The Cave

Teddy, being the oldest, led the group as they plunged deeper into the hilly territory. Though he had never been this far and had only a very vague idea of where to go, he had an indescribable hunch that they were on the right path. The children delved deeper and deeper until the ground became steeper. Suddenly, the rolling hills of the valley turned into low mountain foothills. They had been trudging along for quite a while, and sweat was dripping from their bodies, which were adjusting to the thinning air. Teddy himself was already quite weary, but he saw that the youngest, Hugo and Lily, were just barely keeping up. He turned around, causing the whole troop to stop, hauled Lily over his left shoulder and took Hugo's hand, forcing the group to go at his pace. The two children were quite grateful for the short respite. However, the fact remained, they must arrive before the conjunction.

Victoire worried as they marched forward. She knew Teddy was strong, but she wasn't sure that he could bear the smallest children's weight—even one at a time—for long. She was also battling concerns about what lay ahead. Even if they did make it up the hill without a scratch—which was highly unlikely—what would they face inside the cave? How would they protect their younger family members? Even though she was usually optimistic, their odds seemed grim. However, she knew it wasn't helpful to dwell on these thoughts and pushed them from her mind. Victoire squeezed Teddy's other hand, sending him her support, and he grinned back at her. His warmth spread through her even in the most unfortunate of circumstances. He looked at her as if to say "I know, it's all going to be okay", but then he stopped in his tracks. His face hardened as he stared off into the vast horizon of green mountains. Victoire turned around to look in the same direction and she saw it, too. Up in the distance, perhaps two Quidditch fields away, stood the mouth of a cave. It was small-barely noticeable-but it was there. Teddy and Victoire both pointed to it, and setting Hugo down, the group took off at a run.

Bel felt like she might just puke up a lung. She was small and agile, but not used to prolonged periods of physical exertion. Cat and Scorpius weren't faring much more impressively; they both looked like they could faint at any moment. None of them dared to stop, and none of them were willing to give up before the Gryffindors did. Bel heaved as she scurried along, desperately running towards the far-off cave. Although she still couldn't quite wrap her head around everything that had already happened this year, she decided this took the cauldron cake-climbing up a mountain with the likes of James Potter and his friends in attempts to stop Slytherin Head Boy, Jacob Zagyva, from using the Book of Necromancy! It was absurd enough to be a dream, but she knew this had to be real. Even her imagination would have a hard time cooking this up.

It seemed to take ages for the children to make their way up to the cave, entering a much more densely forested part of the mountains. They had to watch out for the thick layer of roots that twisted and tangled above ground. They were constantly stabbed by thorns, branches and the occasional root. Eventually, the cave grew to be only a hundred meters away. The gang continued their journey up the hill until they heard a terrible rumbling. It grew louder and louder, until Scorpius and James were convinced that it must be a giant. It sounded about as terrifying. The two looked up fearfully, and saw something surprising.

Bouncing down the hill were some of the largest boulders James had ever seen. They were roughly hewn, with juts that resembled blades, and must have been about four meters across. When they hit the ground, they left enormous indentations in the earth that resembled small craters. They were literally bouncing down the hill at a crushing speed, straight towards the ten petrified children. Just then, Rose had an idea. She noticed the boulders seemed to fall into the same holes already created by their brethren.

"LOOK! THERE'S A PATTERN! EVERYONE NEEDS TO AVOID THE CRATERS!" Rose shouted, trying to bring the others to their senses. She ran out and flattened herself onto a piece of untouched ground where boulders would not fall. She gestured for the others to follow her lead. As the boulders approached, James crouched down in one of her vacated havens, and Scorpius, Cat, and Bel took another a few meters away. Teddy sent Hugo up to James while keeping Lily with him and Victoire—the gaps were not quite big enough to hold four. Tears were leaking from her eyes as Teddy made sure she kept as close to the ground as possible. Lily kept shaking her head, watching as the boulders bounced around and occasionally above them. Teddy was anxious at first, when it seemed as if she simply would not listen. Then he panicked, his hair and eyes a blazing, and he resorted to yelling at her.

"LILY, LISTEN TO ME RIGHT NOW!" he yelled. "If you want to live you need to keep your head down, understand? NOW!"

Lily nodded her head, finally hugging the ground willingly when she realized, as did the rest, that a boulder was hurtling straight at them. Victoire was the only one who had a clear view of the boulder's path and just as it was about to hit, she yanked Teddy and Lily a few inches toward her, saving them from the boulder's wrath. It may have been all in her head but she could've sworn she'd heard a muffled groan as the boulder flew above them. She let out a blood curdling scream, fearful for Teddy's fate. She buried her face in the ground as the boulders bounced overhead, still screaming, but too afraid to look up. Each boulder's crunching thud made her heart beat faster. She couldn't bring herself to turn her head and see if Teddy had been crushed by the boulder or not. She stayed stock still , tears streaming down her cheeks, as the rest of the wave of boulders bounded down the side of the mountain. With each one, she felt less and less confident that Teddy was alive. All she knew was that he couldn't die…she didn't know how she could possibly get along without him…her best friend in the entire world.

Finally, the boulders ceased and Victoire raised her head slowly. Her vision was blurred by tears and she had to wipe them away repeatedly before she could survey the area. It seemed that all the first years, along with Hugo and Rose, remained safe. They were all covered in dirt, especially the young ones whose faces were smeared with brown, but nonetheless, they were safe. Then, she forced herself to look to her right at Teddy and Lily. She saw Lily first, looking quite frightened but alive. Then she met eyes with Teddy. He forced a smile as he got up uneasily, wincing, and she could see why. The back of his shirt was half torn off and he was badly scratched by the rock, bleeding dark red onto the brown dirt. She couldn't stand to see him in pain—it looked like it hurt like hell. However, to her greatest relief, other than that, he looked fine. She let out a sigh of relief and began to cry even harder.

"TEDDY!" she ran, throwing her arms around his neck, careful to avoid the gash in his back.

"What is it Vic? C'mere, you're shaking." He embraced her tightly.

In that moment, she forgave him all his snide remarks of the past. She hugged Lily quickly and then backed up. Teddy saw the tears streaming down her cheeks and pulled her closer to him again, wiping them away.

Victoire finally found words. "I-I-I thought the b-b-boulder had f-f-finished you. Don't e-ever scare m-me like that again, Edward Remus Lupin! I've n-never been so s-scared in m-my entire life!"

The oldest boy smiled as he wrapped her up in another hug. "Don't worry, Torie, I'm not going anywhere."

Lily had wrapped herself around Teddy's leg. "I'm sorry Teddy, it's all my fault! I'm sorry I got so scared. I promise I'll be brave for you next time."

Teddy helped Lily up as the others reached them. "It's okay, Lilly. I know you will. Actually, now would be nice!"

They looked behind them to see another obstacle. The roots in the ground had started writhing out of the ground. They were behaving more like tentacles than roots, and were trying to grab anything that touched them. One had already attempted to attach itself to Hugo's leg. All at once, the ten children took off sprinting ahead, stumbling along the way, but none of them dared fall or let their foot stay in one place longer than a heartbeat. The tangled mass of roots would surely engulf them if they slowed their pace. Bel herself caught a foot on a rock and began to sink deeper into trouble. She shook at a root that was attached to her leg as she hopped on one foot to avoid being captured. Finally, she freed herself, only to trip over another root. She let out a scream as she tried to wriggle free and realized that the root had curled around her knee. Soon, she would be completely engulfed, gone forever.

James heard her scream and looked behind him. He saw the roots coiling around her, like living ropes, but what struck him the most was the look of terror on her face. This whole year that girl has been my sworn enemy but look at what's happened! In one day, everything has been yanked out from under me. He knew that whatever he decided to do today would cement things, probably forever. He could keep going-another few meters and he would be out of the living carpet-or he could go back for the girl who had made his first year hell, and probably get both of them killed. In that instant, he wheeled around and made what he would later argue was the second smartest decision of his entire life.

Letting his feet fall on the ground for as little time as possible, he ran back to her squirming form and pulled her with an urgency and unknown strength from the roots, never allowing his feet to stay still. For a deadly moment, she stood stunned before he grabbed her hand and pulled her forward at top speed.

"C'mon!" he yelled as the pair stumbled along, almost recaptured by the twisting roots several times.

As Victoire ran alongside Teddy, Lily and Hugo not far behind, she scrambled to reach for her wand. Her heart seemed to skip several beats as she pulled it from her pocket and brandished it in the air.

Summoning as much energy as she could, she aimed at the dreadful roots and yelled at the top of her lungs, "PETRIFICUS TOTALUS!"

At once, the plants ground to a halt, giving the crowd a chance to breathe. By this point, they were all extremely on edge, and their heartbeats sounded about as loud as the boulders had. They marched forward, all wary of the next threat that seemed inevitably headed their way. James and Bel walked in sync up the hillside.

"That was really, really close. So, um, thanks for saving me. It was really nice of you." Bel murmured awkwardly.

James merely nodded. "Just didn't want to see you die before I could turn you over to Filch, is all."

"Imagine my tombstone. It would read 'Death By Root.' I don't thing I could ever live that one down." Bel smiled. James chuckled ruefully at Bel's remark. Their eyes met, and both of them knew that something had fundamentally shifted. James's feeling had been correct—the moment had changed things forever. They could never truly be enemies—or even hate each other—ever again. Bel sent James an uneasy smile and they continued on in silence. They plodded forward persistently for a few precious minutes before being disturbed again.

Then, they heard a clicking noise ring through the air. They stopped in their tracks and looked around, not seeing anything suspicious or out of the ordinary. The clicking sounds grew louder and louder. At once, the light filtering through the leaves became dimmer, as if night were approaching. Soon they were surrounded by a horde of giant spiders which spun webs through the canopy, blocking out the light.

Although none of them liked spiders, Rose and Hugo were especially frightened, having heard one too many stories from their father about the spiders that lived in the Forbidden two huddled together, useless and whimpering. Scorpius briefly considered joining them. Hehad not signed up to fight spiders the size of a carriage. Suddenly, the spiders all clicked their mandibles together in a raspy, rattling sound.

"Are they laughing at us?" Cat whispered to Scorpius.

"Yes, we are, child." The largest—and certainly the most terrifying—of the spiders stepped forward.

Cat gulped as it advanced upon her. Its giant hairy legs halted inches in front of her terrified face and the spider's black, beady eyes locked onto hers. At this point, Victoire wanted to pull out her wand and try another go at the freezing charm, but she knew she'd more likely be someone's lunch before she had the time. James realized they were dead meat—quite literally—unless they could somehow manage to talk their way out of this spider debacle.

"Hello! I'm James. Who are you?" James directed his question at the largest spider.

The spider rattled "I am Adaxon, leader of this clan and son of Aragog. I fail to see how this little introduction is going to do you or your little friends any good. The other human gave us this land in exchange for eating anyone else who dares come here-something we would have gladly done without prompting."

James's head spun, He knew he'd heard the name Aragog from someone, but he couldn't think who. I'm sure it had been at home, probably while my parents were throwing a dinner party for their old friends. The more he thought about it, the clearer it became. Someone had spoken of Aragog, saying how he was unfortunately doing quite well for his age and still reigned over the forest, having resisted several Auror attempts to get rid of the infestation. Who would care about the forest? Who would know about creatures like the spiders… of course! How had I not seen it before?

"It matters because I am James Potter, son of Harry Potter and friend of Rubeus Hagrid." James declared.

Adaxon shifted, "Oh, my dear child, I see." Adaxon made another clicking noise and the other spiders seemed to relax. "James Potter is a friend of Hagrid. Naturally, that fixes everything… except… it doesn't. What does this Hagrid have to do with me?"

James stood tall, mustering as much courage as he could. "This means everything to you- at least it should, if you value your father at all!"

Adaxon gasped and flailed. "How dare you insult me, foolish boy. You know nothing of of the depth of my loyalty to my father."

This time, it was James who laughed, "Then I recommend that you value the dear friends of Rubeus Hagrid, who would be very upset if you killed us. If you killed us he would be so unhappy with you that he might even take away these lands you value so much!"

Adaxon seemed to mull James's words over. "You may pass through my lands this once. If my brothers and sisters ever find you here again, they will eat you. Goodbye, friends of Hagrid."

Adaxon turned toward the others. After a minute of the strange slicking noises the spiders slowly, seemingly reluctantly, cleared the path, allowing the cave to be seen once again through the trees. Adaxon was the last to leave, slowly sinking back into their primeval lair. James let out a sigh of relief, just barely believing that his plan had worked. Hugo and Rose both muttered hurried thanks to him.

"How in the world did you know that would work?" hissed Bel, her heart still trying to escape her ribs.

"I didn't," replied James, too low for the others to hear. "The story I heard was that Aragog almost ate my Dad and Uncle Ron after they tried to play the Hagrid card. I was just hoping that Adaxon wouldn't know that."

Bel snorted at that, and the group climbed on, ascending higher up the mountain. They were just meters from the mouth of the cave. They could practically feel its edge beneath their fingertips when they tripped over something on the ground. The ten quickly regained their footing and looked to see what had caused the tripping. Cat feared that the devilish roots had come back to life, but it was only a single tripwire this time.

However this time it was not the light brown of wood, but a dark green that grew larger as Bel followed its length first across the grass, over the large iron collar, and then to the toothy mouth weaving over them. She was the first to see that it was a looming snake that guarded the entrance, and couldn't help but think, honestly, whoever planted all these traps really has a liking for large hungry monsters. Bel was not nearly as alarmed by the snake as the rest of her friends-even Scorpius and Cat scrambled backward vainly trying to escape striking range. They did not realize—or remember, in Cat and Scorpius's cases—that someone who spoke Parseltongue was among them and they were growing quite perturbed by the giant snake overhead. They didn't listen to her pleas to keep still. Darting prey only looked like dinner. It didn't help that its fangs were at least a foot long, with razor-sharp tips dripping with an acid that burned away the grass wherever the drops fell. The snake snapped at them, trying to decide which one to take down first.

Bel stepped forward, hoping that this giant snake would be as willing to listen to her as the tiny grass snake had been so long ago in the Manor's garden. "Leave us alone," she commanded, giving it her best glare.

The others finally stood still, stunned, realizing that the snake could understand Bel's hissing noises because it had stopped chasing them and had turned to look at her. Even Cat and Scorpius were shocked, as they hadn't heard her speak it since she used to charm grass snakes into being necklaces and crowns on the very edges of their memories. The younger children seemed impressed, but their older companions remained wary.

The snake spoke back to Bel, "Why should I do that?"

Bel smirked on the outside, but inside she was desperately fishing for a story half as good as the one James had told the spiders. "Because I am Belladonna Black, daughter of Tom Riddle, Heir of Slytherin. Why should you obey the commands of a wizard who has bound you with magic?"

The snake seemed satisfied with this. "Fine, my lady. Release me and you may pass unharmed." It lowered itself down to the ground, thumping down so that the iron ring was only a pace away from Bel.

Her companions scrambled even farther away from its yellow eyes, not understanding what was going on. Bel felt a twinge of doubt. If this doesn't work, it will eat me. "Alohamora," she whispered, and the collar spilt along an invisible seam and dropped to the ground.

The snake slithered away, hissing at them as it did so. Bel thanked the heavens that her name held enough importance to the selfish snake that he had bothered to listen long enough to bargain. They had been very clever tonight, but really, it had been their parents who had saved them. Bel was afraid this unlikely cadre might not be so lucky, if they ever had to fight a battle entirely on their own.

Teddy led the way once more and lifted himself into the cave's mouth, gripping the gravelly floor and heaving himself up. From there, he extended his arm to Victoire who helped him pull up James and then the others. Eventually, they all stood in the mouth of the cave. Many of them shuddered, feeling exhaustion and danger settling around them. The conjunction was creeping closer. Together, James and Bel took the lead, plunging into the cave blindly, only to bounce backward off an invisible but impenetrable boundary. They landed awkwardly on the floor behind them, almost knocking Rose over. At first, they didn't understand, until a piece of worn parchment appeared. It hovered in the place where the air itself had rejected them. It read:

A creature lies inside this quandary,

Once solved, its name shall release this boundary.

First is a self that oneself knows best,

Not I or me, nonetheless.

Second is always the first in number,

The second of one and the fifth of seven.

Third is what allows you to know

That you have a body and looks to show.

Last is an object bestowed with ears,

To its dismay, it cannot hear.

Everyone crowded around the parchment, fighting to get a glimpse at the riddle. After a few minutes, they had each read it and got cracking on the solution.

"So, we're looking for the name of a creature," Cat confirmed.

"And its name, or perhaps the letters, are scrambled in the four parts," Scorpius continued.

"Let's start with the first part." Bel decided. " 'First is a self that oneself knows best, not I or me, nonetheless.' "

Rose cleared her throat, "It obviously means you, or the letter u. You know you better than anyone. If it's not I or me, it has to be you."

"Okay, good job, Rosie. On to part two," James stated. " Second is always the first in number, the second of one and the fifth of seven. "

The gang brainstormed for a long while. They couldn't seem to reach a suitable conclusion. The only thing that had come close was a theory Scorpius scratched up. He was convinced that the answer was in the number line he had scratched on the wall with a rock. They decided to keep the theory on the table. Just in case. They kept the numbers 'three' and 'twelve' as they were the second number after one and the fifth after seven. After failing to come up with any other ideas, they moved on.

"All right, time for part three," Albus chimed. " 'Third is one that allows you to know that you have a body and looks to show.' "

This part also completely stymied everyone. After about five minutes or so, they hadn't gotten anywhere. Eventually, they voted to abandon another section and moved on to part four.

" 'Last is an object bestowed with ears, to its dismay, it cannot hear.' " Teddy recited.

The room was quiet, the answer unclear. Suddenly, Victoire clamped a hand to her mouth, gasping. "IT'S CORN! Corn comes in ears but can't hear!"

After her exclamation, all of the children locked eyes. "You and Corn," muttered Bel. Of course! They knew the answer. It was right in front of them.

"UNICORN!" They proclaimed in unison.

Immediately, the scroll disappeared into thin air, dissolving in a puff of smoke. Then, a movement in the air signaled that the charm guarding the cave had been lifted. James took a step forward cautiously, not wishing to be sent flying backwards again. But this time, he was allowed through. James strode forward slowly as the others crossed gingerly over the former barrier. This time, they met no resistance as they ventured deeper and deeper into the cave lit only by the distant entrance. It was impossible to silence their footsteps completely as they ventured down the dark passage, but they managed to make them as quiet and muffled as possible. Eventually, they had walked so far that the light streaming in through the mouth of the cave was no longer discernible and their walk was in complete darkness.

"Lumos!" Bel whispered. She held out her wand, taking the lead and illuminating their path. The cave walls were jagged and bare, except for a few wiry black hairs. The dimly lit walls bounced and seemed to move in the wand light, although James reckoned that the perception was just a trick of his over-active nerves.

Bel led them around a turn. They had to be nearing the back of the cave. Her ears pricked, catching a noise in the distance. Suddenly her blood boiled, sensing something just beyond her wand's light. She took another step forward, clearing the bend in the cave to discover what lay beyond. The passage opened up into a cavernous room filled with firelight. Then, movement near the back of room caught her eye. It was a tall form in a dark cloak.

Full Text Chapters One through Seventeen available now at www. BelladonnaBlack .wordpress