The Raven's Claw

Chapter 3

The three students stood there a moment and stared.

"Wow," said Ash. "It's hard to believe something like this. Not in our Common Room. I bet we're the first Ravenclaws to see this in years!"

"Decades," said Tess. She turned to Alastair. "How did you know what the password was?"

"The book," replied Alastair. "Apparently one of Rowena Ravenclaw's favorite phrases was 'Knowledge above all.' It was a sort of unofficial motto for the House in the early days."

"I'm impressed," she said. There was a moment's silence. "Well? What are we waiting for?" The boys looked at her. "Let's see where it goes!"

Alastair sort of shuffled on the spot. "Should we?" he asked. "Maybe we should tell Professor Flit-"

"Oh, come on!" Tess walked toward the doorway, grabbing hold of Alastair's sleeve as she passed, pulling him behind her. The doorway opened onto a stairway, which headed down and to the left.

"It's dark down there," commented Alastair, peering down into the darkness.

"Lumos," said Tess, lighting her wand. Alastair drew his own and followed suit as she started down. Alastair had taken a few steps down before Ash poked his head around the doorway. "Well, it certainly is dingy down there," he said.

"Come on, Ashton!" came the voice of Tess from the bottom of the stairs, her face visible in the small circle of light from her wand. Ash started down after them. From where Tess was, the staircase turned sharply left. It was only marginally wider than Alastair's shoulders as he carefully made his way down, following Tess' wand. It didn't look as though the house elves had ever ventured into here for cleaning. The stairs turned left again before they ended at a doorway.

"We'll be under the Common Room right now," said Alastair quietly. No light filtered down from the top of the stairs, and the darkness felt quite oppressive around him.

"I hope this is more than just a secret broom closet," remarked Tess before she pushed the door open. Back up the stairs, the students could hear the secret door close. It suddenly felt a bit like a tomb.

"I think we should go back," Ash had a tremor in his voice.

"Oh, come on. There's nothing frightening about a secret broom closet," said Tess.

"I thought you said you were brave as well as smart," added Alastair.

Tess stepped through the door, with Alastair and Ash following very closely behind. Neither of them wanted to be left alone down here. The doorway opened into a corridor, the ceiling invisible above them in the darkness. It was wider than the staircase, enough for the three of them to stand side by side. Tess froze. At the end of the hall were two huge people.

Then she laughed. "Okay, I admit it. This place is a bit spooky." She took a few more steps forward. The shapes weren't people; they were enormous suits of armor. Alastair couldn't imagine that a person had ever worn these; they seemed far too large. Each was holding a sword that alone would have been Alastair's height. Between them was a door. Tess headed boldly along the corridor, trying to show the boys she wasn't afraid. She was about halfway along it when behind them the door swung closed with a boom! All three of them stopped. Alastair suddenly had a bad feeling about the corridor.

"I think we're in trouble," said Ash, his voice echoing. There was silence for a moment before a clank from the far end of the corridor focused their attention. Barely visible in the low light, one of the suits of armor moved. It stepped forward, blocking the doorway, placed the point of its sword to the floor, and bowed its head for a moment. The students stared in horror as it then raised the sword high and began walking, slowly down the corridor towards them.

Ash turned and ran back for the door, tugging at it frantically for a few seconds. Alastair turned to run as well, before he heard Ash yell: "Alohomora!" He didn't hear the door open. The suit of armor clanged another step closer.

"We're trapped!" yelled Ash. Alastair looked at Tess, her face pale in the wand light, her eyes wide, staring at the suit of armor stomping ponderously toward them.

"What do we do?" said Alastair, on the verge of panic. The armor took another step closer, each step seeming impossibly loud in the corridor. Tess shook her head slightly then turned to Alastair.

"We use our brains," she said. "We are Ravenclaws, aren't we? Think of something." Then she turned back to the suit of armor and raised her wand. "Stupify!" she said, briefly lighting the corridor in red as the stunning spell shot from her wand and hit the suit of armor in the middle of the chest. It had no effect.

"Impedimenta!" yelled Alastair. The jinx had no effect either. From behind them, Ash tried a Banishing Charm. It flew just over Alastair's shoulder, but was no more use than the first two spells.

"Keep trying!" encouraged Tess, "Petrificus Totalus!" she yelled, trying the full body-bind.

"Taratellegra!" tried Alastair.

"Wingardium Leviosa!" shouted Ash, though Alastair was certain that wouldn't have worked anyway. The suit of armor didn't levitate off the floor, and it was getting closer. Tess and Alastair started to retreat back toward Ash and the door.

"Any other ideas?" came Ash's frightened voice from behind them.

"We all know spells they haven't taught us in class yet," said Tess. "I think this is serious enough to try them now."

"Incarcerous!" yelled Alastair, attempting to bind the suit of armor with summoned ropes.

"Incendio!" yelled Tess at the same time, summoning fire, which burned the ropes, but had no effect on the armor. "Reducto!" Tess tried. "This is hopeless. I can't think of any others that might help." The armor clanged another step closer.

"Avis!" said Ash behind them, bafflingly creating a small group of yellow birds which began circling the armor at high speed.

"Expelliarmus!" yelled Alastair in sudden inspiration. The sword flipped out of the armored gauntlet and crashed loudly to the floor behind it. The suit of armor turned to retrieve its weapon, and behind it, Tess saw the other suit of armor. It hadn't moved. Apparently it wasn't charmed at all. At least, she hoped it wasn't. "Locomotor Armor!" she said, aiming her wand down the hall, then whipping it back, over her head. The second suit of armor flew forward from its place next to the door as though launched from a catapult. The two suits of armor collided with an almighty crash that actually hurt Alastair's ears. They both disintegrated, pieces of armor flying in all directions. Then there was silence.

Tess was staring, wide eyed, and mouthing, "Wow."

The crash was still ringing in their ears when Ash jumped into the air and whooped. Then he fell silent for a moment before saying: "We absolutely have to go back now." No one replied, so Ash continued: "That was close guys. Well done and all but we nearly died. Come on let's go." Still, neither Tess nor Alastair said anything.

"Well," said Alastair eventually. "you know that thing never actually attacked any of us. Maybe it wasn't going to hurt us at all."

Ash gaped. Tess turned around. "Are you kidding?" she asked.

"Or I don't know, maybe it was going to chop us into pieces. What's with the birds?" He said this last to Ash, as the yellow birds were now flying laps of the corridor above their heads.

"Oh," said Ash. "I, uh, got confused. I said the wrong incantation."

"I think there's something important behind that door." said Tess. "I want to know what it is."

There was a pause. Then Alastair said: "So do I. Are you coming, Ash?"

Following Tess again, Alastair stepped carefully over the scattered pieces of armor and they headed for the door. Tess opened the door, carefully, and looked around inside before entering. Alastair followed, but Ash waited outside till he was sure they were safe before he entered.

It was a small room, with another door to the left as they entered, and a stone platform in front of them. Shining their illuminated wands on the platform, they could read the words carved into it.

The centre for knowledge at Hogwarts holds my secret.

When the sun shines on the raven hidden in the corner

Speak to it my name and descend

Follow the path to where I have left the record of my life

R.R.

"She means under the Library, right?" asked Ash

"It sounds like it," replied Alastair "A secret room with the record of her life. This is incredible."

"We have to find it," said Tess

"It must be really late now," said Ash. "We should go back." He looked at Tess, who looked to be deep in thought.

"We've never even heard rumors of this place," she said. "Nobody could have found this in a long, long time." The look in her eyes was suddenly greedy. "We shouldn't tell anyone about it. We can find this secret room ourselves."

"Why?" asked Ash. "We nearly died out there. What if there are other traps?"

"Why?" repeated Tess. "Think about it. We'll be famous. At Hogwarts, anyway. Getting past traps that could have killed us and finding something hidden by one of the founders.... You remember what it was like when Harry Potter found a way to get into the Chamber of Secrets."

"That was a bit different, Tess," said Alastair.

"Okay, but so what?" she said. "If we do, maybe all the others won't think of us as just bookworms and losers."

The boys considered this for a moment.

"I think she's right," said Alastair. It would be nice, he thought, for at least some of the students from other Houses to actually look up to them.

"Alright then," said Ash, thinking that maybe people would look at them in a similar way that they looked at Harry. Maybe Hermione would just look at him at all. "But we have to be careful. Far more careful than we were tonight. But I want to go back to the Common Room now. We need to investigate the Library in the daytime."

The second door in the small room opened a portrait hanging in the main stairwell leading up the Ravenclaw tower. As they closed the painting behind them, the wizard in it winked at them and whispered: "Well done kids, it's been a while."

The entrance to the Ravenclaw Common Room was hidden behind a tapestry in the uppermost corridor. If you lifted the tapestry without saying the password you would find a blank wall.

"Illuminate," said Alastair and held the tapestry up for the other two to pass through the open doorway.