Chapter 11: New Allies
"Where are we going?" Harry cried as they ran. It didn't sound like they were being followed, but Sirius wasn't about to take any chances.
"Just follow me," Sirius insisted, veering to the right. "Come on, in here," he gestured. Sirius pulled another tapestry back to reveal a tunnel going straight into the wall.
"Where does it go?" Harry asked nervously. It could lead to some deep dark dungeon with no escape hatch where Sirius intended to kill him.
"Just go in," Sirius said exasperatedly.
Harry chose to trust Sirius. After all, Sirius could have let him die back there with the Career pack, but instead he went after him and then saved his life. Why would he do that simply to kill Harry minutes later?
"Hurry, I hear them coming!" Sirius hissed suddenly, his eyes going wide. Harry scrambled into the tunnel and Sirius squeezed himself in after, letting the tapestry fall back into place behind them.
Harry started to crawl down the tunnel, but Sirius stopped him.
"Don't move," he instructed. "If they hear us, we're dead."
Harry complied, remaining completely still as the Careers passed them.
"… can't believe they got away," one of them, Bellatrix, complained. "We had them."
"We'll get them next time," the other girl assured her.
"We'd better," Riddle declared. "I don't like being bested."
Once they were out of earshot, Harry let himself breathe again. "Phew," he muttered.
"We aren't safe yet," Sirius warned him. "There's still other tributes out there. We've got to get back."
"Back where?" Harry asked in confusion.
"Just go, you'll see when we get there," Sirius said, gesturing for Harry to venture down the tunnel.
The tunnel was small, not big enough to allow either boy to stand, so they had to crawl. It was extremely dusty and a few times, Harry found himself crawling headfirst into cobwebs. Though the rest of the castle had the appearance of having been abandoned for quite some time, Harry surmised that these tunnels must have been out of use already way before the event that caused the evacuation.
The tunnel dipped, and soon Harry and Sirius were crawling downwards, though how far down, Harry couldn't tell. Soon, he began to wonder if this tunnel was ever going to end.
"So where exactly does this tunnel let out?" Harry asked, his curiosity getting the better of him.
"No idea," Sirius confessed.
"What do you mean, no idea?" Harry demanded. "You don't know where we're going?"
"Well I know where it used to come out, but I've discovered that each time you go into a hidden tunnel in this castle, it comes out in a different location, even if you try the same tunnel. Must be some invention of the Gamemakers to confuse us," Sirius explained.
"Well then what are we doing in here?" Harry demanded. "For all you know, we could come out and find ourselves facing the Careers again."
"Have a little faith," Sirius replied in such a nonchalant voice that Harry questioned whether Sirius really understood the gravity of their situation.
"So how do you know so much about these tunnels?" Harry asked, changing the subject. "We haven't even been here a day."
"We may not have been here long, but I've been making the most of my time. Getting the lay of the land, you know," Sirius replied.
Finally, they came to the end of the tunnel and Harry crawled out from behind yet another tapestry hanging from the ceiling. Sirius tumbled out after him, brushing his clothes off and looking around.
"Fabulous!" Sirius proclaimed.
"What's fabulous?" Harry wondered.
"The tunnel let us out in an excellent location," Sirius declared. "We're already on the second floor. We're almost there!"
"Almost where?" Harry asked.
"You'll see," Sirius declared, leading Harry down the corridor and back out into the large open area with all the staircases.
"Not this again!" Harry exclaimed. "Do you know these staircases move?" Harry demanded. "I'm not getting back on those again."
"Well, you have to," Sirius said.
Harry frowned. "What makes you so sure?" he asked. "Why should I go with you? Why shouldn't I just turn around and go my own way right now? After all, we aren't both going to make it out of here alive, so wouldn't it be better not to get attached?"
"Listen," Sirius said. "You can choose to turn around and walk away and try to do this on your own if you want. But your odds of survival if you do are pretty slim. I know we can't both make it out alive, but at least in the beginning, our best chance is to band together. We can split up later if it turns out that the end is coming and one of us hasn't died yet, but as long as the Careers are altogether, I'd say it's safer to travel with allies."
Harry thought about this for a moment, weighing his options and wondering what his mentors would think about this. McGonagall would hate it. She would tell him to watch out for himself and to get away from this guy before he killed Harry in his sleep. But Hagrid wouldn't be so harsh. Hagrid would want him to trust Sirius, at least for now.
Harry decided to go with Hagrid's advice. "Alright, fine," he decided. "I'll go with you."
They stepped out onto the staircase and began walking down. Above their heads, some of the staircases swiveled around, but to Harry's relief, the ones they were walking down remained still.
They arrived back on the main floor and returned to the entryway where Harry had entered the castle. The doors were partially open and Harry could see the Cornucopia glistening in the moonlight, all it's content swept away.
"The Careers haven't set up camp by the Cornucopia this year?" Harry asked.
"Rumour has it they've taken up residence in the dungeons," Sirius replied. "Down there," he gestured, pointing to the staircases that lead downward.
"Is it safe to be so close to them?" Harry wondered.
"Oh, they're far from here. Those dungeons go on forever, and there are tons of different staircases going down. This isn't their only way in," Sirius assured him.
"So are we going outside?" Harry asked.
"What?" Sirius gaped. "Do you know how many dangers could be lurking outside?"
"Well then where are we going?" Harry asked. They obviously weren't going back the way they came, and it would be suicide to go down into the dungeons if the Careers were holed up down there. So if they weren't going outside…
Sirius turned to a pair of great double doors that Harry hadn't noticed before. "Right this way," he said, gesturing for Harry to enter.
Nervously, Harry passed through the doors to find himself in a grand hall. The ceiling was unbelievably high and appeared to have no roof, as when Harry looked up, he could see the night sky. The hall was long too, with four wooden tables stretching from the doors all the way to the other end of the room, stopping short of a raised platform on which another table sat, perpendicular to the other four.
"What is this place?" Harry wondered aloud.
"We call it the Great Hall," Sirius declared.
"We?" Harry asked.
Sirius didn't bother to answer this and instead climbed up on one of the tables and began to walk down to the other end of the room. Harry stood, dumbfounded, as he looked around at the elaborately carved pillars, and the unlit candles in sconces. He'd never been in such a grand room before, even back in district seven. In fact, he could probably fit his entire house in this one grand room.
"Are you coming?" Sirius asked once he'd reached the other end of the room.
"Coming where?" Harry asked.
"I tire of this question," Sirius announced. "You will find out when we arrive. Now get over here," he insisted.
Harry hurried over, choosing to take the floor rather than walk across a table like Sirius. Once he'd arrived on the other end of the room, Sirius led him up the platform and behind the fifth table, revealing a door that hadn't previously been visible.
"I suppose you want me to go in there?" Harry presumed.
"You're catching on," Sirius said with a smile.
Harry sighed and pulled the door open, letting himself in. He wasn't sure what he was expecting, but what he discovered wasn't it.
It was extremely bright inside this new room. Part of it had to do with the merry fire that was crackling in the fireplace, but the rest had to do with the reflection of the merrily crackling fire off the thousands of trophies that lined the walls and featured prominently in display cases all around the room. There was a pile of supplies that had been gathered and placed in a lump near the fireplace and Harry was pleased to see that the pile contained a multitude of foods and other useful survival supplies, as well as numerous flasks of water. Suddenly, Harry became very aware of just how thirsty he was and without bothering to check with Sirius if it was alright, he stumbled towards the flasks of water and grabbed one, taking a nice big gulp. It was warm, but satisfying nonetheless.
"Welcome back Sirius," an unfamiliar voice said.
Harry whirled around in surprise, fists out in battle position, not because he thought he stood a chance in a fistfight, but because it was his first instinct.
"And you brought a friend, how nice," another voice said.
The voices, Harry discovered, belonged to the tributes from district nine – James and Lily, the married couple.
"You didn't tell me you had other allies," Harry said to Sirius accusingly.
"Like I said before, it's best to work in a pack at the beginning. Alone, we're easy pickings for the Careers. As a pair, we're still quite susceptible to being attacked. But a group of four? The Careers wouldn't attack a group of four without some very careful planning," Sirius said.
Harry deliberated. He trusted Sirius, but he barely knew James and Lily. How could he be sure that they were trustworthy?
"Listen, mate?" Sirius said, seeming to sense Harry's indecision. "You're not going to find better allies than us. But we've all got to trust each other if this arrangement is going to work out. If you don't think you can do that, then you're totally free to leave."
"I don't know…" Harry said hesitantly.
"Oh, please stay," Lily insisted. "I'd feel so much better if you did."
"Yeah, please stay," James concurred. "As long as you protect us, we'll protect you." He took a few steps forward and lowered his voice so Lily wouldn't hear. "And to be completely honest, I'd be ever so much more comfortable with another person here to protect Lily and the baby."
"Alright," Harry decided. "I'll stay."
Sirius grinned. "Fantastic," he declared. "You're going to love it here."
"So what do you call this place?" Harry wondered.
"This, my friend," Sirius said, pausing to build the suspense, "is the trophy room!"
Harry rolled his eyes. "You have no imagination," he declared.