Diamond In The Rough

Harry felt himself being roughly shaken to wakefulness. Groaning, he rolled onto his side and found himself gazing into Lyca’s golden eyes. Seeing he was awake, she stopped and let go of his arms.

"Malfoy’s not here." She said urgently.

After a moment, Harry scrambled to his feet, muttering curses under his breath. Looking around, he saw Draco lying on the floor asleep, where Hannah was shaking him too. Harry whirled on Lyca, who was giggling in mirth. "What d’you go and tell me that for?" he exclaimed

"Well, you have to admit, you haven’t moved so fast since the latest Firebolt came out." She replied, a mischievous grin on her face

"I dont care whether Potter is here in Outer Mongolia. Let me be!"

Harry rolled his eyes at Draco’s outburst. Some things, he realised, would never change. Walking over to the lethargic Slytherin, he rolled him onto his back with his foot. Cold grey eyes glared back at him. "What?"

"Get up Malfoy. Now. Not next week, not in half an hour, now."

After a long silence, Draco grimaced and pulled himself up.

* * * * *

Following a quick breakfast of fish the girls had caught and cooked, all four of them stood in front of the door. No one spoke for long while. Eventually, Lyca broke the silence as she drew her wand and tapped the oak surface firmly.

"Alhomora."

With a loud creak it swang open, revealing a dark tunnel. At the end, Harry could just make out a light. The tunnel itself was long and shadowy, with moss climbing the walls. The silence was only broken by the constant dripping from its ceiling. Murky, ankle deep water seeped out and soaked their feet as it slowed to the pool behind them. Still not speaking, the four of them moved off, Harry leading, the girls in the middle and Draco bringing up the rear.

They walked for a long time. But the end came no closer. Though they could see the tunnel behind them the end light got no nearer. Eventually, Harry stopped and turned to the others.

"We must have walked the distance we saw at the beginning five times over by now. Why aren’t we reaching the end?"

Lyca frowned. "I think this must be an illusion," she pulled out her wand and topped the wall, "Finite Incantatum."

At first nothing happened. Then, a rumbling shook the tunnel violently, before it started to rotate, the floor starting to slide up to where the wall had been. Harry turned to her wild-eyed. "Still and illusion? Seems very real to me!"

Lyca clicked her fingers, walking backwards to remain upright. "It’s a group chamber remember, we must have to do this together. Wands out everyone. On three...."

She looked at them and waited till they were all ready. "Three...two...one..."

"Finite Incantatum!"

The tunnel not only stopped moving, it disappeared altogether.

* * * * *

"This isn’t funny. Anything higher than ten foot is past my humour. And I have a feeling why might be just a little higher than that!"

Harry didn’t respond to Draco. He was still goggling at where they were. They were stood over something that greatly resembled the cliff on Cape Wrath where they’d confronted Orenda. But they weren’t stood on ground. Instead, they were grouped in a huddle, about two hundred metres above the sea’s surface, on what seemed to be a platform of solid air.

Hannah spoke up from behind him. They were all pressed so close together, Harry could feel her breath on his neck. "Could this be another illusion do you think?"

"Possibly," snapped Draco, with a sneer in his tone, "Care o be the one to test it?"

Hannah didn’t reply. Draco’s eyes flicked to Harry. "Well Potter, you’re the Gryffindor. Care to show us your bravery?"

Harry choked. "You have to be kidding! There is no way-"

Lyca interrupted him; her voice almost painting the plea he knew must be in her eyes. "Harry, someone needs to go-"

"You’re taking his side!"

Silence

Harry growled. "If I get killed, I will never forgive any of you. I’ll make whatever afterlife you may get the worst experience you’ve ever had. I’ll-"

"Harry," said Lyca patiently, "Just step off the platform. It’s only an illusion."

Taking a deep breath and trying not to look down, Harry took a step forward....

And plummeted towards the water below

* * * * *

He didn’t dare open his eyes as he felt the wind whistling past him. He heard Lyca scream as he fell. His fingers were tightly curled into fists and as much as he tried, he couldn’t make his fingers relax. Gritting his teeth, he prepared for the icy impact.

It never came

Harry suddenly stopped falling. He could feel solid earth beneath his feet. Slowly, he opened his eyes.

He was stood in a large room, approximately the size of the Great Hall at Hogwarts. Its walls were made of a strange kind of stone, which seemed to pulsate with a dim blue light. This cast eerie shadows over the floor and the room’s contents. Harry frowned.

Boulders? Why would anyone own a room of boulders? And how was this a challenge?

* * * * *

Hannah and Draco had struggled to hold onto Lyca as Harry fell. And now he had disappeared, before he had chance to hit the sea, she’d managed to worm her way out of their grip whilst they gaped. She was about to take a step backwards and off when Draco caught her arm.

She turned on him, eyes ablaze. "What do you think you are doing?" she demanded.

"Before you go and get yourself killed, have the sense to get your wand out. We dont know what happens on the other side of whatever barrier Potter just crossed."

Still glaring at him, Lyca pulled out her wand as instructed and stepped off the platform. Draco, muttering irritably, followed without even looking at Hannah. The Hufflepuff shrugged mentally, and watched the others disappear, before she too left the platform.

* * * * *

Harry was inspecting some of the boulders when Lyca and Draco appeared behind him. Upon seeing him, they both put their wands away cautiously. Lyca walked over to where he stood.

"So what’s the challenge in this room?"

Harry shrugged. "Haven’t worked that out yet. The only things in here are boulders. The door’s over there," he pointed to the far wall, "Only there’s that huge rock in the way."

Draco walked past them. "Let’s just climb over it then. You know, I would have thought the founders would have made this harder. Bet this was put here by Hufflepuff, dim female that she was."

Lyca shot him a look that could kill as he found a foot hold on the massive boulder and used it to hoist himself on top of it. Harry frowned again as he looked round the room. "I dont get it. There’s nothing but rocks in here, but that door is charred badly, and there are scratch marks on the floor. How can that be?"

"Oh leave it Potter. Typical, you get to the one easy bit and you have to pick holes. There are made of stone! They dont move, they dont eat, and they definitely dont kill. They aren’t organic. Look-" he lifted his foot to stamp....

Hannah’s voice rang out across the room, her necklace trilling in warning. "Draco! No! Its a-"

Draco stamped. As soon as he did, the ‘rock’ trembled and shook under him. The silvery blue surface suddenly seemed to separate, four legs appearing from underneath it. A tail coated in what Harry could now make out to be minute scales lashed from the side they couldn’t see. Moments later, a head curved round on an elegant neck, yellow cat-like eyes flashing at Harry, Hannah and Lyca. A ravenous hunger flashed in its eyes, as the creature stood, and took a couple of steps towards them.

Hannah gulped, and finished in a frightened voice. "Dragon."

Draco’s silvery eyes widened in fear as the others retreated to the back of the room. "Get...me...off...this..."

Lyca stared with increased worry as the dragon started to approach them, showing no awareness of Draco’s presence. "Somehow, I dont think you’re on the top of the agenda right now Malfoy. You aren’t lunch."

Harry fumbled in his pockets for his wand. "Can anyone remember the Conjunctivitis Curse?"

Draco had managed to keep his sarcasm, if not his cool composure. "Oh that’ll really help us Potter! This is a dragon not a leprechaun!"

Harry’s gave him a dangerous look. "Draco, actually, it will. If you’d ever paid attention in Care Of Magical Creatures-"

Hannah looked at them as if they were mad. "Harry, sorry, but is this really the time! You just say ‘Conjunctivitis’ and make sure your aim is good."

Harry, steeling his nerves, waited ‘til the dragon was only 10 metres away before performing the spell. As soon as he had, he pushed his wand back into his pocket, and, grabbing the arms of both witches beside him, sprinted towards the door.

The dragon thrashed about angrily, tail pounding dangerously near to them as they ran for the other side of the room. Draco soon caught up with them; having been thrown off the dragon’s back as it had reared in pain. Hannah’s necklace, which was still whistling quite loudly, was almost completely drowned out by the creature’s cry. The odd flash would come from behind them, as it snorted blue flames in anger.

Finally they reached the door. Not pausing to be apprehensive, they all piled out of the room.

* * * * *

They fell forward on their faces onto hot sand. Harry spat out the grains in his mouth, nose wrinkling at their taste in his mouth. A searing hot wind blew around them, scorching their faces painfully dry. Crouching down by Draco, Harry whispered in his ear. "I wouldn’t mouth off Hufflepuffs if I were you. Had Hannah been there earlier, we wouldn’t have been in that mess."

Draco, climbing to his feet, grimaced at Harry before looking around. Harry followed his lead and surveyed their surroundings.

They were in a desert. The sun shone high up in the sky, with no clouds in sight. Looking up was blinding. The ground was nearly all sand. However, in front ran a stone path, strangely clear from the yellow mists that covered everything else. Far off in the distance, Harry could make out a wall. This, he realised, must be their target for this challenge.

Walking over to the where the girls stood he pointed out the wall. "I think we’d better get walking. It’s nearly high noon here. I’d rather be out of here by that time."

Lyca looked wearily down the path. "How do we how it isn’t an illusion like the tunnel?

Harry shrugged. "We dont. But, well, we aren’t getting anywhere by standing here all day"

With a shrug Lyca started moving, Harry and Hannah just behind, with Draco, who was still glaring at Harry, following behind.

They were about half way down the path when the sandstorm started. The four of them used their cloaks as protection, wrapping it round their head in such a way that only left a gap for their eyes, breathing through the thin material. Grains would fly into their eyes, making them sting and burn. Tears caused by the blasting heat of the wind trickled from Harry’s eyes into the cloth, blurring his vision and making it almost impossible to see. Now and again he would veer unexpectedly into someone, though who it was he kept bumping into, he couldn’t quite make out, though he guessed it wasn’t Draco due to the lack of response.

Unlike in the tunnel, he could make out the end getting closer. The wall seemed very out of place. It was made of grey stone, bricks like those in castles. Not something you would expect to see in an Arabian desert. As they got closer, Harry could make out something in front of it, lazing in front of a great wooden door like the one they’d encountered at the beginning of this chamber. When they were within ten metres, Harry stopped, and wiped away the tears from his sore eyes.

The thing sitting before them was a sphinx. Harry cringed. He’d only had one experience with one of these, and he bet that that one had had plenty of restraining spells on it. This one would most definitely not have them. And that meant death if he got the riddle wrong. Gulping like Hannah had before with the Swedish Short-Snout, he took some steps forward, unravelling some of his cloak so he could speak.

"We need to get past." He stated, in the firmest voice he could muster.

The sphinx raised one delicate eyebrow. "Do you now? Well, I’m sure you know the procedure. Either go, or answer me a riddle correctly. Which will it be?"

Harry stood a little straighter. "The riddle."

Sitting up a bit, the Sphinx started to speak:

"Beneath its plain surface hides

The most beautiful of insides

Pure white corridors to pure white halls

Though through them come no human calls

But in the centre lies the one exception

To this seemingly white perfection

There a dome of gold doth lie

So, pray tell me, what am I?"

Before Harry could even start to contemplate out loud, Hannah spoke up.

"The answer is an egg."

The sphinx smiled bitterly and leapt aside. "And I thought I’ finally got a meal. Go in then, before I change my mind."

The four of them scrambled for the door, and slammed it behind them.

Harry gaped at Hannah. "How did you know that?"

She grinned back. "Terry is a riddle fanatic. You get good at those things with a little practise.

* * * * *

They were now back in a corridor carved in the same earthy expanse they had started in, the wooden door left behind them as they walked down it, their footsteps echoing back on them. They didn’t speak. They seemed all too worried that they’d come to another challenge, for which they were in no fit state. Harry half expected a Manticore to come charging towards them. Eventually, as their eyelids started to weigh down, they reached another door. Writing of the same glowing gold script was on it. This time, Lyca was the one to read it out.

"So you have survived as a group

Hopefully you still have the entire troop

For in the end you need all four

In order to pass through the final door

Before you reach that you have one more task

One more challenge that we ask

After this you will each have a separate door

Each is different, made for one of you four

Choice of your chamber is not yours

You will enter according to these laws

Place your hand upon that of the house the Sorting Hat placed you

The door will only open for those who are true"

Hannah yawned. "Well, I dont know about you, but I need sleep. We’ll face this when we wake up."

Draco spoke to her bitterly. "Do we have a choice about when that time is this time round." Everyone gave him a withering look, to which he only scowled, before lying on the floor, in the hope of sleep.

Harry did the same, as did Hannah and Lyca. However, he took the longest to get to sleep. He gazed up at the stone ceiling. What if this chamber was like a Boggart? What if it presented you with your absolute worst fear? He shivered uncomfortably at the thought. He had no wish to see a Dementor, though he wondered now if Voldemort hadn’t replaced that fear. Curling up in the warmest position he could find, he drifted off into a restless sleep.