Disclaimer: Harry Potter = Not mine. JK Rowling = Not me.
Fred, George and Lee ate dinner as quickly as they possibly could, desperate to set out to undertake their challenge as quickly as possible. They'd finally agreed to go for it that night, when they were meant to be going to bed. They had decided to think of it as an end of exams celebration, and as Fred pointed out, "Friday night's the best time – we've got until Monday morning before the teachers notice we're gone."
Though neither George or Lee intended to be stranded in the Forbidden Forest all weekend, they'd both agreed. Soon, the castle had become quiet, and most of the students were in bed. Fred, George and Lee, on the other hand, were sitting in a huddle on the floor of their dormitory, making last minute preparations. Lee had even taken it upon himself to make a checklist.
"Godric Gryffindor figurine?"
"Check," said Fred, adding it to the bag.
"Snake skins?"
"Check." George placed them next to the figurine.
"Ravenclaw brooch thingy?"
"Check."
"Creepy staring badger?"
"Check."
"Wands?"
"Check. We're not complete idiots, Lee."
"Food?"
"We don't need food for this! Are you turning into our Mum?"
"Ha, ha. Hilarious. Marauder's Map?"
"Check."
"And last but not least, hair pins in case any locks need picking."
"Check!"
With a flourish, George added the last item to the bag. He stood up, hefting it onto his shoulder, and made his way over to the door.
"Are we ready, gentlemen?" he said, turning to face Fred and Lee and twirling his imaginary moustache with one finger.
"Yes sir!" they replied smartly, saluting him.
"I solemnly swear I am up to no good," muttered George, pointing his wand at the Marauder's Map.
He scanned it quickly for anyone who might stop them onto their way out. Filch was on the third floor, well away from them, and Mrs Norris was on the fifth floor. Peeves was in the library, probably wreaking some kind of havoc that would keep him busy for a while. Dumbledore, Snape and Lyndon were all in their respective offices or classrooms, and the only potential threat that George could see was Professor McGonagall, who was pacing up and down the Entrance Hall. However, as he watched, her dot moved off towards the library, presumably to deal with Peeves, which left their route clear.
"All right, we're safe. Let's make a dash for it," said George. "Mischief managed," he added, wiping the map and stuffing it back into his bag.
The three twelve-year-olds quickly descended the stairs into their common room, and then climbed out of the portrait hole to the darkened corridor outside, ignoring the grumbles from the Fat Lady as she was woken up. They hurried through the school as quietly as they could, avoiding the trick steps with a practised ease and treading with light feet. It was only when they were passing the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom that any of them spoke.
"Oh, God," Fred suddenly said, grinding to a halt.
"Shhh," whispered George. "What's wrong?"
Fred had gone slightly pale. "We forgot about the acromantulas - they live in that clearing, remember."
George felt like kicking himself.
"Can't we just try and dodge them?" said Lee hopefully.
"You didn't see them - they're bloody massive," shuddered George.
He began to wrack his brains for a quick solution. If they were going to be forced to go back to their dormitory now and wait until they worked out a safe route past the spiders, it would be a real let down.
"Hang on," said Fred suddenly. "There was something they said they were afraid of, wasn't there?"
"Oh yeah… What was it?" George thought hard for a moment more, and then the answer came to him. "Snakes!"
"That was it! Erm… Do we have any snakes with us?"
George crossed his arms and mock-glared at Fred. "If you're suggesting bringing along a Slytherin, then the answer is no."
"Ah, come on, wouldn't you just love to have Pucey tagging along?" grinned Fred.
George opened his mouth to make a reply, but he was interrupted by Lee.
"We have snake skins. Will they do?"
Fred and George stared at Lee in astonishment.
"Yeah…" said Fred slowly, after a second.
"That might just work," continued George.
"Lee you're a genius," they finished together.
Lee gave them a bow, twirling his hands ostentatiously, and the three of them set off again. They managed to sneak out of the school without being discovered by anyone, and quickly made their way towards the forest. Fred and George led the way down the same route that they'd taken during their detention. The sun was beginning to go down by now, and it was quite dark beneath the thick canopy of leaves, which was setting George slightly on edge. Every time his feet snapped a twig, or he heard leaves shifting, he jumped slightly, expecting some kind of terrifying monster, or worse, a teacher, to leap out at them.
However, the journey passed without incident, and after about five minutes, they came to the wide patch of Knotgrass that the twins remembered from their detention. They slowed to a halt, trying to work out which way they'd gone to reach the clearing. George was about to point out the route he thought they'd followed, when he heard a sudden rustling noise behind them, almost like an extra set of footsteps.
"What was that?" he hissed.
"What was what?" said Lee.
"I thought I heard footsteps."
"It was probably just a centaur or something," said Fred, though he sounded slightly uneasy.
The three of them paused in silence for a few seconds, their ears pricked for any more noise, but none came.
"Oh well, let's just carry on," said George eventually. "The sooner we get there the better. I think it's this way."
He pointed at a thicket of bushes to the left, and they continued into the forest. He must have been right, because not long after, the three Gryffindors came to the pair of trees that Fred and George remembered. They stepped through and found themselves in the familiar square-shaped clearing.
"Excellent," said Fred, grinning.
"Wow, this is cool!" said Lee, wandering over to the edge of the clearing to peer at each of the four trees that marked the different houses.
"Come on, let's try and get this done before we get side-tracked by spiders," suggested George.
"What do you have to do?" asked Lee.
Fred crossed over to the stone platform in the middle of the glade.
"You just have to press down on this," he said.
When the other two had joined him in by the stone plinth, he pushed it down with one hand. There was a click and a scrape as it began to move into the earth. When it settled into place, Fred reached into the hole that had been left and found the doorknob. As he had done before, he twisted it hard. An echoing crack sounded behind them, and Fred and George hurried towards the Slytherin tree, where they knew they could place the snake skins.
As they had guessed, a cavity had appeared in the tree trunk over the picture of the snake. George slid his hand into it and pulled out the same small scroll as last time, which read, 'Please place your item here'. He grabbed the snake skins out of his bag and shoved them into the hole, replacing the scroll as well. He'd only just pulled his hand out of the way, when with a loud bang, the trunk resealed itself around the skins.
Fred, George and Lee turned just in time to see the gnarled bark of the next tree, the Hufflepuff one, split open over its badger symbol. This time, Fred did the honours, jamming the stuffed badger into the hole.
"I'll be glad to see the back of that thing," he said, as the trunk pulled shut, breaking the gaze of the stuffed badger's mournful, staring eyes.
"Do you want to do the next one?" said George to Lee, as the Gryffindor tree opened.
"Umm… OK."
Lee looked and sounded slightly dazed, having not had the advantage of visiting the clearing before with Fred and George. However, he took the figurine of Godric Gryffindor and slipped it into the chink in the trunk, watching in awe as it was consumed by the tree. This only left the Ravenclaw tree, so it wasn't long before all the items had been deposited. Fred, George and Lee stood in tense silence, waiting for something to happen. In fact, they continued waiting for a good couple of minutes, but still nothing happened.
"Have we done something wrong?" piped up Fred eventually.
"There isn't a fifth house, is there?" said George, his forehead creasing.
"Yeah, didn't you know?" said Lee with a grin. "It's called… um… Charynder. You've got to be over seven feet tall to get in, and its house emblem is a- Merlin's pants, spider!"
"Sorry, what?" laughed Fred. "Is its emblem Merlin's pants, or a spider?"
"They obviously drew the short straw," said George.
"No, no, no, no! Seriously, there's a spider!"
Lee pointed frantically over Fred and George's shoulders, and, suddenly realising what he was on about, the twins swung around. There was a huge acromantula climbing out through the trees into their clearing.
"Oh, God…" mumbled Fred. "Here I was thinking we'd escaped."
"Quick! Do something!" hollered George.
He shot a blast of red sparks at the spider. It seemed momentarily confused, and stopped mid-step, shaking its head violently. Unfortunately, it soon seemed to recover, and it began to move towards the twins and Lee again, looking rather angry and clicking its pincers menacingly. George stumbled backwards away from it, fumbling his wand in sweaty fingers and trying to think of a spell, any spell, that might ward the spider off.
"We've got snake skins and we aren't afraid to use them!" shouted Fred bravely from his side.
He dipped his hand into the bag, felt around for the moment, and then his mouth dropped open.
"OK, so we haven't got the snake skins any more," he muttered. "Plan B – run!"
"Petrificus Totalus," George heard Lee yell, but the jet of light just bounced off the spider's skin.
George was forced to duck Lee's spell, which rebounded towards him. He jumped back, and suddenly he felt his foot drop into a hole. He tripped, sprawling onto the ground and scattering dry leaves around him, and he just had time to think, This is it; I'm spider food, when there was a great flash of dazzling white light directly behind him, spraying sparks around the clearing.
George jerked his head around so fast his neck clicked, but he saw at once what had happened. He'd stepped onto the stone platform, which was still lowered into the ground, and had somehow activated the next step of the challenge. The light continued to glow brightly around the plinth for a second, then died away, and George scrambled over to the hole to see what had happened. He reached down into the hole and, after scrabbling around in a blind panic for a moment, felt his fingers connect with metal – an ornate silver key.
"Fred, Lee, get over here!" he called.
He quickly slotted the key into the keyhole below the doorknob and twisted it. There was a click as something unlocked, and then the stone beneath him seemed to swing away, leaving a long chute, the end of which George couldn't see.
"Fred! Lee!"
"Coming! Just trying to get past this bloody great arachnid!" came back Fred's rather agitated voice.
George sighed. "Here, spidey, spidey, spidey!" he called, waving his arms.
The acromantula looked round and saw George, who was already beginning to feel quite a lot more nervous. The spider began to scuttle towards him across the clearing, but George had given Fred and Lee the time they needed. They appeared at his side, breathing heavily.
"Quick! Down the hole!" George told them, and, wasting no time in obeying, they clambered over to the gap in the ground.
The acromantula was now very close to George – uncomfortably close, actually. He fancied he could feel its breath ruffling his hair, and he could definitely see each of its eight hairy legs in much more vivid detail than he would have liked. He gulped as it blinked its glistening eyes, drawing ever nearer. George looked back round to see the top of Fred's ginger head disappearing down the chute. Lee gave him the thumbs up and dropped straight in after Fred. George spared one last glance at the acromantula, and then hurled himself into the pipe along with his two best friends, relief washing over him (though that was probably a ridiculous feeling for someone who was currently dropping deep into the ground).
The chute was very long and steep, made of a smooth metal that was cool to the touch. George quickly relaxed and found himself rather enjoying the drop and the swooping feeling in his stomach as the chute twisted and turned, but just as he was getting into it, he was deposited abruptly on the floor at the bottom. He was glad to discover that he'd landed on something soft and squishy, which had broken his fall. Soon, however, he realised that the something was a heap made up of Fred and Lee.
"Everyone OK?" Lee asked, extracting himself from the tangle of limbs.
"I think so," said Fred, his voice muffled by George's arm, which had somehow found its way into his mouth.
George pulled his arm free from his brother's jaws and clambered to his feet. He reached down to yank Fred up, and then began looking around the chamber that they'd just landed in. It was obviously very deep underground, as the only light that illuminated the room came from the fiery torches that lined the walls, casting an eerie orange glow over the floor. The chamber was circular and made of entirely of stone, and it had a high, arching roof with an elaborate pattern of twirling leaves engraved into it.
"Very fancy," commented Lee.
As they stared upwards, examining the ceiling, George suddenly noticed something falling out of the air towards them. Fred, standing next to him, reached up with one hand and caught it out of the air. It turned out to be yet another scroll of parchment, which Fred carefully began to unroll. The second the scroll was flattened out, there came a loud bang and a puff of smoke. At the other side of the room, two archways materialised. In front of the one of the left, blue flames instantly sprang up, and in front of the one on the right, there were red flames.
Fred, George and Lee exchanged a glance, and George nudged Fred in the arm. "Go on, read it."
Fred nodded, cleared his throat and then lowered his eyes back to the scroll.
"You have now completed the first stage of your challenge, and collected an item from each of the four houses. For this, we congratulate you. It is obvious that you are very capable."
"They got that right," grinned George, preening himself.
"However, your challenge is only just beginning. If you continue, you will face danger beyond that which you have ever encountered before, and therefore we feel obliged to present you with a choice. Should you decide to go on with this trial, you must pass through the red flames on your right. If you do not wish to persist, you can go through the blue flames on the left, which will transport you back to Hogwarts castle. Think carefully, for once you have made your decision, there will be no going back."
Here, Fred paused in his reading, and the three First Years looked around at each other. Eventually, Lee said aloud what all of them were thinking.
"Let's go on. We have to now."
"Agreed," said the twins in unison.
Fred lifted the parchment again, reading out the last few sentences. "So now the time has come to make up your minds once and for all. Danger or safety? Adventure or an anti-climax? Red flame or blue? The choice is in your hands."
Fred lowered the scroll, his blue eyes alight with excitement. There was a slight pause, and then he said with a small smirk, "Wow. Pretentious much?"
George snorted with laughter, and then the three of them turned as one towards the red fire in front of the right-hand archway.
"Ready?" whispered Fred.
"Ready as I'll ever be."
"Shall we take it at a run, like the King's Cross barrier?"
"Yeah."
The archway was wide enough for all three of them to pass through at the same time, so after exchanging a final glance with each other, they began to run towards the fire. George drew in a deep breath as they came closer and closed his eyes, feeling as though he would be unable to pluck up the courage to continue running if he could see the flames around him. All at once, he felt a cool, licking sensation as the fire lapped around his sides, and then it was over. He opened his eyes just in time to stop himself from crashing into a new stone wall and pulled himself to a stop.
There was a grinding noise from behind them, and Fred, George and Lee spun around to see bricks sliding across through the air to fill in the archway behind them. They were now trapped in this new chamber, which was small and square. The only way to go was forwards. Slowly, the three of them turned back round. In front of them was a simple wooden door, upon which the emblem of a snake was emblazoned.
"It would be Slytherin first, wouldn't it?" muttered Fred.
Suddenly, a female voice sounded, echoing around the stone walls of the chamber and filling it with noise.
"You are about to enter a series of tasks," it said. "There will be one challenge for each house, and to succeed, you must display the qualities of that house. Now it only remains for me to say… Good luck."
It took a few seconds for the last echoes of the voice to fade away, and Lee and the twins were left staring at the door in total silence.
"Shall we just go for it?" said Lee, his voice quiet.
"Yeah. Yeah, let's go," said Fred.
He reached forwards and grabbed the door handle with one hand, his face set in determination. George could feel his stomach fizzing with anticipation and adrenalin, and his heart was pounding loudly somewhere in the vicinity of his throat. The door swung silently open, and before they could lose their nerve, the three boys stepped through.
Author's Note: Yay, quick update! Hopefully chapters will continue to come quickly for the moment. I'm on summer holiday, which helps, and now that the story is getting into the more exciting stuff, I'm more excited to write, haha! I hope you're all still enjoying it, anyway. :P