Chapter 11

Suddenly Sally's head began to spin. She relinquished Charli's arm and retched. Charli's eyes widened and she caught hold of Sally to steady her. Sally tried to concentrate her eyes on her friend's face, but her vision was blurring in the aberrant light of the tunnel. "We've got to go back," said Charli in alarm. "Just hold on Sally, I'm going to carry you if necessary."

"Got – got to get our bearings," said Sally her speech slurring. She reached into the pocket of her robes and her fingers closed on the crystal orb. As she clutched the smooth rounded surface a wonderful feeling of coolness travelled up her arm and her head cleared. She held it aloft and Charli caught her other wrist. A vision of what lay beyond the tunnel's stone wall, in a hidden cavern, flashed into both their minds.

It was a witch. Her hair, black as pitch, could have been woven by a thousand black widow spiders. Her skin was so taut it looked ready to split open over her cadaverous face. Her black dress was barely visible in the shadows, leaving the ashen face and bone white hands seeming to float all by themselves in the dead-still cave. But her black eyes gleamed with a fierce light. Then she spoke and her voice sliced into their minds like a knife.

"It will sssoon be ready sisster," she said and the hissing sound made the girls shiver. She drifted over to the far end of the cavern making no footfalls. By the rough rocky walls there lay sprawled another witch, not dissimilar in appearance from the first, but her black hair was streaked with grey and in the dim light of the cavern she appeared insubstantial – transparent.

"Ready Naussea?" She croaked.

"Yes Phobia, that'ss it," retorted the first witch. She pointed a long skeletal finger at a stone cauldron that stood in the corner. The cauldron bubbled and simmered with a thick green glutinous liquid. "That sspell will be ready by midnight and we will release a plague upon Hogwartss, upon Dumbledore and all thosse, good little boys and girlss. Show them what we think of that place excluding uss. Claiming that we weren't of the right sort."

Phobia rose to her feet, "won't that causse them all terrible harm, ssister?" she murmured. Nausea gave a hiss of outrage. "Don't talk back to me!" she commanded and struck Phobia who fell back to the ground as though she were as light as gossamer and placed her hands over her head whimpering.

"There now," said Nausea, her sibilant voice softer, "you can't get anywhere without me, you know that. It's always been Naussea and Phobia since we were little, you know that. Not my fault you're nothing without me."

Suddenly Nausea stiffened and her eyes rolled wildly in their sockets. "Intruderss," she whispered and swerved round. Sally and Charli gasped and instinctively clutched one another as the wall of the tunnel opened and the terrible spectre of the witch loomed in front of them. They were overcome by feelings of faintness and staggered against the opposite wall of the tunnel, Charli still clutching Sally's arm. Nausea stood, towering over them smiling a gloating smile. "Well well well," she said, "little intruders all ready to be tied up in a nice bundle and stewed."

"We're not afraid," croaked Charli, "you won't get by with it you - you hideous, demented..."

"Obstreperouss little girl, I'll make you a cauldron ingredient," said Nausea peeling back her bloodless lips to reveal pointed teeth. A burning light seemed to flair in her coal black eyes. She raised her claw like hand which now appeared to give forth a searing light. Sally still gripping the crystal eye regained her senses. Charli was in danger. There was absolutely no way Sally would allow this monster to take her loved one from her. At once a fierce resolve like nothing she had ever felt before surged up in Sally's breast and she shoved herself in front of Charli and raised an arm as if in a shielding gesture holding the crystal eye aloft. The orb suddenly shone brightly in the gloom of the tunnel. Nausea shrieked and hurled a dart of pale light in their direction. Sally leapt towards it and to Charli's amazement her friend's eyes suddenly glowed as if with green fire.

Then the light struck the orb in Sally's upraised hand and rebounded. Upon its originator. Nausea's bloodcurdling scream filled the cavern and made them feel as if they were plunged in icy water. The light clung to Nausea and contracted so that the witch was shrunk to a tiny fraction of her previous size, and then it coalesced to form a glass bottle with a stopper in the shape of a skull. Her shrieks still came, but they were greatly diminished in pitch and were muffled.

"Sally...?" began Charli. Sally turned to her friend, breathing heavily. In one hand she clutched the crystal eye which glowed as brightly as a fragment of the full moon. "Sally...." said Charli again. Sally's eyes were back to their normal hue. She helped Charli to stand and then hugged and kissed her. Charli hugged her back, feeling her warmth, her smooth skin, her silky hair...

Tears were sliding down Sally's face and splashing onto her friend's robes. Suddenly she felt as exhausted as if she had run a marathon and emotionally drained. "You're my best ever friend..." she sobbed, "I love you."

"I love you too," said Charli holding onto her.

At that moment they heard the lightest of treads coming up to them. Phobia emerged timorously from the main cavern. "Hold on," said Charli taking charge again. She tore off a strip of her black robe and wrapped it around the bottle containing Nausea.

"My ssister...?" croaked Phobia.

"Is coming with us, to Dumbledore," said Charli firmly.

"I am nothing without her, I can't live without her..." said Phobia. Close to, the girls could see that she really was semi-transparent. She turned and began to fade some more. "Ssoon I will hardly be here at all..." she whispered and tottered back into the cavern.

"Wait!" Called Charli but the lights in the cavern were dimmer now and the gloom seemed to swallow Phobia up.