Chapter One
Cupboard
My watch glowed on my wrist, the only thing I could see in the darkness of the broom closet, three o'clock in the morning.
I sighed, Six hours; I'd been stuck in a broom closet for six hours. I supposed this was Hugo's stupid idea of a joke; he was never very good at jokes. Ever since James and Fred graduated last year, Hugo and Louis had been trying to live up their standards. As far as I'm concerned, no one can beat them, they'd pulled some really great pranks in the past seven years, filling the Great Hall with jelly, turning the whole fourth floor into a swamp, putting laxatives in the owl's food just before the morning post. My personal favourite was the time they charmed the Astronomy Tower steps to turn into a slide as soon as someone was nearly at the top, people built up so much speed coming down that they slid all the way down the corridor and cannoned into the wall at the other end. There were a few broken bones and they had to cancel Astronomy lessons for a whole month while Flitwick worked out how to undo the spell.
Anyway, we were on our way to the Gryffindor Victory Party, after they won the first match of the season against Huffelpuff. I was walking with my best friend, Alyssa, when I was unceremoniously shoved into this broom cupboard. Alyssa, being the true friend that she is, laughed at me through the door and walked away. I'd left my wand up in the dormitory before the game, so all I could do was sit there and wait until someone came along and decided to let me out. Good thing I'm not claustrophobic.
My legs were cramping up, I gingerly stood up in the cramped space. My head collided with the shelf above me. "Ow!" I exclaimed, rubbing my head, I stepped backward and tripped over something on the floor behind me, my elbow knocked against something on the wall and I fell through the wall.
Relief
I landed with a dull thud in a pile of dust. Slowly, I got up and turned to look behind me. I could see a long corridor, the torches mounted on each wall lit up one after another, illuminating the dusty, cobwebbed floor and arched ceiling.
Secret passageway, cool, I thought I looked behind me, back at the broom closet door.
It's three in the morning, I reasoned with myself, it's pretty unlikely that anyone's going to come and let me out any time soon. I turned back to the corridor, may as well do something, it's this or sitting in a cupboard for the next five hours.
Brushing the dust off the back of my jeans I stepped through the back of the broom cupboard and into the corridor, the wall reappeared behind me. Well, no turning back now
I walked down the corridor for about ten minutes when a ladder appeared up ahead on the wall of the passage. I climbed the ladder and lifted the small trapdoor peeking out into the library, I climbed back down the ladder and continued down the corridor, there were other doors and trapdoors at various intervals along the corridor, all leading to various rooms in the castle. There must have been an ancient and very strong spell on the passage, because though the corridor continued straight, the rooms were on different floors and at opposite sides of the castle. I pushed open a door and stepped out at the base of the staircase to Ravenclaw Tower, I stepped out on to the stone floor and the door swung shut behind me and vanished into the wall. I was too tired to really care, hopefully I could find the passage again though, and it could come in useful. I trudged up the stairs tiredly; it was almost four in the morning now.
I had just reached the landing, and was walking up to the door when I stood on something warm, squishy and unmistakeably alive.
The thing let out a terrifying wail.
"Garrh!" I exclaimed stumbling backward and almost falling back down the stairs, thinking it was one of Hagrid's awful crossbreeds that had somehow got free. It was now probably very angry at being trod on and wouldn't mind a tall redhead for an early breakfast.
"Are you ok?" a voice croaked from my left
Oh Merlin, there were two of them! And apparently they could talk! I really wished I had my wand right then.
"I think something trod on me." Said the thing I trod on said. Oh no, I thought. I could hear shuffling coming towards me "Hello?" the second Thing called
This is it, I thought, they are going to eat me, and I will die a horrible death at the age of seventeen. Hagrid will lose his job, Mum and Dad will go into a deep depression, mum will die young from refusing to eat, dad will kill himself because he can't live without mum, Hugo will turn to a life of alcoholism. Driven mad by mum and dad's horrible deaths, Uncle Harry will be put in St Mungos; Aunt Ginny will be forced to work night and day to keep the family afloat. James will go crazy without his parents, trying to protect Lily and kill her boyfriend which will turn Lily to a life of prostitution and land James in Azkaban. Aunt Fleur and Uncle Bill will go broke trying to help them and be forced to live on the streets, Dom will join Lily as a prostitute, and Uncle Percy's family will flee the country to get away from our broken family. Weasleys Wizard Wheezes will go bankrupt because of the bad press and Uncle George's family will all die from starvation as a result. And finally Nana and Grandad Weasley would both die from the despair of having a broken family. And it would all be my fault.
I squeezed my eyes shut tighter and waited for my horrible death... but it didn't come, I opened my eyes slowly and was suddenly blinded by a bright light. I blinked and rubbed my eyes.
"Oh, sorry," the light moved away and I realised it was a lit wand, held by a small second year, "Jane, it's another Ravenclaw."
She nudged the sleepy eyed girl next to her, "She can solve the riddle!" she turned to me, "We've been stuck out here since around 12, we had detention." She explained
I grinned at her, "What for?" I asked
"We hired three pigs and let them loose in the school."
"That's not so bad." I said
"Yeah but we labelled them 1, 2 and 4, the teachers spent ages trying to find pig number 3." They giggled
"Well done." I congratulated them, "Impressive, especially for second years."
They blushed a little at that, "Now, this riddle-"I began but the second one, Jane, cut me off,
"Why were you out so late? "She paused for a second and then she said very quickly, "Were you meeting a boy?"
"Jane!" The first one reprimanded her friend.
"I was locked in a broom cupboard." I replied, internally laughing at them.
"Oh." She nodded
I turned and lifted the eagle door knocker, letting it go with a thump. The eagle opened its bronze beak and said,
"The man who made me does not want me, the man who brought me does not need me and the man who needs me does not know it. What am I?"
The two girls watched me in anticipation as I thought,
"The man who made me does not want me, the man who brought me does not need me and the man who needs me does not know it." I muttered to myself, "Money? No, everyone wants that… Death? No, you can't make death." The man who made me does not want me, the man who brought me does not need me and the man who needs me does not know it.
"Aha! A coffin." I told the door knocker.
"Well done" the smooth voice answered and the door swung open. The Ravenclaw common room was big and round, the walls were lined with books and there was no fireplace, Rowena Ravenclaw was worried that the books might burn and placed some very strong warming charms all over the common room and dormitories. The common room was probably my favourite place in the whole castle, besides the library and the kitchens, because of the colours, the walls were a TARDIS blue (my favourite colour) and the window hangings were blue and bronze and there was a large marble statue of Rowena Ravenclaw next to the staircase leading to the dormitories, where we headed, turning- up the left staircase.
"Thanks!" chirped the two girls in unison,
"We'd have been stuck out there till morning if you hadn't come!" Jane said
"Let's just get as much sleep as we can, good thing its Friday, or Saturday actually. I suppose its tomorrow now." I told them as we climbed the stairs leading to the girl's dormitories
"Night." They turned off the stairs at their dorm, leaving me to climb up to the seventh year's dorm alone.
I crept through the door as quietly as possible, brushed my teeth and quickly changed into my moo-cow pyjamas before collapsing onto my soft four poster bed and drifting into a blissful sleep.
A/N
New Story! My main focus at the moment is Stuck, so it probably won't be updated very quickly though :/ But I saw an amazing banner over at The Dark Arts and was struck with inspiration J Hoped you enjoyed it, it's the first chapter, so its pretty boring but it will pick up later, I promise! It will be a bit exciting too ;)
Review please!
~Rose
P.S
Sorry Alyssa, but you're a Huffelpuff for the purposes of this story, I wanted Albus in it :/