Hogwarts a History – Mazes and Monsters year 2 remix
Chapter 04 – Pack rats, and other rats
…
Darkness, thick, impenetrable. It swallowed them whole like a great fish as the platform swung back, closing them in, alone, with the darkness.
"Bugger!" someone cursed, it was impossible to say who.
The darkness was absolute. Close your eyes, then open them again, then sit there wondering if you'd actually done it or just thought about it. You wouldn't be able to see the difference.
"Is everyone okay?"
"What did I land on?"
"Ugh! It smells."
"Where are we?"
"Why did I let you talk me into this?"
"Bloody hell!"
Harry lay, listening to his friends and associates' question and exclaim. The cacophony washed over him, an auditory barrage, proving at least his ears were still working even if his eyes weren't of much use in the seemingly endless pitch.
"Harry? Is that you?"
The annoyed sigh escaped him before he could stop it. "Yes. Please stop pinching me."
The traditional way of finding out if the person you were touching really was the person you were touching usually didn't require the enthusiasm Luna was using.
He didn't need to see her to know it was Luna, I mean, who else would be pinching him in the dark while everyone else continued discussing their situation?
"Are we dead?"
"No. My bum hurts too much for that."
"Can anyone see anything."
"We need a light. Does anyone have a light?"
"Are you a wizard or not?"
Leave it to Ron to point out the obvious when no one else seemed to notice.
There was much scuffling in the dark, then a light, then two, three, four, and so on.
"Hey! Watch where you're pointing that."
"Too bright!"
"Get that light out of my face."
"There really is no satisfying some people," Luna mused, one of only three magic users not waving their wands around. And speaking of people not silly wand waving, "Filene, are you alright?"
The little centaur sat on her butt, an odd position for a quadrupedal humanoid, glancing around fitfully as the war of the lights threw frantic, frightful shadows everywhere.
"I think I'd like to leave now," she said, on the brink of panic.
Luna nodded as though she'd expected this response. "Centaurs are not under the floor people," she mused. "Well Thaddeus, what shall we do?"
"Why you askin me?" he said with apathetic belligerence. "I didn't even wanna come down here."
Once had been quite enough for him, but oh no, take us to see the chamber Harry, it'll be real cool Harry, stop staring at me like I'm crazy Harry.
"I understand you're very put out by the situation," said Luna reasonably, "but you really must think of others right now. After all, isn't Filene your prisoner. Aren't you responsible for her wellbeing?"
As prisoners went, Filene was mostly self-sufficient and spent more time with the Chasers than Harry. But the Chasers weren't there, Harry was, and the look she gave him, part whimper, part on the verge of bawling, and just a hint of pout, what was a man to do, it was just plain unfair.
"Alright, alright, I'll do something."
He really needed to build up his resistance to these females.
"Are you all quite done?"
The assembled 'light' warriors froze mid-melee, blushes of guilt growing under the green-eyed glower.
"Good. Now, this is way too many lights. Dean, Seamus, Lavender, and Padma, dous'em."
Four lights obediently snuffed, bringing the ambient illumination down to a level that actually let them see.
"Whoa," and was there ever a lot to see, "that is a lot of boxes."
Crates might have been more appropriate. Crates in enormous quantity. They weren't placed with any sense of organization, just tossed in piles wherever there had been space. Some looked to have been there a very long time, some hadn't held up all that well.
"What is all that—stuff?" said Lavender.
"Looks like Slytherin's storeroom," said Dean, poking at the nearest crate which indented under such treatment. "Rotting."
"Makes sense. There is a lot of water down here. It's probably gotten in at some point or other," Harry surmised.
"What do you spose is in them?" the ever-inquisitive Lavender asked.
"Rats," said Parvati.
"Rats? Why would someone put rats in a crate?"
"No, RATS!"
"Squeak."
"Oh…YEEP!"
The rats appeared en masse, en hoard, as though they'd been there all along, scampering, scraping, or simply perched, watching the newest additions to their domain with rapt attention, beady eyes gleaming.
"Jeez! Look at'em all," said Ron, impressed though not overly concerned. He had one of these in his room after all, it's not like they were—were—eight-legged bug creatures.
"You think they—live—here—LAVENDER! Stop trying to climb me," Seamus griped as the blonde attempted to use him as a stool.
"They're awful quiet," Luna observed, "The rats I mean."
She was right, Harry noticed after a moment's observation. Oh, there was noise, lots of noise, but he could easily pinpoint the source of every bit of it, most coming from the leaning tower of Lavender and Seamus.
"It's probably some sort of illusion," said Su Li, "a weak illusion would make a good first level security measure. Just enough to scare off the weak willed and timid."
"You think?" said Harry.
"It does fit what we know of his philosophy," Luna agreed.
Philosophy, yeah, that was one word for it.
"So, how do you break an illusion?"
"Depends," said Su Li, "this is just a visual illusion so it shouldn't take much. Physical contact or even weak magic should disrupt the spell matrix and dispel the illusion."
Well, physical contact was out of the question. There were easily hundreds of the little blighters, that'd take all night.
He ran through his list of spells for possibilities, something with low damage but a wide spread. He felt a bit foolish for not thinking of 'that' first when he finally came to the obvious conclusion.
His wand swished, nimble in his hand, spraying streams of blue flame all around the room. The magical fire did not consume, subsisting only on magic.
Unable to share a physical space, the illusory rodental constructs vanished by ones and dozens till nothing was left but crates decorated in cheery blue fire.
"Bloody hell mate."
Harry just grinned. "You can get down now Lavender."
"Like now," added Seamus.
"Oh don't be difficult," the exalted flower proclaimed from on high. "You're a boy, you're supposed to protect girls."
"Oh yeah? Well, you're a witch, protect yourself. Now get off!"
"You better get us out of here," said Su Li, "before anyone else gets involved in their debate and we have a gender war on our hands."
"Can I be on your side Thaddeus?"
Sun Tzu said, the greatest victory is that which requires no battle. This sounded good to Harry.
With their entryway closed, it was impossible to know where to aim his command. He gave an opening hiss in a general upward direction. He wasn't all that surprised when nothing happened.
Of course it couldn't be that easy.
"Alright, now what?"
"We could try that door," said Luna.
Past the maze of crates, illuminated by the gentle blue glow, a simple wooden door sat, framed in unremarkable stone.
It had no handle, but a metal plate where such should be, and a small yet elegant snake etched into the surface. Everyone gathered around as Harry hissed at the door, which in turn squealed on hinges in desperate need of oil.
"Looks like this is the way out," said Harry.
"What makes you think that?" said a slightly shorter Seamus.
"Cuz I don't see any other way out, ergo, this is it."
"Flawless logic Thaddeus, well done," Luna applauded.
"Yeah, well. Save the applause till after we get back upstairs."
With wand in hand and the lion of Gryffindor in his heart, Harry led the way into the unknown. The shuffling of feet and clopping of hooves were quick to follow, and the squeal of the door followed shortly after that.