Author's Note:
Round 3: Truth or Dare?
Team: Pride of Portree
Position: Beater 2
Prompt: Write about a Truth that is found by the next generation
Prompts used: 3. (dialogue) "You don't have a choice. It's do or die."
8. (flavour) cinnamon
Word Count: _2983_ excluding Author's Note
Please Remain in Your Seats
Scorpius Malfoy fidgeted slightly in his uncomfortable chair and raised a hand to protect his eyes from the blinding light. The rest of the room was dark, concealing the identity of whomever was on the other side of the table.
"Your name, please," asked a slightly bored voice that might have belonged to a fairly young woman. As she spoke, Scorpius was also greeted by the delicate aroma of vanilla and oranges. These two facts were the sum total of what Scorpius could gather about the Auror questioning him.
"My name is Scorpius Malfoy." He heard a quill scraping against parchment.
"Now please tell me, Mister Malfoy, what happened. Start from the beginning:"
Scorpius hesitated, trying to figure out where exactly the beginning was. Fingernails tapped against the other side of the table impatiently. He gulped as he felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up.
"Well, it all started on the roof of the Hogwarts Express..."
Even as Albus motioned for him to jump, Scorpius knew they were not going to make it. It was a hunch, really, not at all fueled by the fact that they were being pursued by a metal-clawed candy lady.
Albus was yelling at him: "Do it! You don't have a choice. It's do or die!" Scorpius looked back and wished he hadn't. The claws did look awfully sharp. Scorpius cast a Cushioning Charm and followed his friend. The last thing he saw from the corner of his eye was a flash of gold. Then, there was darkness.
"You jumped off the roof of the Hogwarts Express." There was mild amusement in the interrogator's voice.
"Yes. Yes, we did."
"I see. Do go on."
"Then, cinnamon!"
It smelled like cinnamon. That was the first thing that reached Scorpius' hazy mind. The next thing he realized was that it also tasted of cinnamon when he gasped for air. Very slowly, he opened his eyes and coughed loudly.
He was in a room that he didn't recognize. Albus was nowhere to be seen. Scorpius tried to move and realized his hands were tied together uncomfortably. Finding that he could not get free, he opted to look around.
The smell of cinnamon seemed to come from a nearby table that seemed to hold every flavour of sweets one could wish for. There were pumpkin pasties, cauldron cakes, cinnamon rolls… a fresh batch of sticky buns was waiting enticingly on the edge of the table, probably straight out of the oven. There was also a bowl of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans and various baking utensils.
"Alright, so you woke up in the workshop of the Trolley Witch. Then what, Mister Malfoy?"
"Well, my first instinct was to break free and explore where I was. Perhaps find out how I got there and where Albus was."
"This would be Albus Severus Potter?"
"Yes. And like I mentioned it was a bit difficult to find out what happened when I was tied up."
"In the gingerbread house."
Scorpius glared at the light. "I'm sensing a bit of sarcasm."
"Oh are you?" replied the voice.
For a while, they sat in silence. Then the quill scraped on parchment again and the woman coughed softly. "Shall we continue?"
"Do we have a choice?"
"I do."
Scorpius sighed. "You are not being very nice you know."
"Your opinion, of course, is of tremendous value to me. So, the Hansel and Gretel story?"
"Right. The priority was getting my hands free."
With some difficulty, Scorpius pushed himself up into a sitting position and looked around the room for a way out. The bindings on his wrists were strong and he was afraid to fidget too much lest he accidentally tighten the restraints.
He noticed a blade gleaming on the table and grinned. Scorpius Malfoy had the most Muggle idea known to have come from a Malfoy brain. He maneuvered himself towards the table leg nearest to the knife and then hit it with his body.
In hindsight, it was probably a bad idea. Especially so when a bag of confectioners sugar fell over and doused Scorpius with sweet and sticky powder. He sighed and moved a bit, then slammed into the table leg again. Very reluctantly, the knife moved closer to the edge of the table. Just one well-aimed hit… Scorpius positioned himself and struck again.
The knife fell off the table and plunged into the floor mere centimeters from Scorpius's leg. He took a minute to appreciate how lucky he'd just been. Then he began rubbing the ropes against the serrated side of the blade.
Of the two of them, Albus had always been the more adventurous one. Scorpius had been fine with just enjoying Hogwarts, not gallivanting around saving damsels in distress and exploring secret passages. He could have used some of that practical wisdom now.
Nevertheless, the ropes reluctantly snapped and Scorpius pulled his hands free, to immediately search for his wand. It was gone, which was a bad sign. After desperately scanning the room for his wand, Scorpius picked up the knife and cut his legs free. He was missing a wand but there was the sharp blade. Well, he had heard that Muggles had often made do with less. Besides, he had few options.
There was a door at the back of the room and Scorpius decided to head straight for it. It was quite small but it fell open at a soft touch and Scorpius gasped audibly as he looked through it.
"Cut the dramatics, please. It makes the story even less believable," demanded the irritated voice.
"Oh gee, I didn't know my tone of voice could make a pack of rats the size of small children sound in any way less plausible."
"Oh, I don't know. Dire rats aren't really all that bad once you've seen cow-size be-" the voice cut off abruptly. "Shall we get back to the matter at hand? You faced this pack of dire rats with nothing but a sharp knife. And you claim to have lived to tell the tale."
"Either that or I am an unusually dense ghost!"
Scorpius did not like rats. Well, that was a bit of a redundant statement. He was pretty sure no one liked rats that big or with such sharp fangs. Luckily though, the rats didn't seem to like him either. At least they backed away a bit as he stepped out. The nearest snarled, though, and Scorpius tried very hard to remember the behaviour of rats and what would pacify them. Treats perhaps? But where would he get treats?
A rat snapped at him in a not-at-all playful manner and Scorpius was forced back towards the door he'd come through. He waved at it with the knife but the rat took no notice. Or, more precisely, it chose to bare its long teeth as if to say "Mine are sharper." Scorpius gave it one look and stumbled back into the room he'd left just moments ago.
It was evident he needed better weapons than this knife. He glanced around wildly and his eyes fell on the table of sweets. "Yes, Scorpius," he muttered to himself, "where would you find treats for rats? You are only stuck in a bakery!"
Moments later, he emerged again from the room armed with a bowl hastily stuffed full with a bit of everything. The rats snarled, but this time Scorpius was ready and, with a swift motion, threw a pumpkin pasty their way. The bang was loud and the rats scattered in all directions. Scorpius coughed and wiped a bit of pumpkin filling off his face. Vaguely he recalled the trolley lady yelling something about exploding pasties…
Now that he was free of the rats, he finally had the chance to look around. He'd stepped into a wide hallway with a low ceiling and beige walls.
"Spare us both the finer points of interior decorating and get on with the story." The voice was once again impatient and seemed almost angry. Scorpius wasn't sure why; it wasn't as though someone had thrown exploding pumpkin pasties at her.
Scorpius, for one, found the interior decorating of evil lairs quite interesting, but the Auror was clearly losing her patience, so he sighed and tried to figure where to continue. "Well, I figured I had two priorities: find Albus and then find a way out. It was a bit of a maze and I encountered a few more monsters, but I mainly dealt with them by throwing sweets at them."
"Sweets?"
"Very unpredictable sweets with many special effects."
Scorpius liked the snakes even less than the rats. They casually slithered up to him as the hallways got darker and mustier. They came right up to him, flicking their tongues and preparing to strike out. After a moment of hesitation, Scorpius threw a few chocolate frogs their way. His reasoning had been that some snakes naturally liked to eat frogs, but he supposed that frogs pulling out little chocolate weapons and engaging in active warfare with the snakes was quite an effective distraction, too.
Throwing a handful of Every Flavor Beans at the pack of wild dogs, curiously the size of chihuahuas, was probably a reckless idea, but the little sweets soon expanded into a multicoloured soft, yet durable wall between him and the dogs. The canines snarled and snapped at it but failed to get through.
After that there were a few more nuisances and obstacles during which Scorpius found out that cauldron cakes could be turned into decent shields, sugar mice grew to the size of bloodhounds and were twice as vicious upon encountering a cat, and rock cakes were in all likelihood made of actual rocks and the cinnamon rolls tasted excellent.
Having gathered all this knowledge and with only a few sugary weapons remaining in his arsenal, Scorpius finally emerged from the last maize maze that he had had to brave, and, licking his fingers clean of sugared butterfly wings, laid his eyes upon the final door.
"How could you possibly have known that that was the 'final door'?" the voice chastised.
Scorpius glared in the general direction of the woman and shook his head. "Are we here to discuss my possible misdeeds or to judge my prowess as a storyteller?"
"To stretch such a lovely stroll out into something reminiscent of "King Arthur: Legend of the Sword" should be a crime in itself. The voice replied. "But I shall humor you for once and suppose that you had some kind of a hunch that it was, in fact, the final door — if only so that we can wrap this up."
"Oh, how gracious of you!" Scorpius was not a snarky person, but this witch was really trying his patience. "As I was going to say, before I was so rudely interrupted, I valiantly shoved the door open and stormed in..."
Scorpius turned the doorknob and very gently pushed forward so that he could peek into the room. The room was large and quite like the one he had awoken in. Instead of a kitchen, though, this was a large dining room, rivalled only in size by the Great Hall at Hogwarts. The contents of the room were even more interesting.
Gingerbread men stood in perfect lines, carrying little longswords or longbows, chests puffed out. Their biscuit bodies had been covered in silver icing very carefully arranged into elaborate chain mail. Their heads held little helmets and some had shields with regalia not immediately familiar to Scorpius.
He leaned in further, peering at them, when he heard a neigh somewhere behind him. His head snapped to the side and he saw little gingerbread horses, fitted with saddles and bridles, waiting for their riders. The sight was so wondrous that Scorpius momentarily forgot where he was and took an involuntary step forward. Something crunched under his foot and suddenly all the gingerbread men turned as one, their weapons ready. Had they not been wearing helmets, Scorpius was sure he would have seen determined scowls.
He quickly regained his footing and took a step back. As the gingerbread soldiers advanced, Scorpius heard a voice he recognized.
"Don't let her get you, Scorpius. Run!" Albus was at the back of the room, his hands and feet bound, yelling at Scorpius at the top of his lungs.
"Albus! Wait, I'm coming to help you!" Scorpius glanced down at the advancing horde of soldiers and then at his bowl. Truth be told, he did not feel like a noble knight on a quest to save the damsel in distress, but he was too close to turn back now.
Except that the 'damsel' in question did not look like he wanted to be saved. "No! Listen, Scorpius, you mustn't let her get you! You must warn the others!"
"Mustn't let who get me?" Scorpius kicked one advancing gingerbread soldier away with his foot. The sweet flew through the air and splatted against the wall. From the corner of his eye—the one that wasn't on Albus—Scorpius could have sworn he saw two little gingerbread doctors race up with a gurney to aide the fallen soldier.
"Mustn't let me get you, honey!"
Scorpius had heard stories of Dolores Umbridge from when his father had been in one of his rare reminiscing moods. This voice was almost exactly like Draco Malfoy's poor imitation of that woman. Very slowly he turned around to face the source.
She was still short and plump, but her eyes were alight with a blaze that Scorpius had never noticed in the years he'd seen the old woman poke her head in to ask if they wanted anything from the trolley. Yet never before had Scorpius wanted to take a step back.
"Not that I'd need you, you little rat." The woman approached and the gingerbread soldiers parted before her. She was wearing a deep green dress and a black cape seemingly made out of dark feathers and carrying a staff of branches braided together. Scorpius squinted and saw something hanging around the woman's neck. It was gold and shiny and the woman brushed against it with bony fingers. The time-turner she must have taken from Albus. The one they were planning on using...
"You see, you annoying little brat, your friend has already given me what I need to go back and set everything right!" She motioned with her staff and the gingerbread soldiers raised their longbows at Scorpius.
Scorpius shook his head and nearly jumped as a sword poked him in the foot. More and more sharp sticks forced him to move towards Albus. He shook his head desperately. "Why? Why are you doing this?"
"For over a century I have served you little fiends. A thousand before that answering to every need of that school. And before that I can't even recall. A century of smiling and selling you sweets! I hate sweets!" She laughed maniacally. "It was his fault! He enslaved me and forced me to serve. But I shall go back! I shall go back and reclaim my destiny. I will become what I was meant to be before that vile warlock robbed me of my birthright!" The witch approached and the skin around her eyes darkened, teeth turning into fangs before Scorpius's own eyes.
He stumbled backwards, trying to get away from the soldiers. Somewhere near him Albus was screaming. "We must stop her, Scorpius! She can't go back!" He was struggling against the bonds and trying to break free.
Scorpius glanced at him and then down at his bowl. There were only a few sweets left. He reached for the handful of pepper imps and threw them at the gingerbread men. The vicious little devils immediately released a spray of pepper at the enemy and Scorpius had to protect his eyes and nose with his sleeve. He dashed towards Albus through the gingerbread soldiers now taking up arms against the imps.
"I don't have my wand!"
"There's no time! Do something!"
The woman was still laughing as she raised the time-turner and moved to turn it. In desperation Scorpius stuck a hand in his bowl and threw the first object at the trolley witch.
The cinnamon rolls were truly just very cinnamony and tasty. Scorpius reached for the the next thing. The peach ring flew through the air, extended lazily and, like a rubber band, extended and wrapped around the witch, pinning her hands to her sides and sticking to her like glue. The woman let out an outraged screech and lunged at Scorpius.
Scorpius stepped back and the bowl fell from his fingers. Suddenly his eyes caught sight of two wands in the witch's pocket. He stumbled forward, hands flailing, to grab at the wands, splatted against the peach ring stretched around the woman and then, for the second time in so many hours, there was darkness.
"That is pretty much the whole story. Next thing I remember is waking up on the floor with a dozen Unspeakables fussing over me." ended Scorpius.
The voice let out a skeptical growl. "Really? So, it was an accident you brought a Time-Turner, a very illegal Time-Turner, on the train? You had no thoughts along the lines of 'how good a practical joke it would be to release Lady Morgana from the prison Merlin sentenced her to many centuries ago'?"
Scorpius blinked. Then he blinked again. Then he tried to breathe again. "L-l-lady Morgana? The candy lady is Lady… I mean… that Morgana?"
Silence. "I should not have said that. I really should not have said that," stated the Auror. She thought for a moment. "So, how about you leave the Time-Turner with us and neither of us mentions any part of this adventure to anyone ever again?"