Harry Potter and the Tome of Shadows

            Chapter 6: Through the Gauntlet

    Harry’s impression of the entrance room of the pyramid was an anti-climactic one. There were four bland, dusty walls with nothing so much as hieroglyphics or even some sort of drawing or torch. There were velvet ropes that Harry supposed formed a queue which led to the next room. He hesitated for a moment, and decided that he would give one last attempt to not go into the pyramid. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the compact mirror that Kwame had given him at the start of their vacation. Hermione gave him a quizzical look, while Ron merely clucked his tongue impatiently.

    “I have to try,” Harry said, opening it up. “Kwame Moustafa.” Harry waited, expecting something to happen, but nothing did. He repeated the name, noting that the only thing happening to the mirror was that the glass was fogging up. Hermione took the mirror and put it upside down. A fluffy pad fell out, which Harry knew, as he felt a sinking feeling in his stomach, that it was a fake. He was not going to be calling for any help.

    “I knew it,” Ron said, taking the mirror and smashing it off the wall. “This was all a setup.”

    “Well what do we do?” Hermione asked, biting her lip nervously. “We either stay here and try to find the book, or we give up.”

    “We get the book,” Ron said firmly.

    “Ron, think about it. She lured us here for a reason, meaning that she probably needs us to get it,” Harry said fairly. “If we don’t go in there, she won’t be able to get it.”

    “But we don’t know that,” Ron said in a long suffering voice. “We can’t risk it!”

    “Harry’s got a point,” Hermione said. “If it’s a trap, we can’t just walk right into it.”

    “Well, you guys wait here then,” Ron said, drawing himself up to full height, which was considerably taller than either of the other two. “You guys wait and play it safe. I’m going in there, and I’m going to get that book.” Ron then turned and walked out of the entrance room. Harry chased after him.

    “Ron don’t go in there!” he yelled, grabbing the back of Ron’s robes. They were in the second room, which was lined with glass cases and plaques which explained the pyramid. It was nothing they hadn’t seen in the museum, and so none of it captured Harry’s interest. The second room had another doorway that led further into the pyramid, but it was roped off, and several signs said that there were magical methods of detecting if someone had been inside. Harry did not see Lady Malagar anywhere in the room, so she must have exited through this doorway. Harry didn’t see any illumination past this point and, with another jolt of anxiety, he whispered “Lumos” and lit his wand. Ron and Hermione followed suit, but neither of them entered the room. Harry poked his wand through, trying to see if he could make anything out, but the wand light was far too weak, and couldn’t penetrate the centuries of darkness and gloom that had filled the pyramid. Harry gave Hermione and Ron another nervous look.

    “What if we get lost?” he asked.

    “You can turn yourself into that phoenix and get us out,” Ron said.

    “I don’t think so. McGonagall said last year that without the Orb I can’t do it.”

    “Well...I did bring resources. Water, some crackers, a few sandwiches. Hermione, are there ways of communicating while stuck in pyramids?”

    “Well, I suppose there are certain ways. But with all the ancient magic swirling about the place, I highly doubt that we’ll be able to pull anything complicated off without the possibility of it going awry,” Hermione said.

    “We had better risk it, hadn’t we?” Ron asked nervously. While he was definitely all for going in the pyramid, the fact that they were now standing on the threshold had taken away some of his certainty. The room beyond was filled with shadows, and anything could be after that.

    “This is our last chance of turning back,” Harry said to them. Ron took a deep breath and nodded. Hermione looked nervous, but when she turned to Harry, she had a look of steely determination.

    “Let’s go,” she said. Harry sighed, taking one last, envious look at the outside world, before turning to the dark room.

    “I’ll go first,” he said grimly. He was about to cross the threshold when Hermione put a hand on his arm.

    “Wait.” She twirled her wand, and whispered “Illuminate!” and a flare of light rocketed into the room beyond. It bounced off of a dusty wall and sent a flash of light into the air, fully illuminating the room. The room looked odd in the harsh glow of the orange light Hermione sent into the room. Harry entered first, his hand full of Hermione’s robes, while he double-checked to make sure that Ron was closely following them. He looked about, noting the markings on the wall, none of which he could understand. They looked as if they had reached a dead end; there were no more doorways or windows. The three of them huddled together. Ron let out a sigh of frustration.

    “Where could she have gone to?” he asked, picking up a rock from the dusty floor. He threw it up and down, peering into the shadows.

    “I don’t know,” Hermione said uncertainly. “Maybe there’s a secret passageway up here.”

    “Well, you’re the genius, this is your area,” Ron said, dropping the rock, which made a hollow thud as it landed. Harry turned his wand towards the ground and saw what looked like a faint, square outline in the floor.

    “Do you see that?” he asked. “It looks like someone drew a square here.” He stomped his foot, and suddenly the floor gave out. The three of them were falling; Hermione was screaming from somewhere next to him, Ron was shouting at the top of his lungs. He hit something hard, and he realized that he was sliding down, almost like sliding down the pipe back in his second year when he and Ron found the Chamber of Secrets. They slipped into the darkness. Harry felt sick as he turned and twisted. The slide seemed to go on forever, but when he hit the ground with a thud, he knew he reached the bottom. He felt Ron and Hermione land next to him, and he coughed as he inhaled a lot of dust.

    “Are you guys all right?” he coughed, making sure his glasses were intact before he stood up.

    “Quite peachy,” Ron said, brushing off his robes. “I can’t see a thing.”

    “Hold on,” Hermione said. “Illuminate!” Another harsh glow of orange flared up; the light nearly hurt Harry’s eyes, which were used to the total darkness. Harry spotted a mirror next to Hermione before the illumination went out prematurely, plunging them all in darkness yet again.

    “That didn’t work as well as I hoped,” Ron said, a note of panic in his voice.

    “I agree,” Hermione said, her hand clenched around Harry’s arm. “What do we do, we can’t continue on in darkness.”

    “Hermione, there’s a mirror next to you, feel for it,” Harry said, not really knowing if he was on to something, but the mirror was all he had to work with.

    “What’s a dirty mirror going to do to help us!” Ron asked indignantly. Hermione moved slightly away from Harry when she heard him gasp.

    “I think I’ve read about these, all they need is a tap of a wand...” she whispered. There was a slight tapping noise, and the beams of light streamed from the mirror. The light bounced off of the walls, off of several other mirrors that were in the room until the room was completely lit. Hermione gasped and tightened her grip on Harry when she saw what the room contained. He wouldn’t say it out loud, but he understood why Hermione had gasped in fright.

    The walls were made of jet black, polished stone. The walls were slick with what looked eerily like blood, and the entrance to the next room looked more like a mouth than anything. Flanking the round hole that Harry assumed was a doorway were two large statues of horrible animals. If Harry had to give them names, he guessed they would be dogs, but horrible dogs. The fur looked as if it was matted and wet with blood, and the fangs were horribly sharp. The paws ended in razor sharp claws, and the eyes, which should have been stone, were made of blazing green fire, dancing in such a hypnotic way that Harry could not do anything but stare at them in wonder and horror. He wrenched his gaze away from them and looked at the apprehensive stare on Ron’s face, and felt that they had now gone too far to turn back now.

    “It looks like a mouth,” Ron said thickly. “It’s giving me the creeps.”

    “Same here, mate,” Harry agreed.

    “Let’s go,” Hermione said in what sounded like a squeak. The three of them walked towards the opening when Harry felt something move under his feet.

    “Get back!” he shouted, and the three of them leapt back as another hole opened in the ground. Harry pointed his wandlight down to the bottom and saw a pit filled with spiders and scorpions, wriggling around each other, gazing up at the three intruders.

    “That could have been bad,” Ron said faintly. “How do they stay alive?”

    “Magic, most like,” Hermione said, looking positively faint. “It was a good thing you saw that coming.”

    “Felt it, more like. Keep your eyes open, we’re definitely not wanted here,” Harry said, walking around the pit in the ground and heading towards the mouth. He half expected the statues to rear up and attack him, they were so life-like, but they did nothing but stare ahead. Harry stepped through the room, squinting in the weak light that illuminated the room. He spotted another mirror, tapped it with his wand, and the room slowly brightened. It was a long corridor, barely wide enough for all three of them to fit in a line. It looked strangely innocent, but Harry was sure that there were booby traps all along the pathway. He turned to Ron, who was eyeing the passageway suspiciously.

    “Too good to be true,” he said simply.

    “Any spells?” Harry asked Hermione, but she shook her head.     

    “Any booby traps here will likely be set off by physical stimuli, like movement or sound,” Hermione said. “We can send a reflection of you down there, like last year when we thought Mrs. Figg was on the Dark Side, but it won’t make any physical imprints on the hallway.”

    “What about a Patronus?” Harry asked shrewdly, but she shook her head.

    “A Patronus might be corporeal, but it won’t make any physical impact on the hallway. Maybe we could conjure a bird or something, but that would be cruel.”

    “If only Pettigrew was still Scabbers we could send him down the hallway to his death,” Ron said grimly. “We can’t sit here all day.” Ron took off his shoe, flicked his wand, and said “Mobilicaligae!” The shoe started to levitate.

    “Clever,” Hermione said appraisingly. Ron flicked his wand, and his shoe went zooming down the hall.

    “Make it touch the floor,” Hermione said, her eyes narrowed. Ron obliged, and the shoe tapped the floor. Immediately flames shot out of the floor, incinerating Ron’s shoe.

    “Blimey,” he said weakly, looking down at his sock-covered foot.

    “Looks like that wasn’t the best idea after all,” Harry said. Hermione waved her wand and a replacement shoe came out of nowhere.

    “I conjured you a shoe, but it won’t last forever,” she said.

    “So how do we get past this?” Ron asked desperately. Harry was wondering the same thing.

    “Maybe we can freeze the fire, like we did to that Vipertooth in Diagon Alley last year,” Harry said to Hermione.

    “It wouldn’t work. We wouldn’t be able to get past the fire if it’s frozen,” Hermione said shaking her head. There was something tickling the back of his brain, something he could do, an option that was standing at the edge of his tongue. It was stifling hot in the pyramid, and his brain felt lazy.

    “We’re losing time,” Ron said. “That book will be history by the time we get it.” Something Ron said sparked Harry’s memory. History...

    “Hermione!” he said loudly, surprising the other two. “History of Magic, in our third year! Can you do a Flame-Freezing Charm?” Hermione looked confused, but then a light sparked in her eyes.

    “Of course! Brilliant Harry!”

    “What?” Ron asked, behind in the conversation.

    “Back in the summer of our third year, Binns assigned that essay on witch burnings, but the witches performed the Flame-Freezing Charm, and they weren’t burnt at all,” Hermione explained. Harry remembered the cozy sessions in Diagon Alley while Florean Fortescue gave him explanations on the witch burnings as well as tasty (and free) Fortescue sundaes. Hermione kicked some sand into the hallway, and when the flames shot up, she waved her wand and uttered an incantation. Biting her lip, she stepped into the flames. Ron gave a shout of panic, but it gave away to awe, when Hermione started to giggle.

    “It tickles,” she said with a smile. “Come on then, before the charm wears off!” Harry stepped into the fire, and he felt a tickling sensation as the flames licked his arms and legs. He couldn’t help but laugh, and when they reached the end of the corridor, he felt slightly more cheerful, despite the fact that once the flames had died down, they were stuck in another gloomy, depressing room.

    “This isn’t so bad,” Ron said, looking around. “I wonder why they have it all blocked off.”

    “Because we haven’t even entered the important parts of the pyramid,” Hermione said in response. “This is just the way into the pyramid.” The room they were now in had four torches on one of the walls, lit with cool, blue fires.

    “Gubraithian fire,” Hermione whispered. “It’s bewitched to burn forever, which is why the fire is still going.” Harry nodded, stepping in front of Ron and Hermione and taking a tentative step into the room. He walked several paces in, Hermione and Ron right behind him, when all of the sudden the floor gave out. Harry expected to fall, but he was standing in place. He looked down and saw a black chasm opened up below him.

    “It’s just a mirage,” he said simply. “We saw the floor here not two minutes ago.”

    “But it looks like we’re standing on thin air,” Hermione squeaked, her grip on Harry so painful he felt he was losing circulation. Looking down made Harry too dizzy; he closed his eyes to regain his balance.

    “Don’t worry,” he said, and he stepped forward to show them that the floor was still there, but when he put his foot down, he felt nothing there, and he tipped forward, losing his balance. Hermione screamed and grabbed onto Harry as he leaned perilously over the edge; Ron took a fistful of Harry’s robes and pulled him back up. Harry’s heart was beating really fast; he thought he had it there.

    “Don’t do that again,” Ron said, his face extremely pale.

    “Don’t worry, I won’t,” Harry said, his breath coming in ragged gasps.

He reached out with his foot tentatively and found purchase and stepped forward. He kept a hand clasped to Hermione, who too kept a hand clasped to Ron.

    “We’ll have to feel our way forward,” Harry muttered.

    “That’ll take forever, that will,” Ron muttered, following Hermione closely. It was slow work. Harry had to make sure there was enough purchase for him to fit on the pathway, which curved through the room. Of course, Harry didn’t expect a straight path to the doorway, but the pathway they were taking wound too much. In fact, Harry was sure he was retracing their path. Twice they came near the exit, and twice they were led away.

    “This is ridiculous,” Harry said. “We’re going in circles.”

    “I know,” Hermione said. “But there must be a way out somewhere.” They backtracked to the closest they came to the exit and stood there. Harry leaned his foot forward but couldn’t feel any floor beneath him. A sudden inspiration struck him, one that he was not keen on vocalizing to the other two.

    “I think we’re going to have to jump,” Harry said to them. Hermione’s eyes widened, and Ron’s jaw dropped.

    “Jump? It’s so far,” Hermione squeaked.

    “I know, but we don’t have much choice,” Harry said grimly. He jumped the distance, barely clearing the gigantic gap in between them, and landed on a dusty ledge that led to the exit door. His heart pounding in relief, he turned and looked at his two friends, and his eyes widened with horror. One of the blue lit torches were extinguished, and when the fire went out, the invisible pathway was revealed, and what was worse, it was disappearing.

    “Guys, hurry,” he yelled, and they turned and looked in horror. They could see their support disappearing.

    “Hermione, go!” Ron yelled. She made to jump, but the platform below them started to disappear. Ron grabbed her and pulled her back. The platform disappeared. Harry made to jump, but he knew that he couldn’t reach them, he couldn’t save them. He panicked, he didn’t know of any magical spells that could help.

    “What do we do?” Ron shouted, the panic clear in his voice.

    “Try to light the fire again!” Harry shouted back. Hermione shot spells at the torch, but it refused to light. Ron joined in the attempt, but it wouldn’t relight. Another torch went out, and more of the platforms disappeared. Harry closed his eyes; his Animagus transformation would be perfect right about now. He tried to focus on becoming a phoenix, but it wouldn’t happen. Nothing in the slightest was changing. Why wasn’t it working? Why couldn’t he do it? Even in his panicked mind, he remembered McGonagall telling him that he couldn’t transform any longer, that it was the Orb that helped him learn so quickly.

    The second to last torch went out, leaving Ron and Hermione stuck on the only platform left. Hermione’s eyes were looking fearfully at Harry, while Ron was looking down at the fall. The last torch flickered.

    “NO!” Harry screamed, and it went out. The last support flickered and vanished, but to his great surprise, Ron and Hermione didn’t fall. They looked as if they were floating in midair. The torches lit again, and the floor as it was before it ever disappeared reappeared. Harry felt a whiz of relief, and walked forward.

    “That was terrible,” Ron said shakily. Harry strode forward, and when he got to Hermione, she collapsed into his arms.

    “I thought we were...that we were...” she started to say, but she couldn’t finish it.

“It’s ok,” Harry said. They broke apart, and Hermione wiped her eyes. “Let’s get out of this room,” Ron said with an uneasy smile and

headed for the exit. Harry made to follow when there was a loud clanking sound, and the floor disappeared below Hermione. She screamed as she fell through the floor.

    “HERMIONE!” Harry yelled, and made to follow, but there was a clanking sound again and the floor closed up. Ron fell to the ground, looking for cracks in the floor.

    “We need to get her!” he shouted.

    “Out of the way,” Harry said. Ron moved out of the way. Harry waved his wand.

    “Reducto!” Harry shouted. A brilliant flash of light illuminated the room, and when the spell it the ground, a cloud of dust shot up in the air. When it cleared, however, the floor was still intact.     

    “What do we do?” Ron asked faintly, his face having gone deathly white and his hands shaking.

    “We find her,” Harry said determinedly. “She has to be all right. We’ll go through this door here, and we’ll find a way to get to her.” Ron nodded, and the two of them ran through the exit. They ran straight through a dark hallway, not really knowing which way to go, not caring that they might be heading into Malagar at any turn. They were both assuring themselves that Hermione was still all right, because the alternative was something that just couldn’t be possible. The hallway finally ended, and they were in an elaborately decorated room. The room seemed as if it was comprised entirely of gold, and the walls were lined with gold statues in the shapes of mythological beasts.

    “What is this place?” Harry asked aloud, his curiosity prevailing over his sense of urgency.

    “I think this is the beginning of the inner vault,” Ron said. “They had a picture of this room in the museum above ground. This is the furthest anyone has gotten into the pyramid, because the door at the end has never opened.”

    “Then that’s where we have to go,” Harry said, moving towards the door. It was a rather plain, black door inset in the wall. Harry assumed it would slide into the wall to open. The fact that it was black compared to the gold around them gave Harry an unsettled feeling. He held his hand out and went to touch the door when Ron’s voice startled him.

    “These statues look incredibly lifelike,” he said, looking at the gold statue of a chimaera. Harry thought it was an incredibly misshaped creature. It had the head of a lion, baring it’s sharp fangs, and its two front paws ended in razor sharp claws. Halfway through it’s body, however, turned into that of an overlarge goat, with the hind legs ending in hooves. The tail was extremely long and scaly, ending in four sharp horns protruding from the end.

    “I bet Hagrid would want one of these,” Harry said lightly. “Come on, we need to find Hermione before something happens.” This seemed to snap Ron back into focus, and he followed Harry to the door.

    “So how do you think it opens?” Ron asked.

    “No idea,” Harry said, spotting the hieroglyphics above the door that were inscribed on the Orb of Power. He was hesitant to touch the door, in case it was another trap. Ron, however, started banging on it.

    “Open up!” he yelled pointlessly and to absolutely no effect. They heard something stir behind them, but when they turned, wands raised, nothing happened.

    “Help me move the door,” Ron said, leaning with all his weight against the door. Harry was still staring suspiciously in the room, but when he saw nothing, he turned. He put his hand on the door, and suddenly it started to ripple, as if it were water. Ron shouted as he fell right through.

    “Ron!” Harry yelled, and sprang through the door as well. He saw Ron on the floor and helped him up, but when he looked at his surroundings, he felt his jaw drop.

    The room they were in was like nothing he had ever seen before. The room waved and rippled, as if they were underwater. Sure enough, when he looked down at his robes, they were floating in the air.

    “This is weird,” Ron said unsure. They moved forward reluctantly. It felt like they were above ground, out of the water, yet everything continued to move and sway. They moved out of the room and into another hallway. Harry wasn’t sure what to expect, but the room was making him slightly nauseous.

    “Where does this hallway lead?” Ron asked. Harry shushed him, he didn’t want to make any more noise than he had to. They rounded a corner, and there was a soft clopping noise coming from somewhere in the distance. They entered a huge, cavernous room, which looked like it could fit an entire building. The ceiling looked stormy, and Harry could see lightning move through the clouds that were swirling at the top. They saw the room taper at the edge and lead to another room that looked pitch black.

    “I think we go through there,” Harry said, nodding towards the pitch black room.

    “Let’s go then, shall we?” Ron said, and they sprinted towards the exit. When they got to the exit, however, a wall sprang up, locking them in. They pounded on the door until they heard the clopping noise again. They turned and saw the golden chimaera, large and alive, baring its teeth at them, its claws incredibly sharp, and the dragon tail swaying ominously in the air. It moved stealthily towards them, knowing its prey was cornered. Harry and Ron backed up against the door, their eyes not moving off of the golden chimaera approaching, keeping them frozen in place. The lightning in the room cracked ominously, and Ron jumped. The chimaera, sensing fear, charged forward.

    “Circus Incendium!” Harry shouted, and a rope of flame shot out of his wand and encircled the chimaera. It seemed panicked, as if it were afraid of fire, yet it jumped through the fire, unscathed, and growled.

    “Stupefy!” Ron shouted, but the red jet of light merely glanced off of the chimaera’s hide and bounced into the sky. The lightning flashed again, and a roar of thunder echoed through the cavern. The chimaera roared in response, and charged forward.

    “Illuminate!” Harry shouted, and the flash of light hit the chimaera directly in the head. He pulled Ron down as the chimaera pounced, and they heard a scream of pain above them. Harry looked up and saw the chimaera, disoriented by the light, soar above them and crash into the wall. He rolled out from underneath the chimaera, whose head was now stuck in the wall. “MOVE RON!”

    Ron rolled as well, and he and Harry broke into a run towards the way they came. They heard a loud crash, and when they turned they saw the chimaera had forced itself from out of the wall, and was once again charging.

    “Impedimenta!” he shouted, but that spell too rocketed off of the animal’s golden hide. He positioned himself in front of Ron, and he pointed his wand at the creature.

    “Bombarda!” he said, and a blast like a gunshot exploded from his wand. The ground exploded in front of him, and the creature stopped and came to a halt. Dust had been thrown into the air, distracting the creature and making it hesitant.

    “What do we do?” Ron hissed in his ear, his eyes opened, his voice indicating that he was utterly terrified.

    “I don’t know,” Harry said. The creature shook its head, roared and charged forward.

    “Moena Lucis!” Harry shouted, and a wall of light surrounded him and Ron. The creature slashed at the wall, but it merely sent sparks into the air. It roared in frustration and tried to bite at them, but the wall stayed in place.

    “Good work,” Ron said, but then the wall started to flicker.

    “Oh no,” Harry said, and he tried to back away, and the wall finally disappeared.

    “Defendo!” Ron shouted, and another wall came up between the two of them and the creature hit the wall with a crack. It tried to edge around, but Ron kept the shield going, desperately trying to keep the chimaera away from them. “I can’t keep this going forever.” Harry looked up at the sky, which was raging and flashing, and he had an idea.

    “Stupefy!” he shouted, and he sent a red light streaking towards the sky. It instantly got lost in the hazy clouds, and then a bolt of lightning hurtled down and struck the ground, rocking the room. The chimaera turned and sprang away, glaring at the sky, its tail swaying above it.

    “Do the spell with me!” Harry yelled, and they both sent stunners rocketing into the sky. The lightning struck with fiery intensity, blasting the room and sending Ron and Harry to the ground. Harry looked up and saw dust swirling around above him, and he strained his ears for any sound of movement. He got up, helped Ron up after him, and saw the chimaera standing above them, its teeth bared, it’s tail swaying. Harry felt a terror grip him, and he did the only thing that he could think of. He pressed his hands on the golden hide of the chimaera in an attempt to push it away. It was so heavy, and he pushed with all his might. He felt desperation fill him, and despair, knowing he was only a few moments away from being killed, and letting Ron be killed as well. He braced himself to feel a claw swipe at him, a tail crashing into his side, but no such blow came. Ron scrambled up and looked at the creature in horror.

    “Harry...what...” Harry looked at his hands, and saw that a bright golden light was coming from his fingertips. Utterly shocked and surprised, he looked up at the chimaera, whose face was screwed up in a howl of misery. Suddenly the creature blasted away from Harry and into the wall, crashing right through it and coming to rest on the other side, heaped in rubble. Staring in awe, Harry watched the golden hide of the chimaera dissolve away and disappear.

    “What did you do?” he asked in awe.

    “I don’t know,” Harry said, looking down at his hands, which had now turned back to normal. “I can’t explain what happened.”

    “Well let’s hope whatever is, you keep it, because we’re going to need it,” Ron said, holding his wand. “For a second there I thought we had it.”

    “Me too,” Harry said, walking towards the hole in the wall. He climbed through. There was another black door with the hieroglyphics written above it at the end of another black, swaying hallway. He pressed his hand against it and let Ron step through. He followed after, and was once again in a room that confounded his senses.

    The room was comprised completely of gold, but it was unlike any other room he had seen. Strips of hieroglyphics were sliding around the walls in perpetual motion. There were four torches in the corners of the room, each blazing with a different color fire: red, blue, green, and yellow. There was a dusty stone pedestal in the middle of the room, with three spikes that rose out of the basin and met in the middle, making a triangle. In the middle of the three points was a small orb of light, which was shining pure white.

    “That looks like...”

    “The Orb of Power,” Harry finished Ron’s sentence. “But it can’t be, there was only one.”

    “So then what is it?” Ron asked, striding forward. Harry approached the pedestal and lowered his head so that he was eye-level with the orb of light. He could see dark shapes in the light, but he couldn’t make them out.

    “Reckon we should touch it?”

    “We have to find Hermione,” he said vaguely, but the light was too entrancing. He reached out a hand and touched the orb. Suddenly the room filled with rushing wind, and the room was plunged in sudden, impenetrable darkness. Harry instinctively grabbed on to Ron’s robes in order to make sure he didn’t get lost.

    “What’s going on?” Ron yelled in the face of the wind, and suddenly, sparks of light shot out of the orb, and the scene changed. They were in the middle of a city, an old city, and they saw two people, a man and a woman, standing next to what seemed like water, except it was as bright as the sun. Harry looked over at Ron, who looked completely flabbergasted.

    “Where are we?” Ron asked in a hushed whisper.

    “No idea.” The scene zoomed forward, and they were very close to the man and woman. They were dressed in Egyptian garb, or what Harry assumed to be Egyptian clothes, and the two were holding each other. A third figure entered the scene, and the room darkened. A large woman with black hair and dressed in a long, tatty black robe was approaching. The man stepped in front of his girlfriend, or lover, and was shouting at the advancing woman. She was carrying a book, and she pointed it to it as she shouted. The man was shaking his head, and suddenly the woman he was guarding stepped in front of him. The advancing woman held out her hand, and a ball of flames lit in the middle of her palm. She threw the ball, and before the man could stop it, it hit the girl and killed her instantly. Her body fell to the floor, and when it hit the ground, a brilliant white light emerged from her body, and then turned scarlet and gold, and a brilliant red and gold bird emerged from the light, and soared in the air. A single red feather fell when it flew into the air, and the man grabbed it in wonder. The feather turned bright red and gold, and then a golden beam of light shot out and struck the advancing woman in surprise. She dropped her book, and in a blink of an eye, her body vanished. The scene then disappeared, shooting back into the orb in the middle of the room.

    “What in the bloody hell was that?” Ron asked.

    “I have no idea,” Harry said. “But we’ve wasted too much time. We have to find Hermione.”

    “But this room has no exit,” Ron said, looking around. “This is a dead end.”

    “This can’t be a dead end. Something else must be in here, because we haven’t gotten through that many obstacles,” Harry said. He peered at the pedestal, and saw a hand print in the side of the stand.

    “Two guesses as to what we have to do,” Ron said, grabbing a hold of Harry’s robes. “You’re the key to all of this, I’m not letting go of you.”

    “Suit yourself,” Harry said with a sly trace of a grin, and he pressed his hand into the groove. There was a deep rumbling, and the pedestal started to sink into the floor. Ron hastened to step onto it before it got too low. They sank slowly into shadow, their eyes barely picking up outlines in the shadow, before the pedestal came to a halt. Harry lit up his wand, Ron doing the same, and they walked. There was cold stone all around them, and the walls were slick with a black liquid that they couldn’t identify even if they wanted to. They walked without talking, keeping on alert, knowing that at any second they could be attacked by something they couldn’t even imagine.

    They wound through several halls, avoiding spiders and scorpions, looking at the myriad macabre decorations such as skeletons and statues of rotting corpses as they wound their way through the pyramid. Harry could tell that they were deep into the pyramid now, and that they were where Hermione was taken. She was around here somewhere, he could feel it. They came to a circular room, with large panes of glass reaching towards the ceiling.

    “Why is there glass here?” Ron asked.

    “I don’t know. It’s probably not glass,” Harry said. Ron, his wand pointing ahead, walked up to one of the mirrors.

    “Don’t touch anything,” Harry warned, and Ron nodded. He peered closely into the glass, and suddenly two shadowy arms jumped out and grabbed Ron.

    “HARRY!” he screamed, but he was yanked through the mirror, and disappeared. Harry ran forward and banged on the glass, but he couldn’t get through.

    “DAMMIT!” Harry yelled, and he kicked the glass with frustration. He turned and saw a shadow figure standing before him, about his own size. Harry had his wand raised, and he attacked.

    “Stupefy!” Harry shouted, and the red spell blazed towards it’s target. Harry’s jaw dropped in horror when he saw an exact replica of him standing before him.

    “Defendo!” his counterpart yelled, blocking the spell. “Impedimenta.” Harry raised his own shield, blocking the reflection’s spell. Harry twirled his wand again and attacked, but this time his counterpart reflected it, sending it whistling back. Harry blocked it with another Shield Charm, but his strength was weakening, and his counterpart seemed to be getting stronger. Harry struck with several spells, but the shadow of him reacted exactly as Harry thought it would. He couldn’t figure out how to edge it out, how to fool it. How would he fool himself? That was a problem that he didn’t have time to figure out. The shadow was striking first now, gaining the upper hand; several times Harry had to duck to avoid being hexed. He was almost disarmed once before he could get out of the way, the spell smashing some of the magical glass that was on the walls. Harry backed up, and the shadow backed up as well, mimicking Harry. The shadow sent a Killing Curse at Harry, and Harry ducked, feeling shocked. Was he capable of using a Killing Curse? Did he have the type of power?

    It’s not you, it’s a shadow. An opposite,” Harry thought. An opposite that is growing farther from what he actually was. Harry had an insight, and he charged forward. The shadow charged forward too, unable to stop. It sent several curses at him, but with reflexes born from his Quidditch training, he avoided them, and he ran through the shadow. He felt the shadow pass through him, and he felt icy cold. He turned when he reached the wall, and he saw the shadow was gone.

    I got lucky on that one, Harry said. He took a deep breath, realizing he had gotten lucky that time, and when he saw a glass mirror open up, he went through it. He stepped through it and came into a small room with two more panes of magical glass on either end. He went to his right and saw a large room, the largest yet, that looked like an amphitheater. Several large torches illuminated the room, which was hardly decorated except for a large stone statue in the shape of a woman, probably Furmat, and two pedestals in the middle of the room, each with a book hovering above it. One looked as if it were made completely of black stone, while the other looked as if it was made from pure ivory. Harry saw a woman and a man in the room, staring at the books. The woman, wearing blood red tattered robes and a veil in front of her face, was none other than Malagar. The wizard, taller than Malagar, was wearing a blood red cloak and wearing pure, white, silken gloves. Paul LeMenteur, the Malfoy’s lawyer.

    “What do we do now, milady?” he asked in his slippery voice.

    “We wait for Potter. His friends are no longer with him. The boy has disappeared, grabbed by one of the pyramid’s defenses. His girlfriend...well...she won’t be causing problems with us any time soon.” Harry felt a sick swoop of horror in his stomach. What had they done to Hermione?

    “Can’t we take the books now?”

    “No,” she said, her screechy voice dripping with anticipation. “I cannot touch the black book, for I do not have the power to do so. And only Potter can touch the white book. That book is useless, filled with history and legend, but the black book holds so much power. I need it to restore myself to full power.”

    “And then...”

    “Do not speak of it here. Lord Voldemort has many spies, we cannot make our move under his gaze. Lucky for us, he does not have the dementors this time around,” she said, and at that very moment, several dementors filled the room, swirling around the two of them. They were unfazed by their presence, while Harry felt slightly nervous. They didn’t have any effect now, but if they sensed him, he wouldn’t be able to repel them.

    “Very well. How will we trick Potter into taking the white book?”

    “By using his other friend as bait,” she snarled. “Fetch him at once, LeMenteur.” He bowed and swept out of the room. Harry panicked, he had to get down there before they hurt Ron. He turned and saw the other pane of glass, and, hoping that was his exit, he threw himself towards it. He hit the glass and fell through. He was in a dark room, and he needed to find his way. He lit his wand and saw something on the ground. He moved forward reluctantly, not knowing what it was, but when he saw a familiar pair of shoes, and that bushy brown hair...

    Harry rushed forward, and looked at Hermione. A trickle of blood was coming out of her mouth, and her eyes were gazing openly up at the ceiling. He saw that she wasn’t breathing, and a dagger was sticking out of her chest. Harry felt the life being sucked out of him; he couldn’t breathe, he couldn’t feel, he only felt numb with shock and disbelief. It couldn’t be true. It just couldn’t be. He fell to his knees, tears brimming in his eyes.

    Hermione was dead.

    He had no idea how long he sat there on the ground, everything else forgotten. Hermione was dead, because of him, because she got involved with him. He buried his face in his hands, trying to stem the tears, trying hard to wish it all away, when he heard footsteps behind him.

    “Harry?” He turned and saw Ron, who looked pale and white, a trickle of blood on the corner of his mouth. Harry tried to speak, but he had lost his voice. How could he tell Ron? He saw Ron’s eyes turn towards where Hermione’s body lay, and he gave a jolt, his eyes widening. Harry turned and saw Hermione’s body gone, and replaced by a giant spider. Harry’s brain seemed dead. It wasn’t possible. A boggart? A stupid boggart?

    “Riddikulus!” Ron shouted, and the spider vanished in a wisp of smoke. Ron was looking deadly frightened. “Harry?”

    “I...” Harry started to say, but he felt cold, and he heard a rattling breath from somewhere around him. He turned and saw a towering dementor hovering just behind Ron, who had gone deathly white. His eyes rolled into the back of his head, and he collapsed.

    “Expecto Patronum!” Harry shouted, but only a wisp of vapor emerged from his wand. With the sight of Sirius falling to the ground, killed by Wormtail, Harry’s eyes closed, and he fell to the ground, unconscious.