The Forging of the Bonds

Chapter 30. Stealing Rainbows.

Elizabeth dodged the second Stunner, which was launched at her, and threw one of her own. It missed, but it did provide a distraction.

"Expelliarmus!" she cried, ripping away the wand one of the twins held lit. "Nox," she said. The room went dark.

For the twins, that was. Elizabeth, still under the effects of the Nicthalopy Potion, could see perfectly clearly.

"Incendio!" The other twin attempted to use a fire to get light. Elizabeth Stunned him as he did it, put out the fire, dodged a blow from the wandless twin, and dispatched him. She breathed. "Ennervate," she said, pointing at Michael.

"Are you all right?" he asked.

"Am I all right? You've been dropped to this stone floor like--"

"You dueled the Krums. Where are they?"

"There, and there," she said, pointing at the stunned bodies. "It's a big advantage if you can see and your opponents can't. Apparently, they didn't make the potion."

"Elizabeth, I--"

"Come on. The Krums so kindly opened the door for us." She pointed at the opening in the wall next to a portion of the Durmstrang students' staff sticking out. "You were right, apparently. About the use of the staff as a key."

Mike approached and untwisted the half of the twins' staff, pulling it out of the wall. "Wonder where the other half is..."

"We don't have time for that."

"I know." He strapped the piece of wood to his back, next to his own. "Let's go."

They went through a long, descending corridor until they saw lights ahead. They stepped out... and gasped.

A square pyramid, twelve feet tall, stood at the base. The pyramid had seven levels, and a brightly colored flame was burning on each level, all around the pyramid. Red, green, red, green, red, green, and blue at the top.

"A broomstick would be nice to have right now," Michael said.

"I've got something better. You're not the only one who gets interesting things for Christmas." She took out the AnywhereString. "Now, tie that staff to it."

He did so. Elizabeth took the other end in her hand and directed the AnywhereString. The string end went up like a snake, taking the staff with it. It went up the height of the pyramid, then moved sideways, approaching the blue flame. The end of the staff entered the fire.

An enormous rush of wind suddenly took both of them and pulled Elizabeth and Michael into a corridor they hadn't spotted before. They were carried without control. Elizabeth tightly clutched the string, not daring to chance letting it go, since a tiny, flickering blue flame at the end indicated they had succeeded.

Suddenly, the motion stopped. "Do we have it?" she asked.

"Did you break anything?"

"I don't think so. See--"

"We have it." Michael showed her the burning staff. "Here's your string. Handy piece of equipment."

"Thanks. Where to now?"

"Up, I think," he said, pointing in that direction. Elizabeth nodded. The floor was much rougher than in the previous areas.

She finally saw a glimpse of the night sky and smelled something foul. She soon realized why. They were climbing outside between the roots of a huge tree in the Forbidden Forest.

"Accio!" someone cried as soon as they were out. Michael gasped as the staff was yanked out of his hand. Elizabeth looked up and saw the Beauxbatons girls hovering on broomsticks. Fatima held the staff in her hand.

"Stupefy!" both of them cried. But the spells appeared to hit an invisible ceiling, bouncing off. The two girls nodded to each other and flew away.

Elizabeth turned to Michael. "You--" She couldn't even bring herself to say anything. Was it his fault? Yes and no. It certainly wouldn't have made a difference if she had been holding it.

"What was that?" she managed to ask as they, dejected, walked along the path towards the castle.

"What?"

"The thing that stopped our spells."

He gave a laugh. "My mother invented those. Magical shields that can be placed anywhere, at any time. Now, they're only of short duration, and quite expensive to produce, but--"

"They did their job."

"Yes. During the war, and here. I don't know how my mother would feel about this."

Elizabeth looked at Michael. "You're still wearing those?"

He took the glasses off and frowned. "I saw the Beauxbatons champions go into the pyramid chamber. They were clearly invisible, or the Krums would have caught them."

Elizabeth turned to him in fury. "You didn't tell me this?"

"I tried."

"When?"

"When you kept stopping me--when we were approaching the Krums. And at the pyramid. I was just constantly interrupted."

"But if they went ahead, why did they need our flame?"

"My guess is, if you touch any flame there, the wind would start up. So if they disrupted the red or green fire, they wouldn't have what they needed. Or this could have been their plan from the beginning."

"Yeah. I guess we're even. I screw up a task, you screw up a task, we'll both screw up the third, and Hogwarts becomes the laughingstock of European magical education."

They entered the dungeon where they had started. Everyone was still there, even the Krum twins and the Beauxbatons girls. Both parties looked disappointed.

They approached the judges' table. Elizabeth blinked several times to make sure she was seeing things correctly. All three lamps remained unlit.

Wordlessly, Michael took the other half-staff he had carried from his back. He waved his wand over it... and the magical shroud lifted, revealing a burning blue flame.

Elizabeth could only stare along with the rest of the audience as Mike lifted the staff to the lamp and lit it. The blue flame danced merrily.

Mike put out the flame on the staff and bowed to the judges. They stepped down to massive applause from the Hogwarts students. "Mike!" Kate yelled across the hall. "Mike, the material of the staff could also be used to make an invisibility potion!"

"We sort of figured that out on our own, Longbottom," Elizabeth snapped.

"We?" Mike demanded.

"All right, Weasley. Please explain. You didn't tell me you had it because you wanted to show off."

"Guilty as charged. You--"

"I understand. But how--"

"I told you. I saw them go in. I thought that we'd lost for sure, but after the wind swept us, I realized why they said not to disturb the green and red flames, and that there was a chance that they'd try to get it from us--if they'd made such a mistake." He shrugged. "I placed the shroud, and carried a staff with fake fire. What can I say, I'm good at Transfiguration. You know that."

Elizabeth then couldn't hold it anymore. She jumped at Mike and kissed him fiercely.

He kissed back.