Chimaera of Judgement



CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT: Praecessi's Room

Albus cast a quick glance at Rose, brow furrowing, before asking, "A way to what, Wayne?"

The prominent ears of Wayne Elphinstone were now reddening, and it didn't take them long to find out why. "Well... sorry, didn't mean to eavesdrop, but you weren't much bothering to keep your voices low." He paused a moment for them to scold him, but both only stared at him expectantly. "That Jezabel girl... she's disappeared? Really?"

"Afraid so," Rose began nervously. Not that they felt especially good about it, but neither she nor her cousin were as close to the skittish young man as they could be, and discussing a sensitive topic such as abductions and near-murders they had been present for with a stranger seemed unwise. "Er... but anyway, what do you mean, you know a way we can get to her?"

"Just that." But now his tones were becoming more suspicious. "What did you mean when you said Dryden looks like ground beef?"

"Just that," Albus echoed without enthusiasm. "He's been slashed to ribbons and he's in the hospital wing."

Wayne's eyes went wide, which only accentuated the bags under them. "No!" He looked between them, as if waiting for one or the other to shout "April Fool!" or something similar, but when they only stared down at the floor dejectedly, he continued, "But... he's been rather hard on me, all right, but he did inadvertently manage to teach me how to brew the Draught of Disaster, which saved my bum in our O.W.L.s. Is he- I mean, are they going to be able to patch him up?"

Albus shrugged. "Longbottom said it's likely, but Merlin, he was a mess."

"So... you're trying to find Jezabel because she did it?"

"Of course not!" Rose snapped. "But she might be the next victim if we can't find her in time!"

"Victim?" The pair of them could see the last variables of the equation clarify in their classmate's expression. "The ghosts! Not still, even after they carted Dorika away!"

"You can help us, then?" Albus pressed - there wasn't enough time to put the kettle on and chat. "If you can't, we won't fault you, but anything-"

"Yes, yes," he said hurriedly, colour steadily draining from his cheeks. "B-but I don't know much about it, and if it doesn't work y-you can't put the blame on me, all right?"

That did nothing to assuage their skepticism. "You're not going to try burning some mallowsweet or some such bilge, are you?"

"Eh? Oh, don't be silly," he snorted, scratching his chin. "It's... well, Tranquilius told me about something that may be of use - hang on-"

They could only look on in bewilderment as he crossed to the nearest window, stared outside, then pulled both of them into a huddle.

"There's a locked door down the sixth floor," he whispered. "Near the Arithmancy classroom. You ought to know the Unlocking Charm by now, I should think."

"Yeah," Albus assured him urgently; the area he was describing began to jog something in his memory. "And?"

Wayne smiled uncertainly. "From there, you can get anywhere... at least, according to Tranky. Don't hold me responsible if it turns out to be some daydream of his, though - you know how he gets."

"We won't," Rose told him with a smile. "And if this does work, I might snog your face off - thanks!"

And they were off toward the stairs, leaving Wayne clutching for the wall near the Fat Lady, aforementioned face burning.

"Reckon we're off on a fool's errand?" Albus asked as they ran.

"Likely," Rose panted. "But it really is about the only thing we could be doing right now save biting our nails and waiting for the teachers to turn up with Jezabel's corpse."

"Rose!"

"I know, Al, but it's a very real possibility!" A glance over showed him that panic was brewing just below the surface. "And if anything happens to her because, y'know, they fail miserably at enforcing rule within their own institute of higher learning, I'm going to be very, very cross with the whole-"

"Oof!"

"OI-!"

It took them a moment to sort themselves from the long limbs of Caspian Lewis, who shouted angrily, "Why don't you watch where you're sprinting?!"

"Sorry," Albus said earnestly, shoving an Extendable Ear back into his bag. "We're really in a hurry, though."

"Fine, but don't take it out on me," he said irritably, smoothing out his wavy blonde hair as he stood. "I'm having a decidedly unpleasant day, and scrapes and bruises aren't going to improve my disposition."

Rose seemed to find this irritating. "You git! There are teachers dying and students missing! Who cares if you've got your knickers in a twist over some errant-"

"What?" he said, eyes narrowing. "Who's gone missing?"

For what seemed like the seventh or eighth time that day, Albus and Rose felt like they might as well take out an article in the Daily Prophet and save themselves the trouble of going over current events. Still, they decided it easiest to give him a brief run-down of their encounter in Dryden's office. His eyes went wider and wider as they went on, until at last he had produced his wand, seemingly as a reflex.

"If this is a rescue attempt, let's do this properly."

Rose let out a snort of laughter, a smile tugging at the corner of her mouth. "You're not tagging along - what business is it of yours? She's our mate."

"I tried to save her once before, didn't I?" he countered, arms crossing over his chest. "Maybe I'm not a prefect, but that doesn't mean I can ignore a fellow Gryffindor in need. I'm lending my wand to this, whether you think I'm a good enough friend or not."

Again, Rose opened her mouth to lash out with what promised to be a scathing retort, but Albus placed a hand on her shoulder. "Fine. It's better than just the two of us, and it'll probably slow us down more if we try and talk him out of it."

"Al-"

"You saw that Shield Charm he pulled off," he hissed. "Nobody's better at counterjinxes. He might be of use."

"It really is bolstering to listen to the two of you discussing me as if you're thinking of buying another bottle of Mrs Scower's," he muttered.

"Should we go and get Ryan and our siblings, as well?" Rose shot at Albus, earning her a death glare. "Good, we're agreed; we need to move. Not that I expect this to work."

Albus grinned at her. "Actually... I believe it will." He took a few lengthy strides down the corridor, turned around, and muttered, "Okay... Peeves was... and-"

The knob he tried didn't turn. "Yep, this is it. Alohomora!"

It popped open; before either Caspian or Rose could ask how he'd found it so easily, he'd ushered them inside and slammed the door shut.

"Crap," said Rose. "Not this again."

Comets streaked overhead. Nebulae and constellations sparkled in the distance, and a feeling of weightlessness and vertigo clutched at the hearts of the three fifth-years as they strode along the floor that wasn't there.

"What... is this?" Caspian breathed.

"I dunno either," Albus said with a shrug. "But I have a feeling we've come to the right place."

Rose sighed, gazing worriedly at the planet some hundred thousand miles below her feet. "Should have realized this is what Wayne was on about. Think I'd rather not have come. Can we call the whole thing off and go back to studying or something?"

"O.W.L.s are over, dearest cousin," Albus laughed.

"No..." They both turned their attention to the frantic classmate, whose eyes were wide enough they could see the veins at the corners of his corneas. "B-but there's no way you've found Praecessi's Room, it's not real!"

Rose got there first. "Found wotsis?"

"It's... well, I've only heard Professor Flitwick talking with Professor Sinistra about it once," he laughed bleakly, neck craned all the way back so he could gaze at the heavens. "There was a wizard who once taught Arithmancy here at the castle before being snatched up by the Department of Mysteries for more important work. Legend has it he imbued one of its rooms with the ability to send those who could find it and puzzle out its use anywhere they wished. An old wives' tale. This is just as she described, though, so- so it must be. But they both dismissed it as a rumour, a child's imaginings!"

Try as he might, Albus couldn't suppress the grin he felt forming on his face. "Witches and wizards have said that about a good many rooms in this castle, according to my dad."

"It's smashing, really it is," Rose growled at the pair of them, "but can we set about this task before I urp all over the invisible ground?"

Caspian nodded, though it was clear a part of him wanted to stay there, gazing about at this monumental discovery.

"So how do we go about this? Ask for Dorika? That would be a-"

"No," Albus said, adjusting the strap of his bag on his shoulder. "I think we're ruled her out." He thought for a few seconds, watching as a shower of meteors pelted toward another heavenly body. "Finding the culprit of the attacks is important, but... that's not what's important right now."

"Agreed."

He took a deep breath, looked up toward what would be the ceiling in a normal location, and cried, "Take me to Jezabel Skirrow!"

No sooner had the breath left his lips than a door appeared directly in front of him. Rose noticed his expression and turned toward it, but Caspian had seen nothing.

"C'mon, Lewis, our ride is here."

Still looking over his shoulder at the spectacular display, he followed them through the portal and into darkness.

There truly was nothing to see. As Albus waded farther out into the black, he felt a strange lumpiness under his feet, but other than that their new surroundings gave no other hint. Finally, he called out, "Everyone all right?"

"Dandy," came Rose's immediate reply. "But where-"

"Dunno," Caspian interrupted. "Lumos!"

At the flare of his wandtip, Albus's first impression was that they'd mistakenly been dropped into Greenhouse Three - or a Greenhouse Five that was unbeknownst to the students due to condemnation. Vines of varying thickness and states of rot spread throughout the entire room, which was quite damp and smelled of old rubbish bins someone had left out in the rain for decades.

"This is, erm... atypical," Rose began. "Where do you suppose we are?"

Crouching, Albus inspected one of the dead creepers. "Could be anywhere, couldn't we? Off the Hogwarts grounds - or out of the country. We could be in Singapore."

"I highly doubt we're on an island," Caspian put in, staring around in wonder; his wandtip flashed as he moved, and Albus found it hard to make out anything with such unsteady lighting. "This gives all outward appearance of being underground."

"This way," Rose ordered, motioning down a long, cold corridor. "It's that, or hang out in here all night."

As they moved farther inward, Albus began to agree with Caspian's assessment; the passageway began to tilt down gently, taking them farther into the earth. The longer they went, the more his nerves began to wear thin, and the hammering of his heart competed with the faint dripping of water here and there. Finally, to break the suffocating silence, Rose said, "So... what will we do if we find Jezabel?"

"Get her out of there," Albus said immediately.

"No, no, I- well, if she's knocked out, or worse - we don't know where we are. How do we get home?"

No one had a reply for her.

At long last they reached another pitch-black chamber roughly the same size as the last. Immediately opposite them was a huge wooden door, blackened with age and water damage. Unfortunately, this was locked; all three of them tried the Unlocking Charm in turn, but either it required a wizard of prodigious power or the locking spell was more complicated.

"So we've gone nowhere fast," Albus gusted.

"The ceiling is so... high," Caspian noted, neck craned again. Albus wondered if he spent his spare time birdwatching. "The last chamber was like this, as well. How far down do you suppose we are?"

"Wait, Lewis," Rose hissed, pointing her own now-lit wandtip downward. "You see all these?"

When Albus turned to see what she meant, he needed no further explanation. The floor was absolutely covered in keys, gold and silver of all shapes and sizes. "Wha- but that's ridiculous! You can't need all these to open this one door!"

"Maybe there's more than one," Caspian said darkly. "This could be the entrance to a real live labyrinth."

Rose bent down and picked up a tiny one with a clear gem set in it. "Should we take them all? What if we get farther in and find we've left the single key we needed behind?"

"There's a broom in the corner," Caspian noted. "Odd. What would you need one in here for?"

"You know," Albus said with a laugh, "we could be building all this up in our heads. This could be one of Urran's spare closets."

"REDUCTO!"

Both Caspian and Albus leapt back as the spell collided with the door. In the second it took Albus to form the words in his mind to give Rose a severe tongue-lashing for acting without thinking, his mouth fell open as he watched the light turn such a large door to mere splinters.

"I reckon we can squeeze through that," Albus mumbled as he looked at the rather large hole. "What-"

"REDUCTO!" she screamed again, letting off such a blast that it seemed to rock the foundations. When Albus dropped his arms from around his head, he saw the door was completely gone, and some of the surrounding frame had been demolished, as well.

"Would you STOP?!" he shouted at her. "You're going to get us all killed!"

"I haven't got the patience for these juvenile riddles and games," Rose snapped. "Let's just go!"

Caspian let out a bark of laughter. "That's one way to cut the Gordian knot. Ready?"

Palms sweating, Albus tightened his grip on his wand as best he could and led the way. Through more cold, shadowy rooms they passed, stepping over rubble and broken glass, until at last they reached what appeared to be the last - and his stomach and heart dove in opposite directions.

Jezabel was in the centre of the chamber, trussed up like a Christmas turkey. Already somewhere near his feet, his stomach further churned to see she had been stripped of her robes and shoes, though her blouse, stockings and a faded pair of orange shorts remained in place. There were brutal scratches on her limbs, as if someone had been rather in a hurry to divest her so they could get on with tying her up. She'd also been gagged and blindfolded for good measure.

"Bastards," said Albus, limbs quaking. When he'd spoken, Jezabel twitched feebly, moaning indistinctly through the handkerchief that strove to mute her.

It was Caspian who recovered first - most likely because the other two had a stronger bond with the victim, and therefore took longer to wrap their minds around the awful sight. "Let's try and get these ropes off, and, erm... Accio Gag!"

The cloth flew away as they approached the girl, all hands reaching for her bonds to see how tight they were; Albus was already trying to decide if they were too close for a simple Severing Charm, he didn't want to accidentally slice through her clothes. However, as they neared, she screamed, "NO, ALBUS, WAIT! IT'S A TRAP, DON'T TOUCH-"

But already, three hands from three different persons had come into contact with the ropes. Seconds after this, they found themselves careening through space, a sharp, pulling sensation mostly emanating from the area just above the pelvis. They tried to remove their hands from the ropes, but they were stuck fast. Albus felt himself slam painfully into Rose, then into Caspian, and then into chilly, unyielding ground.

"Urrrgh..."

His head must have struck first, followed by his shoulder and knees, because that was the order of pain from greatest to least. The room swam so in his vision that he couldn't be at all sure where they might be. There were several dusty shelves stocked with books and assorted bricabrac, and a table containing what appeared to be a very broken set of scales. The only door might not have been used for centuries, and there was no telling if it could be opened now. He felt along the floor and first came into contact with what, after a moment's squinting, turned out to be Jezabel's socked foot. When he clawed his way along the floor to where the ropes were thickest, he found...

"A slipknot?!"

"Looks to be," Caspian said as he rubbed his jaw.

Albus had a very strong feeling this had been done to add insult to their already considerable injuries, but there was no use obsessing over it now. A quick tug undid the knot, and a few more seconds freed the girl entirely.

"Thank you," Jezabel whispered weakly as she removed her own blindfold. Though he should have been ashamed of himself, the relief that gripped him when he saw her eyes were deepest brown again coursed through him like the strongest cordial. "B-but you really shouldn't have- I was- I heard the word 'Portus', and I knew it must have been my-"

Rose shushed her, kneeling on Jezabel's other side now. "Relax a moment. You've been through a lot today."

"Hmm," said Caspian, standing and wandering away.

"Are you hurt?" Albus asked. "Well, I can see scratches, but other than that?"

"No," she said softly. "Mostly just... tired. And confused - I went from walking to the library to... to- oh, I couldn't see anything, I had n-no idea where I was!"

"Shh," Rose soothed again, cradling Jezabel's sobbing head in her lap as Albus patted her hand.

"Are these yours?"

They looked up to see Caspian holding such shoddy, hand-me-down robes that they could only belong to Jezabel. In his other hand was a wand and a pair of Mary Janes.

"Yes," she sighed, smiling blearily as she stood on unsteady legs. As soon as she'd left Rose's lap, she followed suit, as did Albus. "Thank God my wand is okay - the robes need replacing anyway, I suppose, but I really haven't the money for a new wand."

"But why is it here?" Albus mused as she struggled into the robes. "Whoever did this to Jez mustn't have thought it mattered if she got them back, but then... why bother taking them?"

"To make sure she didn't escape on her own," came a voice from the bookcase to their left. "Wouldn't have been any fun if she didn't bring along her little band of heroes, would it?"

No one answered.

"And then, if you never did find her, bound and alone deep within the bowels of Hogwarts, well..." And it laughed. It was a chuckling, guffawing, wicked laugh that made Albus's heart sink. He'd heard enough by now to distinguish it was male, but other than that...

"Who is that?" Rose whispered, mind in synch with his. "And where is it-"

"Tap the spine of the book entitled 'Wandless Destiny' thrice - ironically, with your wand," the voice bade them. "Or don't. But you never know what may happen if you leave now... or when it may happen."

A quick look around at his fellows' faces told Albus none of them wanted to. Both Rose and Caspian looked hesitant and afraid, and droplets of sweat were already beading on Rose's forehead. But Jezabel, rather than looking purely afraid, seemed wholly shocked; her doe eyes were wider than he'd seen in a while, and her mouth hung open.

"Let's get this over with now." Albus's voice was scarcely a whisper; he didn't want whoever was on the other side of this bookcase to know their plans. "This nutter'll just cause more trouble for us later, whoever it is. Wands at the ready."

"We're not idiots," Rose snapped.

"I'll see if I can disarm him," Caspian told them under his breath. "Quick enough, and we may have him straight off."

"Oh, must we?" Jezabel lamented, though she had at least drawn her wand and donned her shoes. "You've found me - and my gratitude is boundless - but sh-shouldn't we retreat and leave this for the prof-"

Albus couldn't keep the anger from his voice entirely as he cut her off. "The professors are useless. Dryden's brush with the beyond and your being kidnapped right under their noses proves that."

Not waiting for another word, he tapped the book in question three times. As they'd been expecting, the shelves swung outward, revealing a short passageway into a large room.

What they weren't expecting is what they found inside. It bordered on ludicrous.

END Chapter Forty-Eight