Trinity

Chapter 25

When the smoke wrapped around Harry, he had time for a brief glance at his friends then he was swallowed up. The smoke blinded him for a moment then cleared, leaving him standing in a small white room.

"Well, well," came a squeaky voice from behind him. "What have we here?"

Harry spun around and saw a tiny little man leaning rather casually against the wall.

"Er, who are you?" Harry said warily.

"Do you care?" the little man said with a chuckle. "Surely you'd rather get out of here?"

"Um, well, I suppose you have a point," Harry admitted, still feeling very unsure of what was going on. "So how do I do that?"

"You have to answer my questions," the little man said happily. "Well, my riddles anyway. Answer them all correctly and you get to go. Get one wrong and you pay the price."

"What...kind of price?" Harry said apprehensively, wishing he had Hermione around for this.

"You'll find out if you make a mistake," the little man said with a malicious smirk. "So...do you want to do this?"

"Do I have a choice?" Harry said with a sigh.

"Well, you could always stay here," the little man chuckled. "I gather that's a yes then."

Harry snorted. "I suppose it is."

The little man chuckled again and rubbed his hands together. "Alright, your first riddle. A spirited jig it dances bright, banishing all but brightest night, give it food and it will live, give it water and it will die."

Harry was just about to ask the little man to repeat the riddle when he waved his hand and the words appeared in midair, written in what looked like green fire. He flicked a glance at the little man but he seemed more interested in inspecting his nails than anything Harry had to say, so he went back to studying the words.

After a few minutes the little man stopped inspecting his nails and sighed and rolled his eyes. "Oh, come on! It's not that difficult. I've even given you a clue!"

"You have?" Harry said with surprise.

The little man rolled his eyes again and flipped a hand at the words hanging in midair. "It's there if you can see it."

Harry narrowed his eyes and stared hard at the letters written in green fire. He had to assume it wasn't anything to do with what the writing actually said. He began slowly repeating the riddle in his mind as he stared at the green fire that made up the writing. Suddenly he groaned and flicked his eyes skyward.

"Fire," he said wearily. "The answer is fire."

"Well, you got there eventually," the little man said with wry amusement. "You're right, by the way. Are you ready for your second riddle?"

"How many do I have to answer to get out of here?" Harry asked.

"Three, of course," the little man said. "I would have thought that was obvious. It's always three of anything."

"Ah, of course," Harry said blandly. "Well, let's have the second one."

The little man grinned. "Here goes; I am free for the taking for all of your life, though given but once at birth, I am less than nothing in weight, But will fell the strongest if held."

Harry sighed and watched as the little man flicked his hand, causing the riddle to appear in midair. This time it was in a strange blue flowing substance. Harry ran the riddle through his mind a few times and, remembering the last riddle, he concentrated on the substance the words were made of. He frowned as he alternated between staring at the flowing blue substance and reading the words. Finally he looked over at the little man.

"Um...air?" he said tentatively.

The little man froze then his shoulders slumped. "I'm sorry," he said with genuine regret. "You're very close but I'm only allowed to accept the correct answer. It's breath by the way, not air."

Harry swallowed hard. "So...what happens now?"

"You pay the price," the little man said with regret. "I hope you survive."

Harry's eyes widened then he was surrounded by a blue cloud. When the cloud disappeared, he found himself standing in the middle of a huge empty arena. He pulled his wand out of his robes and held it ready as he waited to see what this price was. A low rumbling noise drew his attention and he whirled around to see a large door slowly opening in one wall of the arena. He paled when he saw what was behind the door. Three Dementors slowly drifted out into the arena towards him and he felt the first tendrils of cold reach him.

He backed away and brought his wand up to point at the Dementors. As he did so, the Dementors seemed to sense his presence and their movement became determined and far more rapid. Harry staggered backwards and fell onto his back as he was suddenly assailed by the screams of his mother and his father's shouting. Somehow through this, he raised his wand anyway but just as he opened his mouth, the memories flooding through his mind changed. Now it was Sirius' voice he heard; his godfather's last triumphant cry just before Bellatrix's curse hit him and he fell through the Veil.

The wand dropped from his hand as Harry cried out Sirius' name and he felt the cold generated by the Dementors surround him. It was this cold that partially dragged him out of the terrible memories he was caught in. He forced his eyes open and saw the three Dementors surrounding him. The one directly in front of him was reaching towards him with its skeletal hands. Harry gasped and groped after his wand. He snatched it up and pointed it at the Dementor, dragging up the first happy memory he could think of...his first kiss with Ginny.

"Ex...Expecto patronum!" he gasped out.

A thin silvery mist flowed out of the end of his wand. It wasn't much but it was enough to make the three Dementors draw back. He grasped his wand more tightly and summoned up that happy memory again.

"Expecto patronum," he said, much more firmly this time and this time the silver stag burst out of the end of his wand.

The stag gathered itself then charged at the three Dementors, first rounding them up then herding them away from Harry. As Harry watched the silver stag drove the Dementors against the wall of the arena and then, much to his surprise, it impaled them one by one on its horns. As it did so, each Dementor wailed then disappeared. Once that was done, the stag galloped back, fading just as it came to a halt in front of him.

Before Harry had time to do more that take a deep breath, he was once again surrounded by the blue cloud. When it faded again, he found himself back in the white room with the little man.

"Oh, you survived!" the little man said with pleased surprise. "I wasn't sure if you would. Well, this is good news."

Harry still felt shaken and upset from his encounter with the Dementors. The last thing he'd expected was to hear Sirius' voice again though in hindsight, he perhaps should have realised that night would rank fairly high as a bad memory. "Yeah," he gasped out.

"Oh, dear," the little man said, looking at Harry with concern. "Oh, dear, what on earth did you face? It's all very personal, you see. The price you pay for getting an answer wrong. Not many people actually return."

"Dementors," Harry replied shortly, once he'd deciphered the little man's rattling speech.

"Oh, that wouldn't have been very pleasant," the little man said. "I've never met someone as young as you who has such a problem with Dementors. Do you feel ready for your last riddle?"

Harry took a deep breath and nodded. "Yeah. The sooner I get out of here the better."

The little man looked oddly disappointed then he recovered and drew himself up to his somewhat insignificant height.

"Ready?" he said, a smile creeping across his face. "It is greater than all the gods, more evil than any demon. Poor people have it, rich people want it. If you eat it, you will surely die. What is it?"

Harry blinked. "Um, can you write that in the air like you did with the others?"

"Nope," the little man said with a smug smile. "I can't do anything with this one. I can repeat it though."

"Please," Harry said.

"It is greater than all the gods, more evil than any demon. Poor people have it, rich people want it. If you eat it, you will surely die. What is it?"

Harry muttered the riddle to himself and tried to figure out what significance was attached to the fact that the little man wouldn't put the words up. Since the last two times had been relevant to the answer to the riddle, he had to assume that this one was as well. The problem was the riddle seemed like such a contradiction. What do poor people have that rich people want? And how could something be both greater than all the gods and more evil than any demon?

Harry sighed and wished that Hermione had been brought into this place with him. He then wondered what had happened to Ron and Hermione. Had they been taken into a place like this or had they been left in the gallery? He shook his head and dismissed those thoughts from his mind. He had to concentrate on the riddle he had been set. He absolutely did not want another repeat of his encounter with the Dementors. The problem was nothing seemed to fit the whole riddle. There were things that fit parts of it but nothing...

Harry groaned as the answer hit him between the eyes. The little man had given him nothing. And there it was. Nothing was greater than all the gods, nothing was more evil than any demon. Poor people have nothing, rich people want nothing. And if you eat nothing, you will surely die.

"The answer is nothing," he said with a roll of his eyes.

"Oh, well done!" the little man said, clapping his hands together excitedly. "That one so often trips people up. Well, you've answered my riddles so I have to let you go. However, because you got one wrong I can't just let you go completely."

Harry sighed. "Why doesn't that surprise me?" he muttered to himself before looking at the little man. "So what happens now?"

"You have to go through one of those doors?"

The little man pointed to the wall behind Harry and he turned around to see two large wooden doors in what he was fairly sure had been a blank wall. He turned back to the little man only to find he was alone in the room. Harry sighed and faced the doors. They were large wooden doors, both with doorknockers in the shape of a face. The face on the left door was long and thin while the face on the right door was round and fat. Both had the actually knocker hanging from their chins. Harry slowly walked towards the doors and examined the knockers.

"I wonder what this is all about?" he muttered then jumped backwards with an oath as both doorknockers opened their eyes and looked at him.

"'Ello," the round doorknocker said happily.

"Hello," the thin one said calmly.

"Er, hello," Harry replied warily. "I...don't suppose you know which door I'm supposed to go through to get out?"

"Yes," the doorknockers chorused then the thin one continued. "Both of our doors lead you out but only one gives you a safe passage out. The other one's pretty dangerous."

"So...which one is the safe one?" Harry asked slowly.

"Oh, we can't tell you that," the round doorknocker replied in a scandalised tone.

"Oh no!" the thin doorknocker agreed. "That's not in the rules at all."

Harry sighed. "So what are the rules?"

"You can ask us one question only," the thin doorknocker said firmly.

"But you can only ask one of us that question," the round doorknocker added.

"And one of us is lying. That's in the rules too," the thin one concluded. He looked towards the other doorknocker. "He always lies."

"That's not true," the round doorknocker said indignantly. "He's lying. I'm the one that tells the truth."

"Oooh, that's a lie," the thin doorknocker responded.

Harry stared at the two doorknockers as they began arguing back and forth, cries of "You're lying" and "No, you're lying" echoing in his ears. He ran a hand through his hair and he desperately tried to think of a question that could help him out of this mess. Hermione would have done this easily and he remembered how well she had handled Snape's riddle when they had gone after the Philosopher's Stone.

He paced back and forth in the room and he racked his brain, ignoring the two doorknockers. They in turned stopped their bickering, obviously not finding it much fun without an audience and they settled into watching Harry pace.

"Okay," Harry muttered to himself. "There no point trying to find out which one is lying since I only have one question and I can only ask one of them. So...I need a question that both doorknockers will give the same answer to." He sighed. "What kind of question can do that?" Movement out of the corner of his eyes had him whipping around to face the doorknocker. "That wasn't a question to either of you! I was talking to myself."

The two doorknockers grinned and subsided as Harry continued to pace, muttering under his breath as he tried to find an appropriate question. He paced for quite a long time then finally sighed and turned to face the doors. He wasn't entirely sure this would work but he was fairly sure his logic was intact.

He pointed to the thin doorknocker on the left-hand door. "Alright, you there, answer yes or no. Would he," he pointed to the right-hand doorknocker, "tell me this door," he pointed to the left-hand door, "leads to the safe way out?"

The thin doorknocker stared at Harry for a long moment then looked over at the round doorknocker. The two knockers conferred in whispers.

Finally the thin doorknocker looked back at Harry. "Uh...yes."

"Then the other door leads to the safe way out," Harry said with a confidence he didn't quite feel.

"How do you know?" the thin doorknocker said in an aggrieved tone. "He could be telling the truth."

"But then you wouldn't be," Harry replied, testing his logic. "So if you told me that he would say yes, then the answer is no."

The two doorknockers exchanged dubious glances.

"But I could be telling the truth," the thin doorknocker said smugly.

"But then he would be lying," Harry said, pointing to the round doorknocker. "So if you told me that he would say yes then I still know the answer is no."

The thin doorknocker frowned and thought that through. "Is that right?" he asked the round doorknocker.

The round doorknocker made a kind of facial shrug. "I don't know but I can't argue against it."

"I'm right," Harry said firmly, feeling more solid in his logic this time.

He walked forward and threw the right-hand door open, stepping through it confidently.

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Ron didn't have to wait long for a response to his message. About fifteen minutes after he'd sent off his patronus, Moody came striding down the back lane with Minerva and Remus in his wake.

Moody frowned as he saw Ron's casual yet tense posture. "What's wrong, Weasley?" he barked.

Ron took a deep breath. "We've had a...slight problem occur."

"Is the Horcrux not here?" Remus asked anxiously.

"It was here," Ron said as he gestured for them to follow him. "Harry's got it but there's a problem with Harry."

"What kind of problem?" Minerva asked ominously.

"He's...sort of gone missing," Ron said as he pushed the doors to the gallery's main room open.

The adults' eyes widened as they saw the rubble lying on the floor.

"What happened?" Minerva asked sharply.

"There were some defences put in place to protect the Horcrux," Ron replied as they walked over to where Hermione was examining the painting that now seemed to contain Harry.

"Where's Harry?" Remus said flatly, drawing Hermione's attention.

"We're not...really sure," she said carefully. "When we brought the Horcrux up from the basement, that orb over there started to glow and hum. That seemed to activate the defences that had been put in place. A few sculptures came to life along with some suits of armour. Ron and I got cornered by those. Harry seems to have disappeared. Both Ron and I were a bit caught up with defending ourselves and didn't see what happened but once we'd sorted everything out we found this."

She pointed to the painting. The adults leaned forward and Hermione knew they'd seen the tiny Harry in the painting when they drew in shocked breaths.

"There's a lot of magic in that painting and I don't recognise much of it," Hermione continued; she'd had plenty of time to swallow he apprehension and worry. "I wouldn't even know where to start with trying to get Harry out of there. What I want to know for now is whether it's safe to take the painting with us."

Moody stumped forward and pulled his wand out. He peered closely at the painting and prodded it with his wand.

"Has it moved at all?" he growled.

"Not that I've noticed," Hermione replied smartly. "Certainly not since we found the...addition. I thought all of the paintings in here were Muggle ones. I'd almost think this one was as well if not for the magic in it."

"Could still be a muggle painting, just with spells added to it," Moody grumbled as he examined the frame.

The ex-Auror then stepped back and cast a spell over the painting. The painting glowed blue for a moment then faded and Moody grunted.

"It'll be safe enough to take down," he reported. "Whatever spells are involved are on the painting itself. There's nothing that's going to activate if we remove it."

Moody had just stepped forward to lift the painting off the wall when black smoke began to billow out of it. He leapt back with a startled oath and levelled his wand at the painting. Remus, Minerva, Ron and Hermione fanned out and did the same. The black smoke billowed out and formed a column in front of the painting and, as suddenly as it had appeared, it dissipated leaving only wisps and a very tired Harry Potter behind.

"Harry!" Hermione gasped then she launched herself at her friend and hugged him hard.

"Ease up, Hermione," Harry said wearily. "I'm okay."

He looked around and was surprised to see the adults standing in front of him. He looked down at Hermione.

"How long was I gone?"

Hermione checked her watch. "About an hour, I think. What happened? You just disappeared and all we found was you painted into the painting behind you. That's why we called for help."

Harry looked behind him. "No, I'm not."

Hermione shoved him aside rather unceremoniously and examined the painting. "Oh! You're gone. There was a little version of you sitting under that tree reading a book."

"She's right, mate," Ron added.

"What actually happened to you, Harry?" Remus asked, tucking his wand back into his robes. "Where did you go?"

Harry shuddered slightly. "I don't know exactly where I ended up. I was in a room with a little man and I had to answer three riddles to get out. I could have done with you being there, Hermione." He grinned wryly at the bushy-haired girl.

"You can't have done too badly," Hermione replied with a smile. "You got out."

Harry shuddered again. "I got two out of the three riddles right," he said flatly. "The little man told me at the start that if I got one wrong, I'd have to pay a price."

"What was the price?" Moody asked grimly.

"Dementors," Harry replied in a voice that all but toneless. "Three of them. I heard my parents...and...and Sirius."

Moody and Minerva drew in sharp breaths while Remus closed his eyes and hung his head. Ron and Hermione stepped forward and each slung an arm around Harry's shoulders. The trio stood there silently for a moment then Harry nodded to his friends. They stepped back and Harry took a deep breath.

"You got one wrong then?" Ron said with as much wry humour as he could manage.

"I was close," Harry replied in a similar manner. "Anyway, then because I'd got one wrong I couldn't just leave, I had to face another riddle in order to get out."

"What kind of riddles?" Hermione asked with interest.

Harry gave her a far more genuine smile than anything he'd managed so far. "Can I tell you later?" He looked around the room and blinked. "What happened here?"

"We had fun with the suits of armour and that big bird," Ron said dryly. "Thankfully they were a little vulnerable to the Reducto curse."

"We'd better clean this up," Hermione said suddenly. "It's bad enough the Horcrux, armour and bird are going to be missing tomorrow, leaving this mess would make things ten times worse."

"Easily done, Miss Granger," Minerva said then with a wave of her wand the rubble was gone.

"Let's get out of here," Moody growled before anyone else could say anything. "The longer we stay the more likely we are to get caught. We were just lucky that the owners of this place never felt the need to have security guards."

The group headed towards the back door to the gallery, Harry shooting one last troubled look at the painting that had captured him.

"Were you able to find out why they don't have guards?" Hermione asked as they walked down the corridor towards the back door. "It's very odd for a place like this."

"They like their security system," Moody replied as he held the door open. "And they spent a lot of money on it. Their budget isn't that great at the moment so something had to be cut. They decided they would rely on the security system." He paused then shrugged. "It is a good one as far as these things go. Just not enough to stop wizards and witches."

"Are there security systems that do that?" Hermione asked.

"Yes, but you've got to be part of the magical community to know about them," Moody grunted then he looked pointedly at Hermione. "Planning on putting this one back on line."

Hermione gasped and blushed. "Sorry, Professor. I got distracted."

"In future, don't," Moody said bluntly as Hermione scurried back inside and removed the spell she had placed on the gallery's security system.

Once that was done, Hermione joined the others outside as Moody locked the door. Harry pulled his cloak out of his robes and waited while everyone else walked down the lane and out of range of the security cameras. Once that was done, he threw the cloak over his head and ducked back under the camera, removing the spell he'd placed on it earlier. He then joined the others and they apparated back to the gates of Hogwarts.

"I want the three of you to get some sleep," Moody ordered as they walked back up to the school. "We'll have a debriefing tomorrow afternoon. Just as well it's a Saturday."

The trio nodded. "Can someone contact Aberforth and ask him when he'll be able to start training me in grounding magical energy?" Harry asked. "I don't want to wait too long before destroying the Horcrux."

"I'll do that," Remus volunteered. "I'll sort out times if you like. I know your schedule."

"Thanks," Harry replied. He paused in the middle of the Entrance Hall and pulled the velvet bag out of his robes, handing it carefully to Minerva. "You'd better put this in a safe place, Professor."

The Headmistress nodded. "Come and see me when you need to get it."

The trio waved at the adults and headed up to Gryffindor Tower; the night had been long and in many ways very distressing.