Vater

"What's the plan?" Ron asked, when they were back in London.

"We'll go when Voldemort calls a meeting...no one will be there at Spinner's End," Harry said.

"How do you know he's calling a meeting tonight?" Hermione asked suspiciously.

"I sensed it," Harry said evasively.

"You entered his head again? Are you insane?" Ron cried.

"It was necessary, Ron - besides, he didn't get to know; I was pretty subtle."

"Harry..." Hermione began reproachfully, but Harry cut her off with a gesture.

"Do you want to stop Voldemort or not?" he asked firmly.

Both his friends nodded weakly.

"Good," he said, and grinned at them.

Harry gently probed into Voldemort's head again late evening. The meeting had begun. He informed his friends and they immediately Apparated just outside Snape's Muggle dwelling.

They checked the door for any curses and found several. Hermione countered them and they entered.

"It's here," whispered Harry, the moment they entered, "I can feel it."

He strode purposefully through the house till they reached the backyard. He wandered around instinctively for sometime, trying to pin-point the location of the source causing him to feel the magical pulse. He finally found a spot where it was the strongest.

"Digging spells," he told his friends, indicating the spot. The three of them performed the spell simultaneously, and they held it until Harry gestured to them to stop.

It was a trap-door, with runes carved on it.

"Hermione..." Harry glanced at her. She nodded and stepped forward. She bent down and looked at the runes carefully.

"It's a riddle," she said, "the translation is:

Enter, foe, but of death beware

Unless someone your peril share

But put me down and I vanish light

No danger seen and hence no fight

Dog is my first and four of taint

A captain but without paint

Who am I? If you say that so,

I'll open and let you go."

"What is it?" Ron asked, "Darkness or something?"

"A shade or blind probably," Harry said.

"Oh, honestly, you two - it's a curtain," Hermione snapped. "Now let me translate it into runes and answer it."

The boys remained silent as she worked. The door fell open, revealing a flight of stairs.

"Come on," she said, and the three of them entered. They climbed down for quite sometime before reaching level ground.

"Ninety-nine steps...this is not good," Hermione whispered. Ron gasped. The other two followed his gaze and gasped as well. A labyrinth faced them.

"I don't like the feel of this," Harry muttered.

"We'll use a ball of twine," Hermione said. She conjured one and the three of them entered the maze.

"Oh no!" Hermione cried. "The twine disappeared! And my wand is not working!"

Ron and Harry waved their wands, but nothing happened. No magic was possible in the maze.

"Can you still sense the Horcrux?" Ron whispered.

Harry nodded, and marched ahead, his friends hurrying behind him. He walked intuitionally, with his eyes half closed, following the pulse. After a long, winding path, they finally reached a small clear place, probably the centre. The brooch was suspended in mid-air with eerie reddish light framing it from the top and the bottom. The trio edged towards it.

It was Hermione who saw the Minotaur first. She screamed.

Harry rushed forward and snatched the brooch from its place. His arm hurt terribly where the red light touched it, but he didn't look down, fearing what he'd see. Ron and Hermione, meanwhile, had transformed and were fighting the bull-headed monster. Hermione was snapping at its legs furiously, clawing whenever she could manage, while Ron was attempting to gore the monster with his horn. Unfortunately, the Minotaur seemed more than a match for the two of them; Hermione's tail looked battered and Ron had a gash on his side.

"Over here, you bull-headed moron!" Harry cried, waving the brooch. The monster turned towards him and roared in anger.

"Run!" Harry shouted to his friends, as he himself began running. The creature, however, would not let them go so easily. Ron and Hermione transformed back, looking pale and tired. Both were injured.

"We can't, Harry. We are lost. We don't know where to go," Ron said.

Harry cursed himself for being stupid. He should have prepared better, thought of some Muggle means of escape as well. He had managed to land himself in mortal danger, and dragged in his friends with him. Again. He glanced at his friends, who were getting slower by the moment, and the Minotaur was gaining on them. They were in no shape to outrun the monster.

"Get hold of my tail," he said, pocketing the brooch. "I'll fly us out."

Ron and Hermione nodded tiredly as he transformed. They grabbed his tail and Harry thought hard about Snape's backyard, the place where they had found the trapdoor. Nothing happened. He tried again, concentrating on Hogwarts. Nothing happened. Grimmauld Place. Nothing.

He spread his wings and rose as high as the ceiling allowed. He didn't really feel the weight of his friends, which was very fortunate, for his entire energy was being taken up in an attempt to out-fly the vicious creature running after them. Luckily, phoenixes also had a keen sense of direction, which helped Harry to fly to the entrance without getting lost. As he flew out of the trap-door, he could hear the Minotaur's angry cries underneath.

As soon as he came out in the backyard, he knew Snape was back. From what Hermione had told him, probably Wormtail, too. He didn't know how he knew it, but he did.

Hermione quickly took out her wand and cursed the monster. She restored the trap-door and the backyard to their previous appearance as well. Ron had lost consciousness already, much to Harry's anxiety, and Hermione wasn't looking much better. Flapping his tired wings, one of which looked burnt, he attempted to teleport to Grimmauld Place. Instead of the usual popping feeling, what he felt was the pain of colliding with something hard and then the world went black.