Chapter 12: The Other Side of the Door
Diana and Heidi were the most stubborn girls Hermione had ever met. They down right refused to go anywhere near Dumbledore's office and assured Hermione they would not speak to her again if she rated them out, but they did have the nerve to go visit Fluffy every night under the invisibility cloak, just to make sure he was still there. Hermione honestly didn't know how the two got through the exams but they did, and thank god that was over, because Hermione didn't know if she was able to last another day stressing over exams while worrying that her two friends might get themselves killed somehow.
"Finally, the torture is over!" exclaimed Diana in a jovial tone.
"Yes," Hermione agreed. "Thank god for that."
"You don't look to happy Mione," Diana remarked. "What has you so upset?"
"As if you didn't know."
Heidi turned to glare pointedly at her. "Stop it already! You're acting worse then Diana when she hasn't had sweets in over a day!"
"Can I help it if my two best friends are suicidal maniacs!" the bushy haired growled furiously.
"We're not suicidal maniacs! Rest assure we've taken a few steps to ensure we wouldn't get hurt on our nightly errands," assured Diana.
Hermione didn't even try to argue with the red haired, she was easily the most irrational of the group, but Heidi was a different matter all together.
Hermione leaned close to her ember eyed friend and whispered "What's your excuse?"
Heidi turned to look curiously at her. "My excuse?"
"Yes! Diana is angry at you-know-who, for killing the unicorn, and I've learned the hard way that hurting animals means a one way ticket on her black list, but you? You've got no excuse for your absurd behavior!"
"Except maybe the death of my biological parents?" Heidi said with a slightly raised brow.
Hermione glared at her. "I've known you for almost a year now! I know you don't actually give too much of a damn about them."
"Ouch! That's harsh."
"Well it's the truth!"
Heidi sighed and ran a hand through her hair. "Alright, you caught me," she bowed her head in resignation. "Do you remember when I told you the story about meeting Voldemort in the Forbidden Forest?" Hermione nodded. Heidi took one deep breath before telling her friend about the kiss. By the end of her story, Hermione's eyes had widened comically and her mouth had hit the floor about halfway through the explanation.
"He, kissed you…You-know-who, kissed you?" Hermione asked in a bewildered voice.
"Yep," Heidi nodded. "It took a while to get used to the news myself, so I don't blame you for not believing me or anything."
"Oh, I believe you," Hermione assured. "What I don't understand is why would he do that?"
"I don't know. I supposed he wanted to curs me, you know since drinking unicorn blood does that to people," suggested Heidi.
"But why not just kill you out right? I mean, you were alone, why go through all the trouble of cursing you?"
"Don't know. But I sure as hell don't want to find out! And I am not letting Snape get his hands on that Stone!"
"Then be reasonable and let's go tell Dumbledore!" pleaded Hermione. "You know it's the best choice!"
Heidi nodded her head in resignation and exhaled sadly. "I know that! I've always known that, but I just couldn't help wishing for some sort of revenge, I guess, after all, that was my first kiss," she said moodily.
Hermione gave her a sympathetic smile. "I know this is hard for you, but we have to do the right thing! Or at least the rational one," pleaded Hermione. "Let's go and tell Dumbledore."
Heidi mussed over Hermione's words as she automatically started playing with her necklace.
"It's beautiful," Hermione said gesturing at the necklace.
"What? Oh! This," Heidi raised the necklace up so Hermione could see it. "It was a Christmas gift. I don't really know who gave it to me - it didn't have a note or anything. Come to think of it, I have no idea who sent me my father's cloak."
"I think it might have been a Slytherin who gave you this," Hermione pointed at the necklace.
"I've worked that out myself, but I haven't come across one who seemed particularly interested in me - not like Malfoy is in my sister at least."
"Are those two dating?" asked Hermione curiously, she had after all noticed the subtle smiles and quick glances they would shoot each other's way when they would pass by in the corridors.
"No, Malfoy got into another clash with Weasley - I heard they were fighting over Diana again, not a sensitive subject to blab about if the girl in question happened to be my sister and is in hearing range. They both took a trip to Madam Pomfrey last I heard."
Hermione shock her head, the slightest trace of a smile appearing on face.
"Do you still like him? Weasley I mean?" asked Heidi.
"I…no," Heidi glared icily at her. "Yes," Hermione bowed her head in shame. "Sorry."
"I hope you're apologizing for liking Weasley, cause I don't forgive people who lie to me, so you would just be wasting your breath."
Hermione glared angrily at her. "I can't wait to see how you'll react when you finally find someone you like," she crossed her hands over her chest and started pouting.
Heidi chuckled slightly before muttering "I think you're right, I have been way too stubborn these past few weeks."
"Hmm, bout what?" asked Hermione sharply, still angry with her friend.
"About Snape and the stone," answered Heidi.
"So, we're going to tell Dumbledore?" asked Hermione excited.
"It's the rational thing to do," admitted Heidi. "I'm not happy with it, mind you, but… I can't take care of this one on my own."
Hermione beamed at her friend and hugged her. "I'm glad you finally came to your senses." She gave her a quick peek on the cheek and then sat up. "Let's go and find Diana!"
"A little impatient are we?" Heidi asked mockingly, but Hermione paid her no mind, she was eager to get rid of the problem as fast as possible, and now with Heidi on her side she knew she could do it.
The two found Diana gossiping with Lavender and Parvati by the lake. Needless to say it wasn't easy to convince the red haired girl to come along with them, but one good one-on-one talk with Heidi for about ten minutes or less had the three girls hastily making their way towards the castle.
Once inside the castle the three found themselves confronted with a challenging situation. As in: They had no idea how to get to Dumbledore's office.
"What are you three doing inside?" Professor McGonagall's stern voice had the three girls jump one foot in the air. The girls turned towards their head of house in something between relief and worry. The stern woman was carrying a pile of books in her arms and was looking at them suspiciously over her glasses.
"We would like to speak to Professor Dumbledore," asked Hermione feeling braver then normal. Heidi inwardly cursed as she saw Minerva's eyes narrow.
"Why?" asked the elder witch.
Hermione was just about to open her mouth and reply but Heidi beat her to it.
"You didn't receive word from our mother?" she adopted a desperate kind of ton, and her face twitched into one of grief. Diana caught on quick and pretended to lower her head to the ground in a resigned sort of way.
"No," said McGonagall slightly concerned. "Did something happen?"
"Our aunt Marge, she's sick," Heidi choked our. "Mom wrote saying she took her to the hospital. She doesn't know exactly what's wrong with her, but it didn't sound too good." Diana started sobbing at this point. "Please, you have to let us speak with Professor Dumbledore! We need to go there and see what's wrong with her!"
McGonagall looked distressed at the girls' grieving faces, whiled Hermione had her head bowed, not daring to look up; she would not be a part of this theater again!
"I am sorry to hear that," said Minerva sounding regretful, "but Professor Dumbledore left ten minutes ago. He received an urgent owl from the Ministry of Magic and flew off for London at once."
Hermione's head shot up and the twins shared a panicked look before turning back towards their teacher.
"When will he be back?" asked Diana close to a panic attack.
"Professor Dumbledore will be back tomorrow," said Minerva. "But, if you want to, I think I can have you two sent home early, I'm sure Dumbledore would understand."
Crap! The plan had backfired on them it seamed. With Dumbledore gone, there was no doubt in the girls' mind that Snape would try and steal the stone tonight, and McGonagall wanted to send the twins home to visit their supposedly sick aunt. They couldn't let that happen!
"But Professor, you do not have the authority required to do a thing like that! It could get you fired!" Heidi protested.
"I'm sure Dumbledore would understand," Minerva said calmly. "I'm positive he would give you permission to go home under the circumstances."
"We are grateful Professor, but, we can wait one more day. We wouldn't want to get you in any kind of trouble, after all, you are our favorite teacher," Heidi tried again, praying that McGonagall would take the bait.
It worked, Minerva's lips twitched into something akin to a smile, and her eyes softened slightly. "Alright," she conceded. "But if you get another owl from your mother, come directly to my office and I'll have you home in no time."
"Thank you Professor," the girls smiled gratefully at her and waited for her to leave before sharing panicked looks.
"He's gonna steal it tonight," Hermione whispered desperately.
"We've figured as much," nodded Diana. "What do we do?" she asked her twin.
"We hex Snape!" Heidi said. "It's the easiest way out. Dumbledore won't stay up until tomorrow at the Ministry because, I'm sure Snape sent that owl, so if we manage to keep him out of the chamber until Dumbledore returns, we should be fine!"
"But hexing a teacher?!" Hermione looked outraged.
"Do you have a better idea?" snapped Heidi.
"Good afternoon," Snape's silky voice had the girls jumped out of their skin. They turned around to look at their Potions Professor with guilty expressions carved all over their face. Diana was plain out glaring at him, Hermione looked fearful, while Heidi had an impassive expression on her face that gave away nothing, if you didn't count her stiff poise.
"You shouldn't be inside on a day like this," he said, with an odd, twisted smile.
"We had to talk with our head of house," Heidi answered brusquely.
"And am I wrong in believing that you have accomplished your task," he inquired.
"No, we were just about to head outside," Heidi said smoothly.
"Then, may you have a pleasant day," Snape gestured towards the door.
"You too, Professor," Heidi grabbed a hold of the other two girls and dragged them out of the Great Hall and down towards the lake.
"Son of a…" Diana snarled the moment she was out the doors.
"I still think hexing him is a pretty desperate move, and I don't think a bunch of first year can be a match for a teacher," said Hermione.
"You might have a point there," nodded Heidi.
"How bout we follow him around and make sure he doesn't get pass Fluffy," suggested Hermione. "I can go and stand guard at the staff room, I'll just pretend I'm waiting for a teacher or something. And you two can go up to stay with Fluffy, it's not like he'll hurt you, or anything."
"That might not work," said Heidi.
"Why?" asked Hermione.
"McGonagall is watching us from the window," whispered Diana.
"What?" Hermione turned her head slightly and saw the silhouette of Minerva McGonagall looking down at them from the window in her office.
"She must be worried that we'd do something stupid to get Dumbledore to come back quicker or something. It seems my brilliant plan blew up in my face so to speak," Heidi cursed with a few colorful words.
"Not so lady like are you sissy?" Diana teased earning herself a death glare from her sister.
Heidi looked ready to throw a temper tantrum, but Hermione interrupted their little chatter. "She's not watching me! I can still follow Snape around!"
"Its better then nothing," Heidi agreed. Hermione took her leave from the two while the twins tried to act normal and remained outside until the first students started piling back in the school. They were about to go up to the common room when Hermione called up to them looking positively pale.
"F#$K!" Heidi said while smiling miserably at her friend, Hermione in turn gave her an apologetic smile.
"Sorry!"
"Don't kill yourself over it," Heidi sighed.
"So, what do we do now?" asked Diana.
"We go up to our common room, we speed scan all the hexes, jinxes and cursed we've learned and then we go down and stun ourselves a bastard," Heidi stated simply. The other two nodded. "But first we go eat, no use dying on an empty stomach." The other two couldn't agree more and entered the great hall for dinner.
Snape wasn't at the staff table, neither were Quirrell and Dumbledore.
After diner the three took their usual spots in the corner of the common room and waited for the students to pill out while doing some furious last-minute-reading. Lavender and Parvati turned in quite early and Heidi went to retrieve the cloak a few minutes following they're leave. After silently cursing him for about half an hour, Lee Jordan (that F#$g $$ whole) finally decided it was time to turn in and left for the dorms. The girls wasted no time in dumping their books and hurrying towards the entrance door, however a voice made them pause half way out of the common room.
"Where are you going?" it was Neville, who had been sitting in the armchair that was turned towards the window, his pet Trevor the toad was struggling to break free from his embrace.
"Nowhere Neville," said Hermione nervously.
"You're going out again aren't you?" he asked.
"N-" Hermione started saying but Diana cut her off.
"I have a date," she said. "Got a problem with that?"
"No, but-" Neville never got to finish what he had started since Heidi took out her wand and petrified the poor kid.
"Sorry Neville," Heidi apologized, "but we really don't have time for this!"
They left Neville feeling slightly guilty and paranoid. The castle was too silent for any of their liking. The statues seemed rusty and old, the portraits were laying motionless on the walls, not one snoring sound or shadow disturbed their way down towards the third floor, not even Filch or Missis Norris. The eerie silence which they encountered outside of Fluffy's door made them go berserk, Diana for one, disentangled herself from the cloak and stormed into the room like a wild Hippogriff.
"Fluffy!"
Diana looked desperate around the room for the giant three headed dog and was relieved to find him sleeping soundly on the floor. Hermione and Heidi closed the door after entering the room.
"Are you MAD!" Heidi hissed. "You could have been seen!"
"What's that sound?" asked Hermione.
That was when the girls heard it. The most beautiful of sounds playing softly in the air, like a lullaby a mother would sing to make her child go to sleep. They scanned the room and saw a harp lying neatly at Fluffy's feet.
"That's it?" Heidi asked skeptically. "You just have to sing to it?"
"We better try and get pass the door while Fluffy's still asleep," Hermione said, but to her dismay, the harp stopped its bewitchful singing and Fluffy gave a growl of confusion before its eyes landed on the forms of the three girls. The dog barked enthusiastically and wagged its tail around.
"Diana," Heidi said.
"Right," Diana nodded. "Fluffy, we have to talk!" The dog obediently sat on his front legs and brought his eyes level with Diana.
"Ok," Diana nodded with a smile. "Now listen to me. There's a bad man who's trying to steal what you are guarding!" Fluffy tilted his head curiously and then looked around while growling threateningly, then he stopped and sniffed the air, then le looked back at Diana with a puzzled expression on his three heads.
"No, Fluffy," Diana tried to explain. "He already got pass you! And we need you to let us go down there so we can catch him before he can steal what you're guarding! Will you let us go?"
The three heads of the hellhound shock simultaneously.
"Fluffy, this is important!" Diana tried again, but Fluffy wouldn't budge, he crossed his front paws firmly over the trap door and refused to move.
"Diana, start singing!" ordered Heidi.
"But," Diana tried to protest, but one pointed look from her sister had her singing the first song that flew to mind: the Hogwarts Song.
Hermione was stunned speechless when she heard her. She would never have thought that anyone was capable of making that song sound half way decent, but Diana had one hell of a voice. Fluffy had lowered his heads on his paws by the end of the first verse and began snoring loudly much to the girls' delight.
"Herms, when I give you the signal, cast the levitating charm on him, we'll try lifting him together," Heidi instructed. Hermione nodded and pulled out her wand. "3…2…1…go!"
Two cries of Wingardium Leviosa echoed in the room as two jets of gold light flew from the tip of Hermione and Heidi's wands and enveloped the gigantic dog in a blanket of glowing light.
"Try to move it towards the left," Heidi said.
"Got it," Hermione nodded and tried wilding the hellhound to move towards her left.
The dog however did not give any signs of moving until half way through the song, and even then, it started edging agonizingly slow towards the designated area. Diana finished the song and had to start all over again, before the girls managed to move the large dog half way off the door.
"One more time, come on girls," Heidi prompted, an luckily this time they did manage to remove Fluffy from the door.
"Merlin's beard, I never thought a dog could be so much trouble," sighed Hermione as she and the others moved towards the door.
Their happiness was short lived however when the girls encountered the second obstacle of the journey, and that came in the shape of a bottomless hole.
"Ok, who's first?" Heidi asked the other two. Diana gave her a glare as she continued her song while Hermione crossed her arms over her chest. "Right," Heidi turned back towards the seemingly unending opening and said: "See you later," to the girls before jumping in.
It was quite an uncomfortable feeling - falling that is. Heidi definitely didn't like the anxiety that came with it. That cruel, inevitable feel of helplessness because you had absolutely no control over your actions whatsoever, like you were in a game where every move was coordinated by something else, a lifeless puppet. She detested it and was quite glad to finally be liberated from it as she hit the bottom with a muffled thump.
Heidi took a few deep breaths and tried to shake off the feeling of vulnerability that was threatening to overtake her and willed herself to sit up. Only darkness lei before her eyes - the only source of light being the miniature square from which she had fallen.
"It's quite dark down here, but it's a soft landing - you can jump!" she called out to the other two girls. Hermione fell instantly at her side. Diana too followed shortly. And then the girls had the unfortunate joy of finding out exactly what the thing that they landed on was, as the plants' tendrils started wrapping themselves around the girls' ankles.
"Devil's Snare," cried Hermione as she struggled to free her feet from the plants' bone crushing grip. "I can't believe they decided to put this here!" the bushy haired snarled as she took out her wand and screamed Lumos! The plant immediately released her and recoiled back from the source of light. Heidi and Diana followed promptly and the three girls stepped on a stone passageway that seemed to be the only way forward.
"That was definitely Sprouts'," Heidi said bitterly.
"I hate plants! I hate Herbology even more!" Diana growled as she walked briskly pass the two other girls, eager to get as much distance between herself and the plant. Heidi and Hermione couldn't help but laugh at Diana's behalf.
"Oh, yeah, go on ahead and laugh, we'll see who's laughing at the end!" Diana snapped and ran off towards the end of the passageway and straight into a brilliant illuminated chamber, lit by millions of little shapes of golden light. A massive wooden door was visible on the other side of the room.
"Wow," Diana stared mesmerized at the floating little figures.
"That is something you don't see every day," Hermione marveled.
"What are they here for?" asked Diana baffled. "They're not gonna attack us are they?"
"And what, are we supposed to fight them with brooms?" Heidi asked sarcastically pointing at the three brooms which lei neatly in a corner. "I don't think so."
Diana took one glare at the brooms and stalked towards the door - she was not going to be caught dead on one ever again!
Or maybe she was, thought Diana miserably after about ten failed attempts of unlocking the door.
"Heidi! Hermione! You surely know something that can get us out of this mess, right?" Diana asked hopefully. "I mean, we're not about to go and fight a bunch of flying thingies on brooms just to get pass this room, right?" Diana's hopeful expression fell when she saw the thoughtful way the two know-it-alls were throwing at the flying bundles of light.
"Those," Heidi pointed at the ceiling, "are keys!"
"It seems like we have to find the one that matches the door," Hermione muttered.
"Perfect!!" Diana said gleefully. "Heidi, have at it!" she ordered and sat on the ground.
Heidi turned to give her a disbelieved look.
"What?! You're the Gryffindor Seeker! You clearly don't need my help to get a bloody key out of the sky!"
"But they're too many!" protested Hermione.
"Then by all means, join her if you must. I'll be right here when you're done," said the red haired and leaned back to rest her head on the wooden door.
"Drop it Herms, she's not gonna help," Heidi said when she saw that Hermione was about to start screaming abuse at the girl.
Heidi walked up to the brooms and grasped one firmly in her hand before mounting it and kicking off the ground, Hermione was right behind her.
As the two girls rose up towards the ceiling they saw that indeed the shapes of flickering light were keys with flying wings.
"This must be Flitwick's task," mussed Heidi. She grinned nastily and said: "Oh, petty shall bestow upon thy, lame excuse of a Charms student, when thou can not even pass the test that thy beloved Professor so gallantly layer out before thy very eyes." Hermione laughed out loud.
"Were did that come form?"
"Just thought it up," winked Heidi.
"Ha, ha, very funny," said Diana from somewhere below. "Did you get the key yet?"
"Found it," cried Heidi as she sped up towards the far left corner of the room. "The silver one with the broken wing," she pointed out and Hermione too rushed towards it.
The two girls flung at it, one from below and one from above, but the key managed to dodge them both and the two girls nearly collided with one another.
"Sorry Herms," Heidi muttered and dove after the evasive silver key which was flying crisscross in the other direction. The key was no where near as fast as the Snitch, but the broom was slow as a donkey, and Heidi was having a hard time keeping her calm under her present flying conditions.
"Screw this," she said and pulled out her wand. "Flipendo!" she snarled. A shockwave of sorts flew out of her wand and knocked down several keys on its way towards the Silver one which was unceremoniously thrown into the wall. Heidi sped up towards it and crashed it against the concrete surface.
"Cheater!" screamed Diana down below.
"This is not Quidditch," grinned Heidi, "therefore, I did not cheat!"
Heidi and Hermione landed beside Diana, and Heidi hurtled the key into the lock and opened the door. The key barely managed to take flight again as the girls entered the next room which appeared to be clouded in darkness.
The light switched and the door banged shut as soon as the three girls took a few steps into the room. They found themselves facing an enormous chessboard which's pieces seemed to be made out of stone.
"What now?" asked Diana as Heidi groaned out loud.
"This is not happening," the ember eyed girl looked miserably at the chess-room in front of her.
"We have to play our way across the room, I think," said Hermione.
"Oh," Diana looked slightly pale. "Heidi," she said in a sweet voice. "You'll play in my place two, right?"
"No idea," Heidi went to stand before the black queen and inquired. "Do we have to be part of the game? As in play as chess pieces?" She hoped not, but to her dismay the queen nodded her head. "Great! Bloody perfect!"
"So, what am I playing as?" asked Diana cheerfully.
"The knight," Heidi answered. "I'm sure you and the horse will get along well."
Diana bounced delighted over towards the knight who hopped off the horse and helped Diana mount it. "Hi horsey," she patted the stone made horse on the head.
"Hermione you're the King," said Heidi.
"The king?" asked Hermione confused as she saw the black kind step off the chessboard.
"Well," sighed Heidi. "If this is anything like wizard's chess, then I'm gonna need at least one of you to be out of my hair so I can concentrate on winning instead of saving your asses."
"What do you mean…like wizard's chess?" asked Diana slightly pale.
"Your majesty, if you may," Heidi gestured towards the side of the board and the queen promptly left her position. "You'll see," the ember eyed girl said as she took the place of the queen.
A pawn from the white pieces moved forward two steps.
"You there, forward two squares!" Diana watched in pure horror as the white pawn smashed the black one of the board and claimed its position. "Like that," said Heidi, a grim expression carved on her face.
"WAIT JUST A MINUT HERE!" shrieked Diana. "I SO DO NOT WANNA TAKE PART IN THIS!"
"Too late to turn back now," said Heidi. "But don't worry, the knights and the queen are my favorite pieces, I've never lost any in a game. I'm fairly confident I can pull this off."
"HOW CONFIDENT?" asked Diana.
"99%, good enough for yah?"
"NO!"
Heidi honestly didn't care, so she ignored her sister as she concentrated on the game. The white pieces showed no mercy ever time they took their pieces and bashed the floor with them like they were pigs in a slaughter house. Diana was angered by the viciousness which their opponents were displaying towards they own and so was quite happy when she got a chance to repay the white pieces for their hospitality, and her sister hadn't been kidding when she said that she favored the knights and queen - they were everywhere. Heidi for one was using her position as queen with a vengeance, darting from left to right and clearing out most of the white chessmen, while Hermione was looking plain bored whit her position as the king, she only had to move once to avoid a knight which was hastily thrown off the board by Heidi.
Heidi suddenly stopped dead in her tracks. The white queen had moved in a diagonal line right in front of Heidi and was towering majestically over her.
The white king was cornered, since it had had the brilliant idea of performing the castling a few moves ago, and thereof effectively trapping itself. Of course he had mounted a defense, mainly the queen, but she was backed up by the bishop, who in itself was not that a big problem. Now only if she could get rid of the queen, she'd be free to checkmate the king, but how? How to get rid of the queen? And then it hit her: her knight! He was in a dang perfect position to check the king and therefore force the queen to take him, and get out of her way so she could end this stupid game! But was she willing to give up her knight? Nope! She continued studying the board for further possibilities - there were always alternatives, you just had to look for them.
"Damn, whoever did this is good," they heard Heidi mutter after a few minutes of scanning the chessboard madly, looking for something.
"Heidi, something wrong?" asked her sister.
"No darling, nothing's wrong," Heidi sighed in embarrassment and said "knight to…C-8," she had a bitter tone attached to her voice as she gave the final command. The white queen swooped down on the poor knight like thunder and cracked him up into tiny bits in one mighty swing. Heidi looked on angrily as her faithful chess piece crumbled to the ground in tiny bits an pieces and closed her eyes in resignation, as if morning an old friend. When she opened her eyes again they were burning with uncontrolled fury. She stalked forward and stopped right in front of the white king, glaring at the chess piece with absolute repulsion.
"Drop dear!" she hissed unwilling to forgive the massive strike that her ego had taken. The kind bowed down to her, thus ending the game.
"Thank god!" cried Diana as she bounced off her hors and dashed towards the door. "Are you coming or not?" she snapped when she saw her sister hadn't moved. She was still glaring at the fallen knight's dismembered shape. "Heidi!"
"Coming!" Heidi grumbled and stalked forward, Hermione at her side.
The three entered another passageway, which they walked in relative silence up until they stumbled across another door. Diana wasted no time in opening it, but as soon as she did so she wished she hadn't as a disgusting smell flung out of the room and filled their nostrils, making the girls bury their noses in their robes.
Right in front of them, spread on the marble floor, was a troll even larger then the one they had encountered last Halloween night. It was knocked out cold, with a big lump on its head from which blood was still flowing slightly.
"Now, for that type of creature, I don't feel sorry," declared Diana.
"I'm relieved we don't have to face that," muttered Hermione. Heidi nodded mutely and the three girls made their way across the room as quick as possible. Diana yanked the door leading to the next room open in one mighty pull and hurried into the room with the others trailing slightly behind her. Immediately after the girls stepped over the threshold purple flames sprang up behind them, blocking the entrance while black flames enveloped the door on the other side.
Diana removed the sleeve of her robe off her face and took in a deep breath of fresh air, then stopped to look quizzically at the room.
There was nothing interesting about it (bar the flames). In fact, all that it had was a table with seven different types of bottles standing on it.
"Snape's," growled Diana.
"Seems like it," nodded Hermione as she approached the pile of bottles. She saw a piece of parchment lying neatly in front of the table and read it once before muttering "It's a riddle!" with a huge smile on her face.
Heidi peered over her shoulder at the piece of parchment while Diana turned to study the bottles on the table.
The red haired saw the two know-it-alls read and re-read the thing over again, then look at the bottles, the read again and finally got tired.
"It's this one," she stated holding up the smallest bottle on the table. "Someone's already drank from it!" she pointed out.
"You can't be sure Diana," snapped Hermione. "Now put that back down and let us-DIANA!"
The red haired didn't give a dang what the other two had to say, she just knew it instinctively that that bottle was the one, so she drowned it in one gulp and ran up through the black flames and out of sight.
Heidi looked in utter shock at the spot her sister had just disappeared through and yanked the parchment out of Hermione's hands scanning it furiously before sighing in relief - it seemed that her sister got lucky this time.
"Herms!" she shock the other girl back to reality. "We're drinking this and going straight to Dumbledore!" she held up the first bottle from the left.
"But, what about Diana?" Hermione protested.
"She took the bottle with her," Heidi snapped. "We can't just sit around here and wait for Snape to come and catch us, we have to bring reinforcements!"
Hermione nodded and took a mouthful of the first potion which iced up her throat then she together with Heidi went through the purple flames with the soul intention of finding Dumbledore.