Anima Summa Book 1 - The Mystery of Rhedae

Chapter 9

Labyrinth

The morning of the 4^th April dawned with a mainly clear sky. As the sun pushed its way above the horizon, the few wispy clouds vanished and a glorious spring day was in prospect. Only Harry witnessed the beauty as he poked his head out of the tent. He breathed deeply; feeling refreshed from his restful sleep, and walked out into the garden to start his exercises.

After an hour, Harry saw a smudge of red poke its way out of the tent and Ron, with bleary eyes, groaned, "What´s all this noise? Is there something wrong with you, Harry? Look at the time - it´s only 7 o´clock - it´s still the middle of the night!"

Harry laughed at his friend, "Why don´t you come and join me, Ron? You could do with a bit of exercise."

"No way. Just call me when breakfast´s ready," and the unruly mop of red disappeared back into the tent.

Just then, Harry caught another flash of red out of the corner of his eye and turned to see a smiling Ginny approach. "Morning Harry. How long have you been up? Quite a while by the look of you," she drew her finger down Harry´s shoulder and showed him the perspiration that dripped from it.

"Got to keep up the training, Ginny. Mustn´t let it lapse now - we´ve still got the Slytherins to play you know."

Ginny flopped onto the grass and beckoned Harry to join her, "Hermione´s still sleeping. I heard her come to bed at about 3 o´clock this morning. She´d been reading and making notes for about 7 hours non stop! I got up at midnight and made her a sandwich and a cup of tea - she hardly knew I was there! I thought it´d be best to let her sleep - if there´s one of us who needs to be alert today, it´s her!"

"Yes, I think you´re right. We can call her at 10.30 - that should give her enough time to get ready and we can travel down to Rennes at about 11 o´clock. We´ve got to be there by midday, but we don´t want to arrive too early in case Wormtail shows up."

Ginny frowned at Harry´s reminder of the ever-present dangers surrounding their quest, then she brightened, "Uh, what do you think about Sirius and Ceri, Harry? They´d make a nice couple, don´t you think?" She raised her eyebrows questioningly.

"Oh no, Ginny. Don´t go there. I know what you´re like - I´ve seen you trying to get Charlie and Nadine to connect," he paused and then grinned, "But I think you´re absolutely right - they´d make a great couple. But there´s a lot of painful history there, Ginny. I wouldn´t push things if I were you. If anything´s meant to happen - it´ll happen on its own."

Ginny frowned, "Ok Harry. It´s your call. But the Charlie and Nadine project is mine," she was smiling again, "so watch this space!" Harry rolled his eyes but couldn´t help laughing at the infectious optimism of his young friend.

"What the bloody hell is all this noise!" Ron emerged from the tent, dressed only in his boxers, running his hands through his hair, "Can´t a guy get some sleep in this place?"

"Oh come on Ron," said Ginny, "You´ve had about 10 hours already. Get dressed - and come on, Harry, help me make breakfast. Oh and Ron, we´re letting Hermi sleep in until half past ten - she´s going to need all the rest she can get before we leave."

Millie and Arbuthnot were pleasantly surprised to see breakfast waiting for them when they came into the kitchen. "This is nice," said a smiling Millie, "We´ll have to invite you on our little jaunts more often I think," she looked around the kitchen, "Where´s Hermione?"

"She´s still sleeping Mrs. Granger," said Ginny, "She was up most of the night doing some research. We´re going to Rennes-le-Chateau at about 11 o´clock so we thought we´d leave her in bed for as long as we could."

"How long do intend to be there, today?"

"Oh, I´m not really sure Mrs. Granger," said Harry, "but we could be quite a while. We´ve got a lot to investigate so don´t expect us back before some time this evening. So don´t worry if we´re late."

"Umm," said Millie frowning, "And if I know my daughter, she won´t want to be interrupted by anything as mundane as finding a nice restaurant to have a decent meal. I´ll have a nice little picnic ready to take with you. I think I´ve got just enough time to cook you one of my specialities."

Ron´s ears pricked up, "What´s that, Mrs. Granger?"

"Pizza Margherita. I picked up this gorgeous recipe in Italy a few years ago. Until you´ve tried pizza the way the Italians make it, you haven´t lived!"

"Ron!" Whispered Ginny, "close your mouth. You´re slobbering!"

Everyone laughed as Ron quickly and noisily slapped his lips together, "I can´t wait, Mrs. Granger."

"What´s all this, Mum?" Asked Hermione as she finally made an appearance later that morning. "And where is everybody?"

"They´re out in the garden getting things ready for your little trip today. And since you´re likely to be late home, I´ve made you all a little something to make sure you eat properly."

"Little! Mum, how are we going to carry all that food?"

"Easy, Hermi," said Ron as he came into the kitchen from the garden. He stopped suddenly and put his nose in the air and closed his eyes as a look of pure ecstasy dawned on his face. "What is that gorgeous smell?"

"That´s my pizza, Ron," said Millie, looking pleased. Ron opened his eyes and surveyed a huge mound of packages on the kitchen table, "There´s sandwiches, some chicken drumsticks, a few pies and pasties, potato crisps, some salad and, of course, the pizza."

"Thank you, Mrs. Granger. That´s very kind of you. Now where have you put the food for the others?"

"Ron!" Breathed Hermione, laughing. "Tell the others I´ll have a cup of tea and a piece of toast and I´ll be out in about fifteen minutes."

"Right, Hermi. Take your time - we won´t be leaving for another half hour," and he piled the packages into his arms and walked gingerly out into the garden, balancing them precariously, to pack them into the four rucksacks stored in the tent.

A little later, the three greeted Hermione as she walked over to the tent. "How are you feeling, Hermi? And what have you got there?" asked Harry.

"Fine, Harry. Thanks for letting me sleep in. I found out quite a lot about the golden section last night, and I think we´ll need these things to work out anything we come across relating to phi." She showed them a calculator, some parchments, a measuring tape and several other instruments taken from her Arithmancy set.

"Uh, I think YOU´LL be the one needing them Hermi," said Ron. "I´ll just protect you while you do the calculations."

The four teens grinned and then checked that they had everything before walking into the copse of trees behind the garden.

"Mum made a huge mound of food for us," Hermione told the adults, "Much too much for us four."

"Speak for yourself, Hermi," said Ron with a pained expression as she gave two of the rucksacks to Ceri and Nadine.

"Come on, Ron. Even you couldn´t eat all that," said Harry.

"I´d have had a good go, Harry. Uh, Hermione, you´ve kept the rucksack with the pizzas in I hope?"

"I´ve split them up, Ron - some for us and some for the others. Ok?"

"Thanks, Hermi," said Sirius, "If we can´t finish it all, we´ll keep what´s left for Ron." He looked at his watch, "11 o´clock. Time to get moving, I think."

They all piled into the Land Rover and Nadine slowly pulled onto the track that led to the main road. As they neared Rennes-le-Chateau, they all had serious expressions on their faces as they thought of what lay ahead.

"What are we going to do about the priest?" Said Remus, "It´s Good Friday and he´s bound to have a service planned for midday today."

Nadine glanced at the others, "I think I know what to do. While you kids are in the church, I´ll wait on the path to the church door and intercept him. I´ll pretend that I´m in a bit of pain or something and keep him talking. If you, Ceri, go into the church with them, you can come out and signal when they´ve found the way to the secret and I can then let the priest go."

"That sounds ok, Nadine," said Ceri, "Sirius, Remus and Charlie can keep a look out around the church until we all come out, then the five of us can take up our defensive positions around the kids, as we agreed earlier, as they start on their journey to the secret."

The Land Rover pulled into the main square of Rennes-le-Chateau at 11.50 precisely, and everyone cautiously got out and made their way towards the church. The teens went inside with Ceri while Nadine waited outside, looking up the lane for the priest´s arrival. Sirius, Remus and Charlie spread out around the front of the church and started looking for any sign of activity.

From his hiding place behind a large rock, Wormtail was dismayed at the close protection given to the youngsters, but he had a grim expression on his face, if a rat could have such an expression. He silently made his way behind the church to Apparate to the cave where the Death Eaters were waiting.

Just then, Nadine spotted the priest approaching the church. Again, there was no congregation in sight. As he came near, she flopped onto the ground, holding her stomach, and held her hand out, imploringly, "Father, please help me. I just felt a sudden stabbing pain in my stomach. It hurts so much."

The priest rushed over and bent beside her, "Easy, my child, let me help you over to the bench outside the church."

He gently helped Nadine get to her feet and they slowly walked over to the bench and they both sat down, "Now tell me - exactly where is the pain?"

Inside the church, Ceri watched as the teens spread out around the main aisle, and looked up at the stained glass windows. It was 3 minutes to midday, and they looked expectantly towards the window that showed Jesus instructing his disciples.

"Look there!" exclaimed Ginny pointing to the middle of the aisle. They all looked and saw the image of 3 blue apples slowly moving down the aisle towards the centre.

"What now?" said Ron.

"We have to look for the sign of the teacher. You keep looking at the floor, Ginny. The rest of us will look at the Jesus window."

It was now 2 minutes to midday and the tension inside the church could be cut with a knife.

Outside, meanwhile, Nadine was making a good job of keeping the priest occupied, while Sirius, Charlie and Remus kept watch. Suddenly, Remus spotted movement about 50 yards away at the edge of the cemetery. He signalled to the others and they looked over to where Remus was pointing. They saw the unmistakable black cloak of a Death Eater disappear quickly behind a tree. Sirius moved immediately over to the bench where Nadine was talking to the priest.

"I´m sorry, father," he said, "but you have to leave here immediately. There is danger approaching," he nodded in the direction of the Death Eaters, who at that moment broke cover and started to run towards the front of the church. The priest had a frightened look in his eyes - obviously, he understood English. But he said, "But this young child is in pain. I cannot leave her like this."

"Don´t worry about her father, I´ll make sure she reaches safety. Now go before it´s too late." The priest needed no further prompting and ran over towards the Villa Bethania to seek cover.

"Nadine - go and warn Ceri and the kids. We´ll hold them off as long as we can." The sound of curses and charms filled the air as Nadine rushed into the church and Sirius moved back to his defensive position.

It was 1 minute to midday as Nadine rushed up to Ceri and told her about the attack. They both rushed towards the door, wands in hand, and prepared to hold position there.

It was midday. Suddenly, Hermione and the others saw a bright light within the stained glass window they were watching. Ginny again cried out as she saw another image appear on the front of the aisle floor. The rest looked down and saw a perfect white triangle moving up the aisle towards the image of the blue apples.

"That´s a perfect isosceles triangle," said Hermione, "Of course! The teacher will cast 3 - a 3-sided triangle. Look, it´s almost reached the fruit - It has to join with it. Just like the riddle said."

The triangle and apple images merged at the centre of the aisle, and when the apples were contained exactly within the triangle, both images completely covered one of the white chessboard squares on the floor.

"That´s it," shouted Hermione, "that square must be the starting point of our quest."

"But Hermi," said Ron, "where are we supposed to go from there? I can´t see anything else that shows the way."

"It must be a portal," said Ginny, "you know - like the one Ron opened when we met the Grand Master the other day."

"I think you´re right, Ginny," said Harry, "Come on - let´s see if we can open it."

The four stood, two each side of the square and looked down. Harry took out his wand and touched the square at the centre and said "ALOHOMORA".

The square shimmered, and then vanished to reveal a hole with steps leading steeply down below the floor of the church.

"We´ve found the entrance," whispered Hermione and she looked around the church, "Where´s Ceri?"

The others looked around and Harry exclaimed, "Can you here that? That´s the sound of curses being thrown. The Death Eaters must have shown up. Wait here - I´ll go and see what´s happening."

He moved down the church and went to the door where he saw Nadine and Ceri crouched on the floor, flinging charms towards the left-hand side.

Ceri turned and saw Harry approaching, "Stay back, Harry. It´s Wormtail and about ten other Death Eaters. You keep looking and we´ll hold them off."

"We´ve found the entrance, Ceri. It seems to be a tunnel leading underneath the church. But we can´t go now - we´ll help you fight them off. I´ll go and get the others."

"No, Harry. We´ll be ok. We´ve got our defensive positions worked out and we´ll be able to hold them off for quite some time. You go and start the quest - don´t worry about us."

"But Ceri ..."

Suddenly, Harry heard a loud voice. "ANIMA SUMMA." He jerked his head up and looked around but couldn´t see who was speaking. He looked towards Ceri and Nadine, who showed no sign of having heard anything. He moved back inside the church and saw that his friends were looking around with their mouths wide open - they must also have heard the voice. He went over to Hermione, "Did you hear that?" he asked.

"Yes Harry - we all did."

"ANIMA SUMMA. FIND YOUR WAY TO THE SECRET. DO NOT BE AFRAID FOR YOUR FRIENDS OUTSIDE - THEY WILL BE SAFE. TIME WILL BE EQUALISED."

"You all hear that?" asked Harry. The others nodded.

Ron voiced what the others were thinking, "Who was that? And what did he mean by `time will be equalised´?"

They all shrugged their shoulders and shook their heads.

"All right," said Harry, "We´ll go. But hang on until I go and tell Ceri." He ran back to the church entrance and touched Ceri on the shoulder. She turned her head and looked at him questioningly.

"Ceri - we´re going down under the church. We heard a powerful voice saying that you´d all be safe out here. We´ll be as quick as we can."

"Ok Harry - go. And don´t worry about us."

Harry returned to his waiting friends and went to the hole in the floor. He put his foot on the first step and then paused, looking at his friends, "Goodness knows what we´ll find down there, or how far we´ll have to go. Are you all sure you want to do this?"

The others looked at each other and Hermione said, "Don´t be silly, Harry. Of course we want to do it. We´ve come this far and we want to see it through. And in any case, the Grand Master said that we all have to go."

The four friends grinned at each other, and then Hermione thought for a moment, "The Grand Master said that the way would be difficult and tortuous. And he also said that if we make one false move, we´d be lost forever. Now I get the feeling that we´re about to enter a labyrinth - and there´ll probably be many twists and turns. The tunnel may branch in different directions, so I think it´ll be a good idea if we map our progress. Ginny, will you keep a record on some parchment of the way we go? We´ll then be able to follow the map to find our way back out after we´ve found the secret."

Ginny nodded, "That sound like a very good idea, Hermi." She took some blank parchment and a pencil from Hermione´s rucksack.

"Why don´t we just make marks on the tunnel wall - you know, arrows pointing which way we go?" asked Ron.

"No Ron, we can´t do that," said Harry, "If the Death Eaters break through and get into the church we don´t want to put up a load of sign posts telling them which way we´ve gone."

"Oh right. Sorry - I wasn´t thinking."

Harry grinned at his friend and then took a deep breath, "Ok. Are you all ready?" Everyone nodded with determination.

"Then let the quest begin!"

***

Charlie ducked as the lethal green light whizzed just above his head. The Death Eaters were flinging killing curses thick and fast - but they didn´t appear to be very precise in their aim. He turned to where Sirius was hiding, "These guys are not playing about - tell the others to be very careful."

"I know, Charlie. They seem to be putting down a lot of covering fire - some of them may be trying to outflank us. There´s a weak spot over to our right - I´ll move over to the Calvery - I should be able to cover it there." He shouted to the others, "Try to keep their heads down for a few seconds - I´m going to change my position."

Charlie and Remus started to send curses in the direction where most of the Death Eater fire was coming from, while Ceri and Nadine aimed at any sign of movement. It had the desired effect, and Sirius picked a lull in the curses aimed at them to race from his cover over to the Calvery. He made it - just. As he dived for the cover of the stone cross, green light started to pepper the ground around him. He let out a loud breath and raised himself into a crouching position, peering around his stone cover. He had been right - he could see two Death Eaters creeping along the line of trees to his right, trying to get into the Calvery. He raised his wand and took careful aim but he couldn´t get a clear sight because of the tree cover. He then raised his wand and aimed at a large tree branch under which the Death Eaters were creeping.

"FLIPENDO," he shouted and a ball of energy left his wand and struck the branch at the point where it met the main tree trunk. The Death Eaters were thrown to the ground as a dense bundle of leaves and branches fell on them, leaving them exposed to Sirius´ fire. He sent `Stupify´ spells in their direction, but the Death Eaters´ fear lent them a burst of speed as they rushed back to join the main throng of black-cloaked figures.

Sirius grinned and settled down for a long wait.

***

"Harry´s owl - Hedwig - delivered a message this morning, Arthur," Dumbledore sat at the kitchen table at The Burrow, facing Arthur and Molly Weasley. They had a worried expression on their faces.

"Are they all right, Professor?" Asked Molly anxiously.

"Yes, yes - don´t worry Molly. They´re all ok. It seems that when I sent the note giving them your information, Charlie had already made contact with them. It seems that he and a French girl - the sister of Charlie´s magical creatures contact in the Langedoc - were in Rennes-le-Chateau at the same time as the kids and their protectors. They´ve now joined the team and Charlie´s keeping a brotherly eye on Ron and Ginny."

"Oh thank goodness," said Arthur, "You´ve mentioned the protectors before, Professor, who are they? Do I know any of them?"

"Wait a minute, Arthur," said Molly. At the mention of the French girl, her ears had pricked up and a gleam had come into her eyes, "Tell me, Professor, who´s this French girl?"

"Her name´s Nadine Blanc, Molly," Dumbledore said with a grin, "and before you ask any more questions, no - I don´t know if she and Charlie are an item. I gather they´re very friendly with each other but beyond that, I don´t know."

"Well it´s about time Charlie settled down and found a nice girl. I´ve lost patience with Bill, but I thought Charlie would have been married by now."

"Molly," said Arthur knowingly, "I can see that look in your eye but you don´t even know if Charlie and this girl like each other that way. Now don´t go interfering!" He grinned slyly at Dumbledore, "Right Professor, you were about to tell us about the support team."

"Yes Arthur. They´re the best people I´ve got - you know, of course, that I couldn´t get any aurors from the Ministry, but these three are right up to the job. Ceri Jones is an American special auror, seconded to my team from the United States. You both know Remus Lupin, of course - my Defence Against the Dark Arts professor. And finally, my most trusted helper, Sirius Black. He ..."

Dumbledore was interrupted by a loud shriek that erupted from Molly Weasley. Arthur had suddenly gone very pale, "Professor Dumbledore - is that Sirius Black the escaped killer from Azkaban?"

"The very same, Arthur," he held up his hands to ward off the expected volley of protests and continued, "I thought you may have heard the odd rumour at the ministry. Sirius Black is innocent of all charges. Indeed, the wizard he´s supposed to have killed - Peter Pettigrew - is leading the band of Death Eaters opposing them in France. He was the one who killed the Muggles fourteen years ago - he´s a rat Animagus, and you may not believe this, but he was living with you for a long time - Scabbers."

Molly and Arthur gasped and stared disbelieving at Dumbledore.

"Sirius has been working for me for over a year now - he´s done some very difficult and dangerous work keeping track of Voldemort. I can´t think of anyone better to whom I´d entrust the safety of the four kids."

Dumbledore paused and a grim expression crossed his face, "I won´t lie to you both - there has been a Death Eater attack on the kids and I very much doubt it will be the last. It was Ron´s quick reactions that prevented any of them getting hurt and gave them the time for the protectors to fight them off."

"Professor Dumbledore," said Molly, "Don´t you think it would be best to bring them home? I mean, if things are getting that dangerous ..." she trailed off at a loss for words.

"I´m sorry, Molly, but this has got to be done. I told you before how important it is that Harry uncovers the secret, and Hermione, Ron and Ginny have been destined to be his helpers. This is the key to defeating Voldemort. Look, even as we speak, your children are helping to write wizarding history. When this whole epic comes to the attention of the wizarding public - and it will - I´ll see to that - their names will be held in the highest esteem throughout the world. You should be proud of them - I certainly am."

A tear rolled down Molly´s face and Arthur put a protective arm around her shoulders, "We are proud of them anyway, Professor, whether they write history or not. We just hope they´ll come out of this safely."

***

Harry slowly led the way down the steps that fell steeply below the church. After a few minutes, the steps came to an end and the four stood at the entrance to a tunnel. They could see in the dim light that filtered down from the church above, that the tunnel was roughly hewed from the rock, about 6 feet high and four and a half feet wide. Jagged pieces of rock jutted from the ceiling and the sides of the tunnel, so they would have to proceed in single file. Suddenly they jumped as the light from above was cut off, plunging them into darkness. The pitch black seemed to envelope them and sent a shiver down Ginny´s spine. She reached out to touch her brother, wanting the comfort of familiar contact in the deathly darkness.

"Ahhhh... Gerroff ... Gerroff ...." The others jumped again as Ron erupted.

"LUMOS," Hermione held her wand above her head, the light filling the narrow entrance in which they were standing. Ron was dancing about like a crazed animal, swatting at his shoulder.

Ginny was standing a little behind Ron nursing her hand, "Ron," she wailed, "What did you bash my hand for?"

"Ginny! Don´t ever do that! I thought it was a spider!" Ron looked sternly at his sister.

"Sorry," she whispered sullenly. Harry and Hermione couldn´t help but laugh at their antics, but it served to lift the gloom that had earlier descended on them. Harry looked up to the top of the steps to see that the square hole above had closed.

"Well, nobody´s going to follow us now," said Harry, "Light your wands, everybody - and watch that you don´t bump your heads on these rocks jutting down from the ceiling."

Harry again took the lead and entered the tunnel, quickly followed by Ron, then Hermione, with Ginny bringing up the rear. The tunnel was fairly straight, but after a few yards started to dip quite steeply. In places, it was so steep that they had to lean back and brace themselves against the wall and hold their balance against the jutting rocks to prevent sliding down to the bottom. They proceeded cautiously as the tunnel wound around to the left, and then the right, levelled off and then dipped steeply once more. Both Harry and Ron had to walk with a stoop to avoid hitting their heads on the tunnel ceiling.

They had travelled for about 200 yards before they came to the end of the tunnel. "Hold on a minute," Harry whispered, "the tunnel seems to be opening out just up ahead - I can´t see anything yet, just darkness."

He edged slowly forwards and came to the tunnel exit. He stretched his arm out and lifted his wand into the space before him. He saw a much larger tunnel, but as roughly hewn as the one they had just descended. He looked down to see that the floor was fairly level and he slowly walked forward, calling to the others to follow him.

When they were all inside, with all four wands casting their illumination, they saw that they were standing in a tunnel about 20 yards in length, about 4 yards wide and 8 feet high. Harry walked towards the centre and peered ahead, holding his wand in front of him. "There´s a blank wall straight ahead," he called back over his shoulder.

"There are tunnels leading off to the left," said Hermione walking over to them. She paused briefly as she counted, "There´s six of them and they all look about the same size."

Ron looked towards the opposite wall, "There´re no exits on the right side. We´ve got to go down one of these on the left."

"Yes, but which one?" said Ginny looking doubtfully at the six exits.

Hermione looked closely, and saw that the tunnels were not evenly spaced along the wall. There was one only a few feet from the tunnel they had just come down and one about 5 yards further along. The third was 2 yards further, and so on in a completely random pattern, the sixth tunnel being about 6 yards from the far wall.

"I wonder .." she said to herself. "Ginny - help me do some measuring please." She eased her rucksack from her back and fished inside for the measuring tape. She walked over to the first tunnel and placed the end of the tape on the ground at the left-hand side of the exit. "This tape is 90 feet long so we should be able to do it in one go," she said to the others.

"Uh, what are you doing, Hermi?" asked Ron.

"I´m going to measure the distance from the start of the first exit tunnel to the end of the sixth. I think this puzzle can be solved using the golden section, just like the riddle says. This line of exits can be treated as a straight line. And the golden section is a special point on a straight line - the point where the ratio of the total length to the largest segment is the same as the ratio of the largest segment to the smallest segment."

"Uh, right," said Ron doubtfully, "now in English please Hermi?"

"The ratio of the golden section is 1.618, to the nearest three decimal places. So on a straight line, the golden section point will be the total length divided by 1.618. See?"

"If you say so, Hermi," groaned Ron.

"Ginny, you hold the end of the tape just here please, and I´ll walk to the far tunnel and take a reading"

Ginny dutifully bent down and held the end of the tape to the ground as Hermione walked, tape unreeling, to the far side of the tunnel. When she reached the furthest side of the sixth exit, she shouted, "50 feet exactly."

She then walked back towards Ginny, reeling the tape back in as she went. "Right," she said and started rummaging in her rucksack once more. After a few moments, she found the calculator and turned it on. She started to enter the figures, muttering to herself as she worked, "That´s 50 divided by 1.618 equals ... 30.9," she looked up at the others, who were watching intently, "So, if the golden section rule is to be applied here, we should find that 30.9 feet from the first exit should land slap bang in the middle of the correct exit tunnel. Ginny, will you help me again please?"

Ginny once more held the end of the tape in the same place as before, while Hermione walked along the line of tunnels, all the while reading the measurements as the tape unfolded. She stopped and held the tape against the floor; unreeling a little more of it until exactly 30.9 feet was shown. She looked up and was shocked to see that she was facing bare rock, in between two of the exits.

"Oh bother!" She exclaimed, her brow creasing in consternation.

"Well it can´t be solved by the golden section, then," said Ron, "So what did the riddle say? When the rule of gold cannot be followed, follow the light of the righteous"

"But there´s no light here, Ron," said Harry. A sinking feeling started to overtake Harry as he thought that they would fail at the first hurdle. He looked at Hermione and his spirits started to lift at the look on her face. She was obviously onto something.

"Ginny," she called, "Will you move back and hold your end of the tape against the far wall? I´m going to try something else. It may be that the whole length of the wall must be taken into consideration and not just the distance between the two end tunnels."

Hermione walked until she reached the far wall. She looked at the tape and shouted "68 feet." She walked back down the row of tunnels, reeling in the tape as she went. She then picked her calculator back up and started to enter the new figures. "The golden section lies a fraction over 42 feet along from the near wall. Stay there, Ginny. I´ll measure it out"

Hermione repeated the process, and stooped to adjust the tape to measure 42 feet. She looked up and this time saw that she was at the exact centre of the fourth exit tunnel.

"Eureka," she yelled, "Come on, you lot - this way. It must be the right one."

As he passed her to lead the way into the tunnel, Harry leaned over and whispered into her ear, "How could I have doubted you, Hermi. You´re absolutely marvellous."

Hermione blushed prettily, and waited for Ron and Ginny to follow Harry before moving into the tunnel herself.

Feeling elated, Harry walked more quickly than earlier. The tunnel was about the same width as the first one, but the floor, sides and ceiling were a lot smoother. After about 50 uneventful yards, the tunnel suddenly opened out into what appeared to be a natural cavern. It was roughly oval in shape and about 30 yards across at its longest point, which happened to be straight ahead of them. The ceiling was much higher than before, about 20 feet above their heads.

They all walked cautiously into the cavern looking around with interest. There were some oddly shaped rock formations on the left-hand side, which appeared to have been formed by running water at some time in the distant past.

"Well I can´t see any exits along these walls," said Ron after a while, "only that one straight ahead - it just seems to be a continuation of the tunnel we just came through."

"You´re right Ron," said Harry, "There´s no puzzles for you to solve here, Hermi. Come on, lets keep moving."

As they started towards the exit at the far end of the cavern, they suddenly froze as the most terrible roar filled the air around them. It seemed to be coming from dead ahead, "What the hell´s that?" wailed Ginny.

She got her answer a few seconds later as the most hideous monster imaginable emerged from the tunnel ahead of them. It was about 18 feet long with a long bulbous body stretched out behind it, covered in thick black hair. It´s heads - there were three of them - were - well - indescribable. The only feature to stick in the memory was the length of the double row of razor-sharp teeth, which dripped an evil-looking purple liquid. It moved fairly slowly, considering the eight legs that it boasted, and to Ron, its movement was strangely familiar.

"Come on," shouted Harry, "Lets get out of here - back up the tunnel, quick."

Harry, Hermione and Ginny turned and started to race back up the tunnel. They had gone only a few yards before they noticed that Ron wasn´t with them.

"Oh no," breathed Harry, "RON .... RON ," he shouted. There was no reply - only the loud roaring of the hideous monster.

"We´ve got to go back," he shouted, "Ron´s still in there."

The three ran back to the cavern entrance and looked inside, fearing to see the worst. What they saw shocked them. Ron stood in the middle of the cavern, immediately in front of the monster, with his wand raised.

"CONFUNDO," he shouted and the charm hit the monster squarely between the eyes of the middle head - or what appeared to be eyes - only the gaping mouth could be seen clearly.

The monster stopped and started swaying from side to side, obviously disoriented. Then, much to the amazement of his three friends, Ron laughed out loud, again pointed his wand at the monster, and yelled "RIDDIKULUS."

The monster looked at Ron in disbelief, and then disappeared with a `POP,´ leaving behind a boggart, which quickly crawled away into a dark corner.

They walked up to Ron and, slapping him on the back, Harry said, "How did you know it was a boggart Ron? It frightened the living daylights out of us three."

"It was the way it moved, really," answered Ron, "I knew I´d seen that gait before and then it struck me - a Dementor. It moved exactly like a Dementor. I know that´s your worst fear, and mine is a spider - it had eight legs and the body of a big fat hairy. I don´t know what Hermi and Ginny´s worst fears are, but there wasn´t really any time to ask them - even if they´d stayed here long enough for me to ask," he grinned at Hermi and Ginny who looked back at him sheepishly, "But those two things told me all I needed to know. It must have picked up on all of our worst fears and changed into an amalgam of all four. Once I realised it was a boggart, it was easy to just confuse it and then dispel it with Riddikulus."

"That was a very brave thing to do, Ron," said Hermione.

"Yes - that it was," agreed Harry, "You were the only one to stand up to it Ron."

Feeling embarrassed, Ron dismissed their praise and pointed at the tunnel up ahead, "Come on. We´ve still got some work to do. Let´s go."

They entered the tunnel, still in single file with Harry in the lead, and walked down it more cautiously than they had the previous one.

They followed the tunnel straight for about twenty yards, and then it bent in a dog-leg towards the left. They walked on for another 40 yards before entering a very unusual cavern. It was obvious from first glance that this was not a natural cave - there were too many straight lines. They walked to the middle and looked about them. It was only about 8 feet high, and there were three sides. The smaller side was behind them, which held the tunnel out of which they had just come, and the ones to the left and right of them were about the same length, and ended in a point, about 20 yards in front of them.

"This is odd," said Hermione, "It´s in the shape of a triangle - like the one we saw cast from the stained glass window in the church. Look - there are six exit tunnels on each of the longer sides of the triangle."

"That´s twelve to choose from," said Ginny, "Got any ideas Hermi? Is it the golden rule again?"

Hermione thought for a few minutes, "I think so. But this is different. I´ll have to look at my notes." She took off her rucksack and rummaged for the notes she had made the night before. She pulled them out and sat on the floor to read.

"Can we do anything while you read Hermi?" asked Harry.

Hermione looked up, "Yes. You can measure the lengths of the three walls - that should be a help."

"Come on, Ron," said Harry as he pulled the tape measure from Hermione´s rucksack, "You grab the end and hold it in the right-hand corner."

While the two boys measured the dimensions of the cave, Hermione flicked through the pages of parchment looking for her notes on the golden section and triangles. She found them quite quickly and started to read. After about five minutes, she stood up and saw that Harry and Ron had just finished measuring the smallest of the three walls. "Well, what have we got?" she asked.

Harry looked at the notes he had made on the back of his hand, "The two longer walls are exactly the same size - 60 feet, and the shortest wall is a little over 37 feet."

"Great," said Hermione, "That sounds like a golden triangle - it´s a special type of isosceles triangle, but I won´t know for sure until I measure the angles."

She pulled out a fresh piece of parchment, a ruler, a pair of compasses and a protractor from her rucksack and sat back on the ground, placing the blank parchment on top of the pile already on the floor. She looked up at Harry, "How much over 37 feet is the smallest wall?"

"Uh, just over an inch," he replied.

Adjusting the scale to fit the parchment, Hermione drew a line to represent the base wall. Then she took her compasses and measured, again to the same scale, the length of the two side walls. She placed the compasses on each end of the base line and drew 2 arcs, which intersected at the top of the parchment. She drew in the other two sides of the triangle and measured their lengths with the ruler to make sure she hadn´t made any mistakes.

"Right," she said, "this should tell me if it´s a golden triangle."

Using the protractor, she measured the 3 inside angles of the triangle she´d drawn on the parchment. "Yes," she exclaimed, "It´s a golden triangle - the two larger angles at the base measure 72 degrees, and the angle at the top is 36 degrees."

"So what does that tell us, Hermi?" asked Ron.

"It means I can use this drawing to calculate where the correct exit from this cavern is. But there´s a problem. You see, if you draw a line from the larger base angle onto the opposite wall, and you make sure that the base angle is exactly bisected - that´s 36 degrees, then the point that it hits the opposite wall is the golden section point of that wall. The problem is, there are two base angles of 72 degrees. Which one do we use?"

"There´s got to be something here to tell us," said Harry, "Let´s look at the two corners and see if we can find anything."

Ron and Hermione went to the left-hand corner while Harry and Ginny went to the right. They looked at the floor all around the two corners and brushed away the small amount of dust and debris that had accumulated over the years, but neither pair could find anything.

Ginny looked up and turned around to call to the other two, and something caught her eye in the corner of the wall about 7 feet from the floor. She raised her wand and looked closely at what she´d seen, "It´s here," she shouted, "Look - it´s a cross drawn on the wall."

The four teens clustered around and saw, illuminated in the light from Ginny´s wand, a cross paté - the symbol of the Knights Templar.

"That´s it," said Hermione, "It´s too much of a coincidence. That´s got to be the sign for which base angle to use." She walked back to her drawing and carefully placed the protractor on the bottom right-hand angle, and drew a line at exactly the 36 degrees angle and extended it to intersect the left hand wall. "That´s where the correct tunnel is," she said pointing to her drawing and then looking up at the left-hand wall. She measured the distance along the wall in her drawing and then adjusted the scale back up to actual.

"Ginny - hold the end of the tape measure in the left-hand corner while I measure out along the wall."

Hermione walked along the wall and placed the tape measure on the ground at her calculated distance from the corner. She looked up to see that she was directly in front of the third tunnel from the left-hand corner. "This is it," she said.

Ron had looked on, thoroughly bemused, while Hermione had completed her calculations and measurements, "Are you sure this is the right one, Hermi? That looked pretty complicated to me."

"I´m sure, Ron. Come on, let´s go."

Harry again led the others into the tunnel, which was about 7 feet high and 4 feet wide. It was a quite roughly hewn hand-made tunnel, but not as rough as the first tunnel under the church - it could well have been built by the Romans nearly two thousand years ago. After about twenty yards, the tunnel started to arc around to the right and slope downwards. It continued like this for the next seventy yards or so.

Harry put up his hand to stop the others, "Listen," he whispered, "Can you hear that?"

The others could hear a feint roaring sound which seemed to come from up ahead, "Oh no - not another monster," groaned Ginny.

"No I don´t think so, Ginny," said Harry, "Come on, let´s go on a bit further."

They walked slowly on, still bearing to the right and angling downwards, until, after another fifty yards, the tunnel straightened out and Harry called another halt. All the while, the roaring sound had become louder, and when they stopped it was very loud.

"What is that?" asked Ron, "That noise seems pretty familiar to me."

Harry gestured the others to follow as he slowly walked forward. The roaring noise was deafening as Harry stepped out of the tunnel and looked in horror at the scene before him. The others quickly followed and looked about them with trepidation.

Harry had to shout to make himself heard to the others, "What are we going to do now?"

They had entered a fairly narrow cavern- just over twenty feet wide - and about thirty yards in length and twenty five feet at its highest point. It looked to be a natural cavern, with a lot of natural rock formations. They could see an exit tunnel opposite them - about twenty feet away. Although the tunnel was quite near, it was also quite far - because in between was a raging torrent of ice-cold water. They could see where the underground river entered to their left and exited the cavern to their right, through two very low tunnels. The torrent made the most horrendous noise as it frothed and boiled as it made its rapid way over the myriad sharp rocks that protruded from the surface.

"There´s no way we´ll wade or swim through that," shouted Ron, "We´ll be swept away by the current before we go three feet."

"Spread out along the bank and see if we can find a crossing point," shouted Ginny.

Ron and Ginny went to the left, while Harry and Hermione walked to the right. After a few minutes, they met back at the entrance tunnel and both pairs shook their heads.

"So what now?" shouted Ginny.

The four looked at each other blankly and then gazed forlornly at the raging underground river.

"I´ve got it!" shouted Harry, "Why didn´t I think of it sooner?"

The other three looked at him expectantly.

"I´ll fly you over," he shouted, "I´ll transform and take you one at a time. You first, Ron."

Harry transformed to his golden eagle form and stooped to let Ron climb onto his back. Then he spread his wings and pushed off from the ground. He flew slowly over to the far bank and landed just at the entrance to the tunnel, where Ron climbed down and waited. Harry went back and fetched Ginny next, and then returned for Hermione, who nearly strangled him as she held onto his neck for grim death.

After he´d transformed back, Harry led the others into the tunnel, which became very narrow after about five yards. It then cut sharply to the left and continued straight on into the darkness ahead. It appeared to be a natural tunnel, which probably carried a tributary stream into the underground river many years ago. It was still very narrow and the floor, although smooth, was littered with small rocks.

The four´s progress was slow as they made their way along, keeping watch by wand-light for over-head rock projections and loose boulders on the floor. Harry entered the cavern before he knew it - he was surprised that the walls of the tunnel suddenly disappeared and before him stretched a large natural gallery. It was quite low, only about fifteen feet high, but was fifty yards long by thirty wide. It was roughly oval in shape.

As they all walked towards the centre of the cavern, they saw that there were a number of exit tunnels on both sides. They counted ten exits on each side of the gallery. "We´re spoilt for choice this time," quipped Ron, "But I´ll tell you one thing - I´m not moving another inch until I eat something. I´m bloody starving!"

The other three laughed, and realised that they too were hungry. Harry looked at his watch, "It´s a quarter to two," he exclaimed, "No wonder we´re hungry."

Ginny delved into one of the rucksacks that held Millie´s food parcels and she handed them around to the others. Ron immediately went to the package that contained the pizzas, "I´ve been waiting all day to have a go at these," he said with relish.

"Hang on a minute, Ron - I´ll warm them up," said Hermione. She pointed her wand at the exposed pizzas and muttered a heating spell. Soon the cavern was filled with the glorious mouth-watering smell of Millie´s special Pizza Margherita recipe.

Ron was the first to grab a piece, which lasted about twenty seconds flat, "This is bloody wonderful," he mumbled as he reached for another piece with a look of ecstasy in his eyes, "You´ll have to tell your mother to give my mum this recipe, Hermi."

After fifteen minutes, they washed down the food with a steaming hot cup of tea, again heated by Hermione, and loafed pleasantly on the floor for a few minutes. They were shaken from their stupor by a loud belch, which reverberated through the cavern for a full ten seconds.

"Ron - honestly," exclaimed Hermione.

"Blame your mother, Hermi - not me," he replied.

"Come on, back to work," laughed Harry, "goodness knows how much further we´ve got to go."

Hermione looked around the cave at the exit tunnels, "This is another golden section problem, I think," she said, "But which side is the right one?"

After a few minutes thought, she sighed, "We´ll have to measure both sides and work out the golden section point and see what we get. Come on Ginny, same as before - you hold the end of the tape while I measure."

Hermione and Ginny went through the same process as in the first cavern, and after a few minutes they had the measurements of both sides of the cave. Hermione got out her calculator and shouted out the two measurements for the golden section of each wall. She and Ginny again took each end of the tape and walked to the left-hand wall.

When she had reached the required length, she saw that she was facing the bare rock wall, "This isn´t it," she said, "Let´s try the other side."

This time, Hermione looked up to see that she was facing the seventh exit tunnel on the right-hand cave wall, "This must be it," she said.

"Come on then," said Harry as he led the way into the tunnel.

***

Remus ducked behind the cover of the church wall as a Flipendus curse blasted a piece of stone where, a few moments ago, his head had been. "They don´t seem to want to give up," he shouted at Sirius.

"No - they´re pretty determined this time," he shouted back as he sent a `stupefy´ towards the spot where the last curse had originated.

"How long have they been gone now?" shouted Nadine.

Ceri looked at her watch, "Only about fifteen minutes," she said.

"It seems more like an hour," Nadine replied. She was then sent tumbling to the floor as a killing curse hit the church door and sent a large splinter of wood crashing into her forehead.

"Nadine," cried Ceri as she rushed to her friend, "Are you all right?" She looked at the French girl, who was getting groggily back to her feet. As she straightened, she saw that there was a large cut just above her hairline, and blood was running down into her eyes.

"Hold still," said Ceri, "I´ll stop the bleeding." She held her wand against the cut as she muttered a spell, and the flow of blood eased to a trickle and then stopped all together. "You´ll need some expert help to heal that cut properly, Nadine. But it should be ok for now."

"Thanks, Ceri. It feels a lot better now."

"Are you two girls all right?" shouted Charlie. He had seen how close the curse had come to them."

"We´re ok, Charlie," shouted Ceri, "Nadine´s got a cut, but I´ve stopped it bleeding."

Charlie growled angrily and sent a series of curses at the Death Eater positions, quickly followed by a volley from Sirius. "Eat that, Wormtail," he shouted.

The flurry of activity was followed by a lull in the fighting as the Death Eaters took stock of their assault.

"This is getting us nowhere, Wormtail," said Travis, "They´re too well dug in. We´ll be here all afternoon and we won´t make much impression on them."

Wormtail looked nervous, "We´ve got to keep trying, Travis. Do you want to be the one to tell Lord Voldemort that we failed?"

Travis grunted, "We won´t fail. We can´t. Brackton - come over here. Let´s do a bit of thinking - we´ve got to wheedle them out of there somehow."

"That´s the best thing you´ve said all day, Travis," said Wormtail, "We´ve got to think up a plan to break through into the church."

***

The tunnel sloped gently downwards and swung to the right after they had gone thirty yards. After another twenty yards, Harry stopped. To his left was a narrow entrance - a large fissure in the rock wall - while the tunnel they were walking down continued on ahead. He called to the others and they looked at the fissure dubiously.

"Do you think this is anything worth looking at?" asked Harry. The others just shrugged, not knowing what to make of the fissure.

"Hang on - I´ll go and have a closer look," said Harry as he moved towards the fissure, his lit wand held before him. The other three saw Harry suddenly stop and back slowly towards them. They sucked in their breath as they saw what had caused Harry to retreat.

Out of the fissure came a tall ghostly form. It was a man of about forty-five years old, and he was as white as a sheet. He stopped about five yards in front of the teens and raised his arm towards them. He pointed his index finger at each of them, and then pointed back up the tunnel in the direction from which they had just come.

The ghost spoke in a low, but authoritative voice, "I am the guardian spirit. Your quest has been terminated. You are too young for such an awesome responsibility. A new Anima Summa will be chosen, one who has the experience to complete the task. Go back to your friends and leave this place. Go and enjoy your youth."

Ron and Ginny immediately turned around and started back up the tunnel. Hermi watched them turn, but hesitated - torn between leaving and staying with Harry, who was rooted to the spot. Her brow creased, deep in thought and confusion.

Harry made no move to follow his two friends - he just stood and stared at the ghost, deep in concentration. He then shook his head sharply, as if trying to clear it, and he detected the unmistakable overtones of the Imperious curse.

"Who are you?" he challenged the ghost, "What gives you the right to interrupt the quest of the Anima Summa and his helpers. I am the true Anima Summa, chosen by one greater than you. I will not be deflected from my task - go now and let us proceed."

At the sound of Harry´s voice, Ron and Ginny stopped. Hermione still stood where she had been, listening intently.

A sudden transformation came over the ghost. He lost his grim expression and a smile broke out on his ghostly white face, "You are indeed the true one. Proceed to your destiny."

The ghost again raised his arm and pointed to his left, down the main tunnel. He then pointed at the other three and muttered a charm, which lifted the imperious curse he had placed on them all earlier - he had no need to lift it from Harry, of course. Harry had already done that himself.

The ghost then drifted back to the tunnel wall and went back inside the fissure in the rock.

"Thank goodness you know how to resist Imperious, Harry," said Hermione.

"You didn´t do a bad job of it yourself, Hermi," grinned Harry.

"Oh not really," she replied, "I only stayed because you were still there ..." she trailed off, getting flustered. Harry looked at her quizzically, and then called to the others, "Lets carry on down the tunnel."

The tunnel still sloped gently downwards, and twisted both to the left and the right for the next 150 yards or so. It became very narrow in places, so narrow that they had to turn sideways to squeeze through. In other places, the ceiling dropped to only two feet above the floor, so they had to crawl on their stomachs to get through.

The tunnel then turned sharply to the left and after another twenty yards they entered a low, circular chamber - about ten yards in diameter. There were three exit tunnels, one straight ahead and one on each side, exactly opposite each other.

The four walked into the middle of the chamber and looked around, "This is not a golden section problem," said Hermione, "I can see nothing that indicates that."

"So is it `The Light of the Righteous´ rule?" asked Ginny, "There´s no light here."

"I really don´t know," said Harry as he slowly let out his breath.

The four sat on the floor to think, looking around the chamber seeking inspiration - none came.

After a few unproductive minutes of thinking, the four jerked up their heads at a low moaning sound. It was quiet at first, but then became gradually louder. It was coming from the left-hand tunnel.

They stood up in nervous anticipation and looked at the dark entrance of the tunnel. The grey, shimmering form of a young woman of about twenty-five appeared from the darkness and looked at the four.

She hesitated, and then sat down on the floor, her moans of despair filling the small chamber. She continued to wail pitifully and then Ginny cautiously approached her, "Whatever´s wrong?" she asked, looking sorrowfully at the ghost.

The young woman looked up at Ginny´s face and said, in a halting pitiful voice, "I am lost in this terrible labyrinth. I became separated from the man I love and I can´t find him. He had a map and I know that he´s found his way out, but I can´t follow. I don´t know which way to go."

"How long have you been down here wandering these passages?" asked Ginny.

"For a long time, such a long time," the ghost replied, "Do you know the way out? Can you help me?"

"Wait just a moment. I´ll speak to my friends," Ginny walked back to the others, "We´ve got to help her - she´s in such torment. I think we should lead her back to the entrance to the labyrinth."

"But what about our quest?" Ron exclaimed, "We´ve come so far, we can´t turn back now." He looked at Harry and Hermione questioningly.

"We can´t leave her like this," said Hermione, "I agree with Ginny. We´ve got to help. I wouldn´t be able to live with myself if we just left her."

"Look, I´ll take her back," said Ginny, "and you three go on with the quest."

Harry thought for a moment, "No Ginny, that won´t work. How would you get across that raging underground river? No, we´ll all have to go back together. We´ll just have to come back tomorrow and start again."

Ginny looked gratefully at Harry and then turned and walked back over to the young woman, who had been sniffling pitifully as they spoke.

"My friends and I have agreed to help you. We´ll take you back to the entrance of the labyrinth. Come on, come with us." Ginny beckoned to the ghost with her hand and turned to go back up the tunnel.

"Wait," said the ghost, "What about your quest?"

"That can wait - there´ll be another day for that."

The young woman then stood up and her demeanour changed. Hers was no longer the pose of a pitifully distressed young woman but of a noble lady, full of confidence. "You are filled with compassion for those less fortunate than yourselves," she said in a loud, purposeful voice, "You have proved that you have within you the light of the righteous. Continue your quest and find the secret." She raised her arm and pointed to the exit tunnel straight ahead. She turned around then, and walked silently back into the left-hand tunnel, leaving the four friends gaping after her.

"It was another test," said Harry, "like the last ghost we met."

"And we´ve passed with flying colours, so it seems," said Hermione, "Come on - lead on Harry."

Harry led the others into the tunnel, which sloped downwards and bore gently to the right for about sixty yards or so. He called a halt as he spotted something up ahead. "Put out your lights," he said over his shoulder as he extinguished the light from his wand. Darkness enclosed them, but up ahead they could see a very feint light reflecting from the left-hand wall of the tunnel. They moved cautiously forward, their wands still extinguished, and as they rounded the bend they saw the tunnel exit no more than ten yards away. And beyond, the light was much stronger. They walked out into a large, natural cavern, which was bathed in a cacophony of coloured light. They looked with awe at the reds, blues, greens, oranges, lilacs and every hue in between. It was beautiful. They looked up at the walls and ceiling, some thirty feet above, and marvelled as a million pinpricks of light sparkled, bathing the cavern in a breathtaking glow of colour. There were numerous stalagmites and stalactites, each one a beacon of beauty as they glowed with their strange inner light.

"Oh, it´s so beautiful," breathed Ginny, "What are those lights?"

Hermione walked over to the rock wall, "They´re fluorescent minerals, Ginny," she said, "They give off light when they´re stimulated by something - usually ultraviolet radiation. But there´s none of that here so deep underground. It may be some sort of chemical or mechanical action - perhaps the rock strata are moving very slowly against each other."

"Whatever it is," said Ginny, "I could watch this for ever. It´s amazing."

Ron and Harry, meanwhile, had made a circuit of the cavern and walked back to the spellbound girls, "There´re no exit tunnels," said Harry, "But come and look at these," he motioned to the centre of the cave and led the way.

"Look at these pools," said Harry. They looked at the floor of the cavern to see several roughly circular natural rock pools, each about five feet across, filled with clear blue-green water. There were four of them randomly spread around the centre of the cavern.

"Look over there," said Ginny, "there´s another one." They walked over to see yet another rock pool, about ten yards out from the centre.

Hermione looked around the cave floor, turning as she moved her gaze from left to right. "There´s more of them," she said. They walked around the cave and found another three pools, each one further from the centre than the one before, but scattered around in a seemingly random way.

"What do you think, Hermi?" asked Harry, "Are these pools another part of the puzzle?"

"I don´t know, Harry," she replied, still looking around her, trying to fathom some order from apparent disorder. They sat down on the floor and looked at the display of coloured lights, as Hermione lapsed into deep thought. She looked up at Harry with the light of inspiration in her eyes, "I wonder?" she breathed quietly to herself, "Harry. Can you transform to your Animagus eagle and take me up to the ceiling?"

"Uh, yes of course Hermi - but what for?"

"I´ll tell you that later. Something´s just struck me about these pools," she said.

She pulled the rucksack from her back and pulled out a blank piece of parchment and a pencil, "Ready?"

"Are you going to keep your eyes open this time?" asked Ron with a smirk. Hermione glared at him with disdain.

"Ok, Hermi," said Harry, hesitating, "You´re not going to choke me this time are you?"

"I´ll try not to Harry," she said with mounting impatience.

Harry transformed and Hermione climbed onto his back, clutching the soft feathers at the back of his head. Harry rose majestically and flew around the cavern before rising to its highest point. He flapped his wings slowly as he hovered close to the ceiling.

Hermione tightened her grip with her legs as she gingerly took her hands from Harry´s neck. She placed the parchment on top of his head, holding it with her left hand, while she gazed at the floor and started drawing.

"Ok, Harry. I´m finished," she said after about five minutes. Harry glided back to the ground and Hermione jumped down from his back. He immediately transformed and stared at his friend.

"Well?" he said.

"I think I´m onto something," said Hermione as she sat on the floor and spread the parchment out in front of her. She had drawn roughly, the shape of the cavern and, more carefully, the eight rock pools they had found. She studied her drawing for a while and then picked up the pencil once more.

"Look at this," she said as she started drawing. She placed her pencil on the pool at the centre of the drawing then started to draw a curve. When she had finished, she had connected all eight pools with the curved line. Then she rummaged in her rucksack and brought out the ruler. She started to measure the distances between the pools in the drawing, along the curved line, and did various calculations on her calculator.

When she had finished, she looked up at the others in triumph, "Yes! Solved."

"Uh - would you mind letting us in on the secret, Hermi?" said Ron looking confused.

"It´s a spiral, Ron. Look at the curved line," she looked back up at her friend.

"It looks just like those diagrams of spiral galaxies you see in Astronomy books," commented Harry.

"That´s right, Harry. It also looks like the swirls on the shell of a snail. Don´t you see? It´s the golden section again. Remember what I told you before? It´s the most common and powerful geometric force in nature. Each of these pools is a multiple of phi away from each other, radiating from the centre."

"So does that mean that one of these rock pools is the way forward?" asked Ron.

"Yes, of course it is," she replied.

"But which one, Hermi?" asked Ginny.

"That´s easy, Ginny. We go to the starting point, where the spiral starts to grow - the centre of creation. The rock pool at the centre," she pointed to the pool in her drawing.

She then got up and walked over to the pool and looked down. The others quickly followed. "Uh, it looks pretty deep," said Ron as he gazed into the blue-green water, "How do we know how far it goes - will we be able to hold our breath before we come out of it?" He looked at the other three nervously.

Harry sat on the floor beside the pool and started to take off his shoes, "There´s only one way to find out. I´ll go down first and see where it goes. You three wait here `till I come back."

Ginny looked frightened and knelt beside her friend, "But Harry, it could be dangerous. You might drown"

"If this is the right pool, I don´t think anything bad is going to happen - I should come out the other side fairly quickly, I think."

"But there´s no need to take any chances, Harry. Here, tie this around your waist," Ron reached into his rucksack and pulled out a long piece of thin rope, "There´s nothing like being prepared," he said.

"What made you bring a rope, Ron?" asked Hermione, a look of respect in her eyes.

"I don´t know, really," he replied, "I thought it just might come in handy."

Harry finished taking off most of his clothes, just leaving his shorts, and piled them at the side of the pool. He took the end of Ron´s rope and tied it around his waist, "If I tug on the rope three times, pull me back - but quick." He picked up his wand and muttered "LUMOS."

As he turned to go into the pool, Hermione put her hand on his bare shoulder and Harry looked into her concerned, hazel-brown eyes. She flushed slightly and whispered, "Please Harry - be careful."

Harry grinned and then took a deep breath and jumped, feet first, into the pool. The others watched as he quickly sank out of sight.

Harry opened his eyes and looked around him as he slowly sank further. All he could see was the solid rock wall. He looked down but all he could see was inky blackness, the light from his wand not making much impression in the cold water. There was no sign of the pool levelling out at all. He must have gone down about twenty-five feet before he became aware of the first tendrils of fear forcing their way into his mind. He fought a deep desire to tug on the rope and be pulled to safety. He had a far stronger desire - of wanting to succeed, not to give up.

Another five feet - then his toes touched rock. He looked down to see that the pool walls ended in a flat rock floor. He started to panic - where was the exit? He looked about him frantically, circling in the water. He went through two full revolutions before he saw it. In the light from his wand, he could just make out the shape of a tunnel entrance right in front of him. He reached out with his hand, and felt the cold air as it emerged from the water. He leant forward, pushing with his feet against the floor of the pool, and suddenly emerged into a tunnel. He gasped loudly as he sucked in the sweet air, bending and leaning his arms on his thighs until his breathing returned to normal. He straightened and looked back behind him. He was amazed to see a wall of water, seemingly suspended in front of him, covering the tunnel entrance. He marvelled at the magic that must be in play to keep the water suspended like that - he was even more amazed to find that he was completely dry, even his shorts.

He was literally pulled from his reverie by a sudden tugging at the rope around his waist. He realised that Ron and the girls must be worried, after all they didn´t know he could breath now. He tugged on the rope once, and then walked back through the magical entrance and into the pool and rose, without any help from himself, back to the surface. He emerged to see three very worried faces looking at him. He heaved himself back into the cavern and stood up. He felt himself and found, once again, that he was completely dry.

"Where the bloody hell have you been?" asked Ron with panic in his voice, "we thought you´d drowned."

He grinned at his friend, "No, although I did start to get worried at one point." He turned to Hermione, and was startled to see tears in her eyes, "Don´t worry, Hermi - you were right. This is the exit. And it´s magical, look - I´m dry. It´s just like an elevator. You don´t have to swim or kick your legs - you just let it take you to the bottom or the top."

As he dressed, he told the others what he had found and what they could expect when they went into the pool, "I´ll go first again. But follow, one at a time, straight behind me. I´ll direct you to the tunnel entrance when you reach the bottom. Don´t forget to take a deep breath first, and don´t panic!"

He jumped back into the pool and sank straight to the bottom, where he waited for his friends. First came Ron, and as he sank to the bottom, Harry caught hold of his arm, twisted him around, and gave him a firm push in the back, propelling him in the direction of the tunnel entrance. Ron was quickly followed by Ginny, then Hermione, who both got similar treatment as they were heaved through the water into the tunnel.

Harry joined his three friends and they all sat on the floor and rested while they regained their breath, looking around the tunnel. It was obviously man-made, the rock being scarred by ancient tools, now long gone. It was about seven feet high and five feet wide, and the floor was fairly smooth. It curved down and around to the right, into the blackness beyond.

After a few minutes, they started down the tunnel, which after a short distance straightened out. Harry and Ron led the way, the tunnel being wide enough to allow them to walk two abreast. When they had walked only about fifty yards, they emerged into a narrow, natural cavern, about thirty yards long and eight yards wide. They looked in wonder at the milky-white limestone formations that decorated the sides of the cave, looking like buttresses supporting the rock walls.

They walked into the cavern, about half way, and raised their lit wands high to see if there were any exit tunnels. They saw one exit at the far side of the cavern, opposite the one they had just come from, and one on each side, directly opposite where they were standing.

"This is nothing to do with the golden section," said Hermione.

They continued to look about them and then Ron stiffened and looked intently towards the tunnel at the far end of the gallery, "Can you hear that?"

They all strained their ears and could just make out the sound Ron had heard. As they watched, it grew louder. It sounded like something heavy was being dragged along the ground. They stepped slowly back towards the tunnel they had just come down, never taking their eyes from the opposite tunnel entrance.

The sound grew louder, and then they looked in horror as a very large snake, about forty feet in length and twice as thick as a man´s body, come slithering towards them. It opened its mouth to show two large incisors protruding from its top lip. Ron, Hermione and Ginny backed away more quickly as the snake approached, but Harry stood his ground.

The three looked on in fear as the snake approached Harry and opened its mouth. A loud hissing noise accompanied the flicking forked tongue. Harry, of course, understood what the snake was saying.

"Which way do you follow?" asked the snake.

Harry hissed back, "We follow the rule of gold and the light of the righteous."

"What do you seek?" hissed the snake.

"We seek the truth and the secret of Rhedae," answered Harry.

"Who are you?"

"I am the Anima Summa, and the other three are my brave and trusty helpers."

The snake looked at Harry with its beady eyes, appraising him, before hissing, "Your way lies straight ahead - go to the tunnel from whence I just emerged. Take great care - there is danger ahead."

With that, the snake turned to its right, and slithered into the left-hand tunnel.

"What did it say?" asked Ron as the others ran up to Harry.

"It asked me a few questions. And I suppose I gave the right answers, because she told me to take that tunnel at the far side of the cavern."

"She?" asked Ginny.

"Oh yes," he answered, "The voice was definitely female. She also said that there is danger up ahead. We´d better be on our guard from here on."

They walked across the chamber and entered the tunnel, Harry and Ron again to the front. The tunnel was again wide enough to take them two-abreast. They cautiously looked around every twist and turn the tunnel took as they made slow, but steady, progress. After about fifty yards, Harry and Ron both stopped at the entrance to another chamber. Harry turned and gestured to the girls to stay in the tunnel while he and Ron went to investigate. The two boys slowly walked into the chamber, peering around intently. When they were sure that there was no danger present, Ron called for the girls to join them.

They looked around to a see an almost perfectly square chamber, obviously man-made, with four exit tunnels leading from it - one at each corner of the square.

"Hermi - is this another golden section problem?" asked Harry.

"I don´t think so, Harry. There´s nothing I know concerning phi relating to squares with points at all four corners."

"We´ll just have to wait and see what happens. The snake said there was danger - I wonder if there´s something dangerous going to come out of those tunnels? Hermi - you and Ginny go back and wait in the tunnel we just came down. We´ll stay in the middle."

"But shouldn´t we all wait in the tunnel?" said Ginny.

"No," answered Harry, "if there´s no one inside the chamber, maybe nothing will happen at all and we´ll just wait forever."

Hermione and Ginny retreated to just inside the tunnel and waited, looking at each of the four exit tunnels intently. After fifteen minutes, nothing at all had happened and the four started to get impatient.

"Hermi, Ginny - come back please," called Harry.

"We´re getting nowhere fast," he said as they approached, "There´s only one thing I can think of - we´ve got to explore all four tunnels. There´s no other way. Ron - you and Hermi take the one in the near left corner. Ginny and I will take the one in the far left. If we don´t find anything, we´ll check the ones on the right. Check your watches - I make it 3.38 pm. Now whatever happens, we´ll meet back here in twenty minutes - not a minute longer. Ok?"

The other three checked their watches and nodded in agreement.

"And be careful - don´t take any chances. Run back here and wait if there´s the slightest hint of any danger." With that, the four split up and went their separate ways.

Harry and Ginny found themselves in a fairly narrow tunnel, which allowed them to walk only in single file - Harry to the front. The tunnel frequently twisted in different directions and sloped slightly up all the way. The two proceeded with great caution, checking all the while for any fissures in the rock on either side, in case there was something hiding there.

They had been walking only for about four minutes when they heard a feint noise in the distance. They stopped, listening intently, and then heard it again.

"That´s Hermi´s voice," said Harry with alarm, "They must be in trouble. Come on."

Harry and Ginny ran as fast as they could back down the tunnel and quickly re-entered the square chamber. They ran along the wall and went into the tunnel that Ron and Hermione had gone into five minutes earlier. The sounds of shouting and screaming were now much louder, and they increased their speed but stopped dead when they came to a small cavern, lit with flaming torches in rusty iron holders. The scene before them resembled one of those old fantasy movies - Jason and the Argonaughts came to Harry´s mind in a flash.

Ron and Hermione were against the left-hand wall, back to back, trying to fight off about a dozen skeletons. The bony nightmares were brandishing thick clubs, trying to get close enough to clobber the two teens, who were pointing their wands and yelling `FLIPENDO´ with increasing frequency.

The curses were hitting the skeletons, flinging them back and breaking bones, but they would immediately repair themselves - the bones joining back seamlessly - and rejoin the fray.

Ron and Hermione were getting tired and the skeletons were getting closer to them all the while. One got close enough to Ron to swing its club, which just scraped the side of Ron´s head. He staggered back, putting his hand to the graze and feeling the warm blood. It was at this point that Ginny and Harry weighed into the fight. Ginny started flinging FLIPENDUS curses from the cavern entrance, while Harry circled slightly to the left, towards his two friends. Harry felt a powerful rage come over him as he saw his friends in such great danger, and this was reflected in the power of his magic.

`FLIPENDO´ he raged as he aimed at one of the skeletons that came up to him. The denizen was struck by a powerful bolt of energy and went hurtling to the back wall of the cave, where it splintered into a thousand pieces. It tried, but couldn´t manage to reintegrate itself. After a short while, it gave up the struggle and collapsed into a pile of white powder on the floor.

Again and again, Harry sent a skeleton to a crumbly end, and after about five minutes of fighting, twelve piles of white powder littered the floor of the cave.

Hermione rushed over to Harry and flung her arms around his neck, "Thank God you came," she cried, hugging him tightly, "I thought we were finished there."

Harry slowly caught hold of her arms and eased her gently away from him. He looked into her eyes and said softly, "I´m sorry, Hermi. It was my fault. I nearly got you and Ron killed." He looked miserably at Hermione and Ron.

"But how, Harry?" wailed Hermione, "It wasn´t your fault. How could it be?"

"I should never have split us up like that," he said, "Our strength is in our combined powers, and when we split up, our strength was weakened. I should never have done it." He continued to look dejected as Ron and Ginny joined Hermione and placed their hands on his back in support of their friend.

"Come on, let´s go back to the cavern," said Ginny, "We need to rest before we check the other tunnels."

The four trooped slowly back and flopped onto the ground. The fight had drained their powers more than they realised and they needed to take time to recuperate.

The four chatted quietly amongst themselves as they rested, and Harry looked at his watch. "It´s twenty past four," he said, "What do you think is happening outside? Do you think they´ve been able to hold off Wormtail for nearly four and half hours? I´m worried about them."

"Don´t forget what that voice said, Harry. I´m sure they´re all right," said Hermione gently.

Harry sighed and started to get to his feet, "Come on, time to go. Let´s try the tunnel Ginny and I went down first - all of us together this time."

As he stood, he caught a movement out of the corner of his eye, "What?" he yelled as he turned to his right. The others jumped to their feet and turned in the direction Harry was looking. Above one of the tunnels - the one in the near right corner - was a shining Templar cross - the cross paté glowing in a silvery light.

"The light of the righteous," breathed Hermione. That fight with the skeletons must have been another test - a test of our strength and bravery - and we´re being shown the way now that we´ve come through it unscathed."

"Are you all up to going on?" asked Harry as he looked at his slightly bedraggled friends.

"Lead on, brave Sir. We shall follow," said Ron in his best theatrical voice.

Harry and Ron led them into the tunnel, which curved first to the right and then sharply to the left, and then continued straight ahead for about forty yards. They slowed as they saw a chamber open up just in front of them. It was faintly illuminated with an eerie green glow. They cautiously walked into the cavern, which was roughly oval in shape and there were a lot of boulders strewn around on the floor. It was about thirty yards long and twenty yards wide, and about twelve feet high.

Hermione and Ginny let out a yell of protest as they bumped into the backs of the two boys. Ginny looked at her brother, who was staring to his right, eyes wide and mouth agape. She followed his gaze and saw what he was looking at. Her hand shot to her mouth to stifle the scream that threatened to emerge.

There was one exit from the cave, off to the right-hand side. The problem was that a very large and hideous creature, which looked like an overgrown scorpion, guarded it. It had a flexible tail, which bent back over its deathly-white body, and ended in a nasty looking stinger, which dripped a greenish coloured liquid.

The creature was facing in their direction, its two huge front pincers opening and closing with sickeningly loud clicks, moving its head from side to side as if searching for something. It made a sudden movement towards them, and they rushed back inside the tunnel from which they had just emerged, eyes wide and panting with fear. The creature was too large to follow them into the tunnel, and after a few moments it turned and went back to guard the exit tunnel.

When they had calmed down a bit, Ron voiced what the others were thinking, "I don´t think that´s a boggart, so how are we going to get past it? I don´t like the look of that stinger one bit!"

"Harry," said Ginny shakily, "why don´t you try to stun it or something? Those Flipendus spells you threw at the skeletons were pretty powerful."

Harry nodded and crept slowly to the cave entrance. He saw that the monster was back guarding the exit. He took a deep breath and stepped purposefully into the cave, aiming his wand at the creature´s head.

"STUPEFY," he shouted. A powerful red beam of energy left his wand and hit the creature squarely on the head. The creature shook its head and then turned in Harry´s direction, ready to charge. Harry´s eyes went wide as he saw that the spell had no effect, and rushed quickly back into the tunnel just before the monster reached him.

"It didn´t work," he said to the others, "it just bounced off. That thing must be one powerful beast!"

"Perhaps you didn´t use your full power, Harry," said Ron.

"I gave it everything I had, Ron. No, I think we´ve got to use something other than brute force to get past it."

"But what?" asked Ginny.

"I think we´ve got to use our heads, Ginny," said Hermione, "We´re going to have to use a bit of guile to get through this one."

Harry nodded and looked thoughtfully at his friends, "Up to now, the monsters we´ve encountered have had some sort of weakness. We´ve just got to find out what this thing´s weak point is and exploit it."

"What do you suggest we do, Harry?" asked Hermione nervously.

"I don´t know, Hermi. Look, I´ll inch slowly into the back of the tunnel - but not so far that I´ll get trapped - and you three keep an eye on it and see if you can spot anything."

"Oh, be careful, Harry. That thing looks deadly to me", said Ginny fearfully.

Harry slowly edged to the tunnel entrance and peeked cautiously around the right-hand corner. He looked back and called the other three when he saw that the scorpion was back at the exit tunnel, about fifteen yards away. He slowly and quietly stepped over to the left-hand corner of the entrance and started to tip toe around the back wall of the cave. Ron, Hermione and Ginny took his place at the right-hand side and looked intently and unblinking at the monster.

Harry kept his eye on the creature as he slowly edged his way along the back wall. The creature, meanwhile, started moving its head from side to side, as before, as if it were trying to detect a target with some sort of internal radar. Apart from that, it made no movement from its position in front of the exit tunnel

Harry had gone about four yards around the back wall before something happened. He was so intent on keeping a close watch on the creature that he didn´t spot the small rock in front of him. With a loud crash, his left foot hit the rock and he tumbled forward, just saving himself from falling by bracing his hands against the rock wall.

The creature´s head snapped up and it charged - straight at Harry. Hermione let out a cry of warning and the scorpion hesitated, stopped in its charge, and turned its head towards Hermione. The hesitation was all that Harry needed. He turned and rushed back towards the other three. The monster was quick - very quick. It raced after Harry, its stinger hovering above its head, primed to strike.

As it closed on him, Harry made a desperate dive and flung himself into the tunnel, just as the stinger crashed down with awesome power just behind his right foot.

His friends helped Harry to his feet, and he dusted himself off. "Phew!" he breathed, "that was too close for comfort. That thing´s as fast as lightening."

He looked expectantly at the others, "Well - did you spot anything?"

"Yes," said Ginny, "Did you notice that it didn´t attack until you tripped over that rock - and it stopped and turned when Hermi yelled? I think its blind and it detects its prey by the sound it makes."

The others looked at Ginny, and then at each other, "It makes sense," said Ron, "Hang on a minute - I´ll take a closer look."

Ron slowly walked to the entrance to the cave and peeked around the corner - he saw that the creature was back in its guarding position at the exit tunnel, moving its head from side to side in the now familiar way. Ron looked closely at it for about a minute and then went back to the others. "Ginny´s right. I got a close look at its head - it hasn´t got any eyes. It´s blind, all right."

"So we´ve found its weak spot," said Hermione, "but how are we going to use it? It makes up for its lack of sight with keen hearing and blistering speed."

After a few moments, Harry looked at his friends, "I think I´ve found a way - I´ll tip toe around the back of the cave, keeping my eye on the ground, this time, so I won´t trip over anything. You three move very quietly towards the exit tunnel, but not so far that you can´t get back if anything goes wrong. When I get to the far end, I´ll make a noise and draw it away. When it attacks, you three move quietly and go down the exit tunnel. When you´re all inside, make a noise to distract it away from me."

"That´s fine Harry," said Ron, "except for one big flaw. We´ll be in the tunnel and you´ll still be stuck outside with no way to follow us."

"I´ve thought of that, Ron. I´ll creep back to the entrance tunnel and throw a rock to the far side of the cave. When it charges over, I´ll make a dash for the exit."

"So why don´t we do that now, Harry?" asked Hermione, "There´s no need for you to risk going over to the far end of the cave."

"Uh - I hadn´t thought of that." Harry looked shamefaced at Hermione, then bent down, rummaged around on the floor, and picked up a rock about the size of a cricket ball. "Ready?" He walked to the tunnel entrance, followed by the others, and then flung the rock at the far corner.

They all tensed themselves, ready to make a dash for it, as the rock sailed through the air and hit the far wall with a resounding crash. They looked at the creature, waiting for it to race over to the sound. It jerked up its head - but made no move.

"What!" exclaimed Ginny.

"I think it must be able to tell the difference between the sound of its prey and the falling of a rock," said Hermione, "It makes sense, really. There must be a lot of small rock falls in this cave - look at how the floor is littered - so it´s learned to tell the difference in the sounds."

"That´s great!" groaned Ron, "What do we do now?"

"We stick with my original plan," said Harry with determination.

"No Harry, you can´t!" exclaimed Hermione in disbelief, "You´ll be stuck here, and there´s no point in us three going on without you - you´re the Anima Summa!"

"Look, Hermi, I´ll find a way - I´ll think of something. Look on the bright side - at least we´ll be three-quarters of the way there."

"Harry!" she said, full of exasperation. She looked at the others for support but they just shrugged their shoulders.

"If Harry´s made up his mind," said Ron, "you should know that there´s nothing that will stop him. And I can´t think of any way to get past that thing - can you two?"

The two girls shook their heads glumly.

"We´ll wait for you just inside the exit tunnel," Ron said to Harry, "Just shout if you want us to do anything to help. We won´t go on without you."

Hermione and Ginny both hugged Harry as he made to go towards the cavern entrance. He nodded at them both, and then crept slowly into the cave, keeping his eyes firmly peeled on the ground in front of him. In a few minutes he had reached the far left-hand end. He waved to his friends and motioned for them to start to edge towards the exit tunnel.

He waited until they were within about 10 yards of their goal and then waved and motioned for them to stop. He stamped his feet and started shouting. "Hey! Over here - come and get me."

The creature jerked his head in Harry´s direction and rushed towards him, its pincers held high and snapping in anticipation of the kill. When it arrived, it struck - the stinger was a blur as it plunged down and - buried itself in the soft floor of the cave. Harry was no longer in that spot. As soon as he´d finished making a noise he´d silently edged away and was now standing about three yards away from the monster - standing stock still against the rock wall.

The creature jerked its stinger out of the floor and again moved its head from side to side in confusion, trying to detect where the target was. Harry was afraid even to breath. He concentrated on holding his breath and not moving a muscle. He looked at the hideous form, so close to his left-hand side, willing it to move away. Then he heard a commotion over by the exit tunnel. He moved his eyes to the right and saw Ron stamping on the ground and yelling, "Come on you ugly bugger - we´re over here!"

The scorpion jerked around, its hind part just missing Harry, and sped off with frightening speed towards Ron, who dashed back inside the exit tunnel to join the two girls. Harry let out the breath he´d been holding and relaxed his muscles - the plan had worked, and his friends were safely inside the tunnel.

By this time, the scorpion had once more taken up its familiar pose, guarding the exit. Harry thought about what he could do. He slowly and quietly edged back the few yards to the place he´d been standing when he´d attracted the creature towards him. He looked about him and up at the ceiling, just six feet above his head. His jaw set with grim determination - then he silently transformed into his Animagus form.

He looked at the creature with his keen eagle eyes, steeled himself, and then started stomping on the floor and screeching loudly. The scorpion charged. When it was just five yards away, the eagle pushed powerfully with his legs and glided silently to the right. Harry was careful not to flap his wings for fear of drawing the creature towards him. He then veered to the left and floated quietly towards the exit and landed just outside.

He looked back over his wings, now folded, and saw that the monster had heard his claws land on the floor and was charging back towards him, just fifteen yards away. Harry just had time to transform back and dive into the exit tunnel. He was lucky that his legs were spread as he dived. As his friends caught hold of his arms and hauled him inside the tunnel, the stinger crashed down between his legs. The creature reached out its right pincer and made a grab for Harry´s foot - but the vice-like claw closed on empty space - Harry had been pulled just out of its reach.

He looked gratefully at the three as the adrenalin flow started to ease. He was breathing rapidly and his face was red from the excitement of it all.

"Am I ever glad to see you three," he breathed as he was hauled to his feet and grabbed with great relief by his three friends.

With a last look back at the hideous creature at the tunnel exit, the four quickly continued on their way, this time with Ron and Hermione in the lead, and Harry, with Ginny holding under his arm, bringing up the rear. They walked for fifty yards or so before the tunnel bent sharply to the left.

Harry looked at Ginny as she stopped, "What are you doing, Ginny?"

"I´m mapping this turn on the parchment, Harry. Haven´t you noticed me doing it before? I´ve been drawing our progress from the time we left the church. I´ve been pacing out the lengths of these tunnels, and judging the angles of the twists and turns, trying to draw a fairly accurate map of the labyrinth."

"Sorry, Ginny. I´ve been up front till now so I hadn´t noticed."

She finished drawing on the parchment and grabbed Harry´s arm as they followed Ron and Hermione. Harry looked and could see Ginny silently moving her lips as she counted the steps she was taking. After another fifty yards, Ron and Hermione stopped. "There´s another cavern just ahead," Ron whispered over his shoulder, "Stay here - I´ll go and see if there´s any nasty surprises in there."

After a few moments, Ron called back, "It seems to be empty, and I can´t see any monsters or anything."

The others sighed with relief and followed Ron into the cavern. They raised their lit wands and looked around them.

***

"They´re up to something. It´s too quiet." Remus called over to where Sirius was taking cover just inside the Calvery.

"Yes, you´re right. They haven´t sent any curses for at least five minutes," he answered, "Charlie, Ceri, Nadine - keep your eyes peeled. Something´s going on out there."

They all looked in the direction from where the last curses had been flung, but could see nothing. "Do you think they´ve given up?" Nadine said to Ceri.

"No way, Nadine. They´ve got too much to lose to give up - like their lives. `You Know Who´ isn´t a very forgiving person. No - they´re up to something all right."

They continued to survey their surroundings, trying to detect a sound, a movement, a disturbed blade of grass, anything that would give them a clue concerning the strategy of their opponents. They could detect nothing.

His heightened state of alertness lent Remus a sixth sense. He didn´t hear anything and didn´t see anything. He just felt a prickling at the back of his neck.

He moved quickly to his left - and that saved him from serious injury, or even death. As he turned, he spotted Wormtail about thirty yards away - and the ball of energy that he´d sent hurtling at his exposed back. It caught Remus in his upper right arm and flung him into the stone monument behind which he´d been sheltering. He let out a groan as the pain laced through his right arm, and his wand dropped from his stiffened fingers.

Wormtail had earlier transformed to his rat Animagus and run silently behind the church to come up behind the defenders. He´d transformed back to see Remus Lupin´s back exposed to his gaze. He couldn´t believe that his target had managed to avoid the full brunt of the Flipendus curse, which he´d aimed at his exposed spine, but he grinned evilly as he saw that Remus was now at his mercy.

He pointed his wand squarely at Remus´ chest and took careful aim. He started to utter the killing curse when he was thrown to the floor as a hastily-aimed spell from Sirius´ wand exploded just in front of him, sending clodges of earth into his stomach. Wormtail immediately returned to his rat form and ran quickly behind the church.

The activity signalled the start of a furious bout of curses from the other Death Eaters, who had used Wormtail´s distraction to change their positions. Charlie was forced to move from his now vulnerable hiding place, and he run frantically towards Remus, just avoiding the curses that followed his progress.

He dived behind Remus´ cover and looked at the ashen face of the DADA professor as he clutched his right arm, "Where are you hit, Remus. Are you ok?"

Remus groaned through the pain, "I think my arm´s broken. I was lucky it wasn´t more serious."

In response to Sirius´ urgent calls, Charlie told him that Remus´ situation, and that he wasn´t badly hurt. Sirius grunted with relief as he flung yet another spell at the Death Eaters. "Charlie - see if you can get behind the church. I saw Wormtail´s rat run there after his attack."

Charlie dashed to the side of the church, and eased his way around the corner to try to find Wormtail. There was no movement at all. Wormtail had escaped back to his bunch of thugs.

Charlie returned to Remus´ side, "Can you fight on, Remus?"

"Yes, I can use my left arm - I won´t be very accurate or powerful but at least I can make a nuisance of myself as far as the Death Eaters are concerned. You go and find a better spot - I´m ok here."

Charlie looked around and saw a good place just this side of the Calvery - behind an old horse-mounting stone. He dashed over during a lull in the firing and settled down behind it.

***

It was another natural cave, roughly circular, about thirty yards across and twenty feet high. They examined the walls, ceiling and floor but could find no exit tunnels at all. The only light in the cavern came from their wands. Apart from a few stalagmites jutting up from the ground, the cavern was otherwise featureless - just bare rock walls all around, immovable and challenging in their starkness.

"Do you think we´ve taken a wrong turn back there somewhere?" asked a dejected Ron.

"I don´t think so," said Hermione, "Why would that scorpion be guarding the last exit if there was nothing to protect. No - I´m sure we´ve come the right way."

"Hey - perhaps this is the place," said Ginny suddenly, "The end of our quest - and we´ve just got to wait for something to happen."

"Well," said Ron, "If we´ve got to wait, I´m going to wait in comfort. Let´s finish our food - I´m starving!"

"Again!" Hermione exclaimed with disbelief. She looked at her watch, "Oh, it´s five o´clock - I didn´t think it was that late."

"See Hermi," he replied, "We haven´t eaten for ages." With that he flopped down on the ground and started to take out the remaining food parcels from his rucksack. He was soon joined by the others. Despite her earlier incredulity, even Hermione felt hunger pangs once she started to think about the food that was left. And after all, it was tea-time.

"Any more pizza left?" mouthed Ron through a great chunk of Cornish pasty.

"No Ron," answered Ginny, "You polished it all off the last time we stopped for food. Don´t you remember?"

"Oh yeh - just checking in case you held some back."

After they finished all the food, Hermione heated the remaining two flasks and poured them all a hot cup of tea. They all felt a lot better after that - they were now ready to resume their journey. They all stood and again looked about the cavern, "We must have missed something," said Harry, "Let´s spread out and examine the walls more closely - there´s got to be an exit somewhere."

They each picked a section of the cave to explore and slowly walked around the walls, stopping from time to time to examine even the smallest flaw in the rock. After ten minutes, they gave up. "There´s nothing here," groaned Harry, "What´re we going to do now? I don´t fancy going back to face that scorpion again!"

"All we can do is wait, Harry," said Hermione, "Something will turn up I´m sure."

They all sat back down on the ground and waited, looking around the cavern for any sign. They waited for another fifteen minutes, and then, high up on the wall, they spotted movement.

"Look," shouted Hermione, "Do you see that?"

High up on the wall, just beneath the ceiling, they saw 7 circular lights dancing slowly around each other. There was no sound, just the slow movement of the seven lights.

"It must be something to do with the light of the righteous," said Hermione, "But the last time we saw that it was a silvery-white colour. None of those lights are silvery or white. See if you can detect any pattern in their movement."

After a little while it was evident that the movement of the lights was completely random.

Suddenly, Ginny slapped her thigh in recognition, "Of course - look, it´s a rainbow. It´s the seven colours of the rainbow - Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo and Violet. What do you think it means?"

The three looked at Hermione, hoping for some answer. She studied the lights again for a moment and then brightened, "Yes. I think I´ve got it!" She turned to her friends and started to explain her idea.

"Think of the sunlight shining through a prism - it disperses the white light into the seven colours of the rainbow. The sun is the source - the white light - and we´ve got to find the source of these rainbow lights. It´s got to be the light of the righteous."

She looked at the others, who nodded their agreement with her assessment of the situation.

"I think we´ve all got to do this together - at the same time. We´ve all got to be involved in finding the source. Point your wands at the lights, and when I nod, say the incantation `Ostendo Origo.´ Ok?"

"Where did you get that one from Hermi?" Asked Ron.

"It means `Show the source.´ I read it in that book you bought me for my last birthday. Ready everybody?"

She looked to see that they were all looking at her, and pointing their wands at the moving lights. She nodded her head.

`OSTENDO ORIGO´ they all shouted at the same time. They watched in fascination as four silvery blue lights sped towards the top of the wall. As they neared the lights, they merged into a single, powerful beam of energy and then struck dead centre - in the middle of the seven lights.

They waited in anticipation as the lights immediately stopped moving. They then started to move again, but this time in towards each other - to the spot where the spell had just struck the wall. The seven lights merged into one - and a silvery-white light shone brilliantly. It then slowly moved across the top of the wall to their right, and then down. It stopped about five feet above the ground, immediately to their right.

"Come on," Harry said to the others. He walked up to the waiting light, held his wand against it and uttered `ALOHOMORA.´

He stood back as the silvery light intensified, then started to get smaller and smaller until it was just an intense spot on the wall in front of them. Then it disappeared all together, and in its place, a small hole appeared. It became larger and larger until an exit tunnel was revealed.

Harry looked at his companions and then stepped into the tunnel. The others quickly followed, holding their wands above their heads to show the way. Ron moved up and walked alongside Harry.

After a short while, the tunnel curved sharply to the left, and then straightened. It meandered along for about 150 yards before curving sharply to the right again. They stopped and saw that it gently bent around further to the right.

"I don´t believe this," gasped Ginny. She had just finished mapping the latest leg of the tunnel.

"What?" asked Ron.

"We´re nearly back to the place we started. Much deeper than that, but I estimate that if we continue to move to the right, we´ll be underneath the church again in about a hundred yards."

"Are you sure, Ginny?" Said Harry.

"Well, I tried to be as accurate as I could, and I´m probably out a bit. But we´re not far from the church - deep under the church."

They looked at each other dubiously, and then continued down the tunnel. Harry called a halt when he detected a feint yellowish light coming from somewhere up ahead. "Kill your lights," he whispered.

The yellow light was slightly brighter when their wands were extinguished.

"I think I recognise this place," said Harry suddenly, "It´s very similar to the tunnel I was in when I had those dreams."

The others looked at him hopefully, "Perhaps we´re getting close to the secret," said Ginny.

They walked slowly forward, the glow getting slightly brighter with each step, and then they suddenly emerged into an irregularly shaped cavern.

They looked around and immediately saw the source of the yellow light - six ancient-looking torches were perched in their holders around the rock walls. The torches were not lit with any natural fire - it was definitely magical. The eerie yellow glow seemed to soak into the rock and the walls themselves added to the glow.

They all jumped at the sound of a loud, challenging voice coming from the far end of the cavern, over to the right.

"STAY. HOLD STILL. DO NOT MOVE."

They looked and saw an amazing sight. Harry gasped, "It´s the one in my dream - the one that´s been calling to me."

In the yellowish gloom, they saw a tall, very old man dressed in the uniform of a Knight Templar. His large and lethal-looking sword was raised above his head. He slowly approached, and they inched backwards, back towards the tunnel. He stopped about ten yards from them, and said in a strong, authoritative voice, "WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT DO YOU SEEK."

Harry stepped forward and replied, "Lord Knight, greetings. I am the Anima Summa that you have summoned, and these are my 3 brave and trusty helpers. We seek the truth and the secret to aid us in our task against the Dark Forces."

He looked at the knight as he waited, hoping that he´d said the right things.

The knight looked at Harry, and then beyond him at his three friends, appraising them with a practiced eye. He lowered his sword to his side and then spoke once more, "YES. I SEE THAT YOU ARE WHOM YOU SAY. WELCOME. I HAVE WAITED LONG. BUT I DID NOT EXPECT ONES SO YOUNG. FOR SUCH A TENDER AGE YOU MUST INDEED BE BRAVE TO HAVE COME SO FAR THROUGH THE LABYRINTH."

He then seemed to pull himself taller, and raised his head slightly, "I AM THE SPIRIT OF JACQUES DE MOLAY - THE LAST GRAND MASTER OF THE KNIGHTS TEMPLAR - THE DEFENDERS OF THE SECRET OF RHEDAE. IT HAS BEEN MY TASK, FOR THE LAST EIGHT HUNDRED YEARS, TO GUARD THE SECRET OF RHEDAE. BUT I WAS ALSO GIVEN ANOTHER TASK ALL THOSE YEARS AGO. I WAS AWAKENED FROM MY SLUMBER OF VIGIL BY A GREAT EVIL - AN EVIL THAT THREATENS THE PEACE OF THE WORLD. IT IS MY DUTY TO SUMMON THE ONE WHO CAN DISPELL THIS EVIL - THE ANIMA SUMMA. AND SO YOU HAVE COME. MY TASK IS NOW DONE AND I CAN YET AGAIN SLUMBER. BUT YOU CANNOT. YOU ARE JUST BEGINNING YOUR JOURNEY."

He paused, and then continued, "YOU ARE ABOUT TO WITNESS THE SECRET OF RHEDAE."

He walked back over to the wall and raised his sword once more. He placed it against the rock and uttered something in an unfamiliar language. The rock seemed to shrink away from the tip of the sword, and then parted to reveal a long corridor. It stretched ahead darkly, beyond the vision of the four friends who had walked up alongside the knight.

The knight gestured with his sword, "COME. GO TO THE CHAMBER AND SEE THE SECRET OF RHEDAE"

He stood to one side as first Harry, and then the other three, entered the corridor and walked slowly into the darkness.