Hogwarts a History – Mazes and Monsters year 2 remix
Chapter 06 – What's behind door number…
…
"You okay Seamus?"
"I—think—so."
His face wasn't blue anymore. That was probably a good sign.
"Well, I think we all learned a very valuable lesson today," said Lavender.
"Don't poke strange bones," said Parvati when her friend failed to elucidate.
"Yes."
"Uh huh."
"Maybe we should, uh, go now," said Neville, standing near Filene like he was ready to jump behind her at the first sign.
"Aw, come on Nev. Where's your sense of adventure?" said Lavender.
"Hiding behind my sense of self-preservation," he responded.
"Neville's right," said Harry. "This was a bad idea."
"You're just saying that because it was my idea," the blonde pouted.
"It was a 'bad' idea," he repeated. "Doesn't matter where it came from."
"Wouldn't say that if it was Hermione's idea," she grumbled not quite under her breath enough.
And Harry was in no mood for it, "Lavender Brown!" See what I mean. "When we get out of here, I am going to give you such a swat on your bottom. And if you keep it up, I am going to give you one now!"
"Promises, promises," she said obstinately, certain no matter how mad he was he'd never follow through.
She never considered someone else might.
"Lav."
"Darling."
*Surprise Double Swat*
"Yeek!" she yeeked, as two hands firmly disciplined her posterior region. "What was that for?"
"You were being bad," said Padma.
"Now behave so Harry can find us a way out of here," said Parvati.
"S'not fair," the wilted flower whined. "Why are you on his side?"
"You mean besides the fact he's the only one who 'can' get us out of here?"
"…yes."
The two Indian girls rolled their eyes and shook their heads, "Lavender!"
"Can we go now?" Seamus croaked. "I think I've had enough adventure for one night."
"It's an acquired tolerance," said Luna, discreetly covering her bottom when Harry gave her the look.
"So, where do we go then?" Lavender pouted. "Which way is out?"
That was the ten galleon question. So far, they'd eliminated two possibilities. That just left…
"Check the walls. See if you can find any more of those snake markings."
It wasn't a great plan, having seen the sort of places such markings led, but one of them had to lead to an exit, he refused to believe otherwise.
"I think I found one," said Dean. The first, but not the last.
The room Harry hissed open was entirely empty. Even the walls were blank and smooth.
"Not this one."
"Over here!" called Seamus, leading to the second room, full of rusted chains and hooks hung from the ceiling.
"Nope."
"I think I found one," Neville announced nervously.
The room, once opened, remained pitch black and eerily silent till a rasping voice whispered out of the dark, "Kiiilllll meeeeeeeeeee…"
"Not that one!" Harry squeaked once the door was shut.
The others rapidly shook their heads in agreement.
"He sounded very lonely, don't you think?"
"Um," Harry managed, just to keep from openly gaping like everyone else.
"Barmy!"
Or that.
"It doesn't seem right just leaving him there like that. I bet he'd just like someone to talk to for a while. We should…"
"Luna! No."
"Harry yes."
"No."
"But…"
"No buts."
"But I like buts."
And hers was going the right way for a good swat if she kept it up. The sole issue staying his hand was the thought she might like it. She was an odd duck.
But, that being the case, he needed to do something with her waddly butt before she did something he'd regret.
"Harry, what're you? Eep!"
"Sorry about this Filene. Hope you don't mind," said Harry as he placed the Luna butt on the centaur's back.
"It's alright," she said. "I think I understand."
"Well I don't," said Luna. "Harry, why am I up here?"
"So you stay out of trouble," said Harry.
"Oh… I think you're going to have to put me up much higher than this if that's your objective."
Harry sighed, because he knew she was right, "Just—stay up there till we get out of here."
"Okay."
… she made life interesting, you couldn't say she didn't.
"Alright, back to it everyone. That exit isn't going to find itself."
At least he hoped not. Were it possible for the exit to find itself that raised the question of, not only, what would it do then, but what would the nature of the thing have to be in order to achieve this metaphysical improbability?
Hmm… Oh! Now my head hurts thinking about it.
Several more doors were found, none providing anything as harrowing as the voice in the dark, nor as useful as the exit. One held the skeleton of a small dragon and a floor covered with dead beetles. One held a large rock which shifted oddly when they tried to go into the room, so they didn't. Door after door after door of interesting but otherwise useless things, but no exit.
"I'm starting to get a little worried," said Parvati as Harry hissed closed another door.
"Just starting," smirked Seamus only to receive a flick on the nose.
"Hush! All I'm saying, maybe we should go back to the room where we started and try the ceiling again."
"That could be a problem," her near perfect double said. "Does anyone remember where that door is?"
They did not, hardly a surprise. The entrance from the hall looked no different than any of the others and they'd traversed the hall some distance. How much exactly none of them could say and to make matters worse, the hall had extended in both directions from the get-go.
"We're stuck down here! We're going to die down here!"
"No Neville, we are not going to die down here," said Harry, more annoyed than scared. "Slytherin was a bastard, not an idiot. He wouldn't have made a secret chamber with only one way in or out, that'd be stupid… and boring."
"Let's just keep going," said Lavender, fully into the spirit of exploration no matter how much they were trying to stifle her or punish her bottom. "If we don't come to some kind of hall before we reach the end we'll just turn around and go the other way."
"But what if there's nothing that way either. We could be trapped down here forever, and no one will ever find us. No one even knows where we are!"
"That's not true," said Harry.
"Which part?" Luna asked from her exalted position.
"The, no one even knows where we are, part," he said.
"But, how? None of us had time to tell anyone what we were doing before Lavender dragged us all down he…, uh, I mean, before we all agreed to come down here," Neville corrected under the baleful gaze of the blonde lioness.
"Let's just say there was a bit more to the story than I told you all," said Harry. "If the worst comes, I have a trump card to pull, so don't worry about it. Let's just keep going."
"Got one over here Harry," said Dean before Neville could begin fretting again.
"Alright. Let's have a look."