was a master chess player if I hadn't seen it for myself. He even went and defeated McGonagall's own chess set. However, the fool went and let himself get knocked out just so we could get through; and now I have to wait for Neville so we can try and play our way out. I only hope that he manages to stop Professor Snape."
"It's not Snape," Harry mumbled.
Megan turned to her friend and her eyes widened when she saw that he was holding his head and swaying slightly. That couldn't be a good thing.
"Harry?"
"It wasn't Snape that attacked Professor Sprout," he said louder before wincing.
"It's wearing off, isn't it? What Sue did..." she asked as she felt like kicking herself at the thought of what she did to him earlier.
Harry nodded as Hermione responded to Harry's comment. "Of course, it's Professor Snape that's down here. We heard him trying to force Quirrell to tell him how to get down here. And what do you mean he attacked Professor Sprout?"
Megan felt a touch of anger bubble in her. She knew that she was guilty of not believing Harry, but Granger would have at least had to have seen that the Herbology Professor had been attacked.
"Do you mean to say," she began as she narrowed her eyes at the Gryffindor, "that you didn't even notice Professor Sprout lying hurt next to Fluffy?"
"What?"
The anger bubbled more. "Professor Sprout. You know, your Herbology professor. She was waiting up there to stop you from coming down here. Only someone got there before you did and they attacked her and left her up there to die, like Fluffy!"
She was yelling by the time she had finished and couldn't help but feel better when she saw the girl before her pale.
"But, but... but Fluffy was gone. There was nothing in the room."
Megan's eyes narrowed in her anger, as she tried to determine if the girl was lying. She knew it was possible to hid things from people, or make people not notice them, but that wouldn't explain why she and the others could see them. In order to see something that isn't noticeable, you had to know what it was and where it was.
Her breath caught in her throat as the answer hid her in the gut. Harry. Harry had known.
"Longbottom," came a strangled gasp beside her.
Spinning around, she saw Harry was now doubled over with his eyes clenched shut and one hand still clasping his head.
"Harry! Are you okay?"
Megan almost hit herself. Of course he wasn't okay!
Harry waved her off. "Longbottom's in trouble. I need to get to him," he continued as he finally started to relax.
Megan was torn about letting him continue. He was looking pale and she knew that his head was troubling him again. Whatever it was that had happened when she petrified him must have been bad.
"Please," he whispered to her. "You have to believe me."
"Okay, okay," she relented, Harry had already more than proven himself tonight. "Any idea how to get past this, though?" she indicated the chess set behind her.
Harry nodded as he stood up straighter. "McGonagall."
"Huh? McGonagall made it, I know, that's what Granger said."
"The first lesson she ever taught me. Never try shrinking an expanded trunk because of the enchantment it has on the inside of it; she called it... um, the principle of... contradictions? No... um, well something like that, anyway. Apparently if I tried to shrink my trunk, it would-"
"Spill out its contents! Of course! It happens all the time with rookie handlers in quidditch teams."
"So all we need to do it work out what contradicts a Wizard's Chess set"
"I don't know, Harry," Granger commented from her refuge in the opposite doorway, "I've never read about such a rule. I mean, surely even if such a thing existed, Professor McGonagall would have already thought of that when she made this."
Megan could have almost strangled Hermione at that point. The girl just couldn't seem to accept that people may know things that she didn't.
"Hermione," Harry called out across the board, "do you know any spell that can make them not move?"
Megan looked at her friend in shock. He asked Granger? Sure, the girl could be a walking textbook at times, but which witch had been raised around magic? Certainly not that one!
"Yes, it's call the Immobilisation Charm, the incantation is 'Imobulus' and uses a standard Half-right Twisted Counter-flick. Bur I already tried that before we had to play our way across. As I said, Professor McGonagall has already thought of these things."
Megan closed her eyes at the condescending tone. It simply amazed her that nobody had gone and jinxed her for it.
Jinxed.
Megan cringed as an idea struck her. Dammit, how many times did she have to say she was sorry. The chess pieces were statues that were enchanted to be human-like. Therefore opposite would have to be to bewitch them into being humans ensorcelled to be statue-like.
"I'm sorry, Harry," she muttered, before pointing her wand at the nearest chess piece. "Petrificus Totalus"
The arms and legs of the bishop snapped together like she hopped they would but instead of falling over, like she had expected, it began to struggle against the petrification jinx. At first she thought that it was going to break free, but soon the three first-years stared at the piece in growing disbelief as it began shuddering and shaking. Cracks began to form on the piece as the shaking got more and more violent. Finally the piece shattered apart, forming a pile of rubble on its square.
Wow, that actually worked? she thought to herself in amazement.
The other chess pieces looked murderous at the sight of their fallen comrade, but seemed to be prevented from advancing on them because of the rules of the game. Taking up the advantage, the two hufflepuffs quickly cleared a path across the chess board.
"No, no, no! That's not possible," the lone gryffindor ranted. "That spell is only for use on people. The books say that it only works on humans! Not animals, not birds, and most definitely not chess pieces! What you did was impossible! The spellbooks say it's impossible!"
Megan watched the pacing gryffindor warily. "Well, at least I now know why you never made it into Ravenclaw."
"And what's that supposed to mean?" Granger yelled as she rounded on Megan, causing her to take a step back.
"Well, it's like my Nana always says: there's much more to magic than books and spells."
Both Megan and Harry winced at the volume of Granger's reply, "But magic is books and spells!"
Edging herself around the girl, Megan dragged Harry down the new corridor. "Come on, Harry. There's still another wayward gryffindor to rescue," she said, only to add much quieter, "though I do wonder whether we should."
"There's no point," the raging girl called out as she ran to catch up with the two Hufflepuffs. "You won't be able to get past the last protection."
A/N: Just a little comment about how they got past the chess set. I mentioned in a note on one of the earlier chapters that I added a few extra rules of magic to make things a bit more interesting (seeing the same things over and over again in fan fiction gets a bit boring for me).
One of these rules is a big one (and is also likely canon in a logical way): It is impossible for something to be a paradox. I.e. Something cannot be two opposing things at the same time. Like left and right, or up and down, big and small, person-like statue and statue-like person. If you try to dos this then the magic tries to avoid the impossible, sometimes violently.