Fifth story in which a witch uses her mind

The three friends had been walking for many hours when suddenly a pitch-black nothingness appeared in front of them, the "Abyss of Darkness". It was a deep gorge of black stones, and anyone who fell into it would have died of thirst or starvation before they reached the bottom, that is how deep it was. But the three friends knew that they had to cross the gorge in order to free their friend from the clutches of the evil Ice Queen, so they walked towards the darkness without hesitation.

At this point, Harry stopped in his narration. He would have done so anyway, even if the parchment hadn't just had a dark ink stain on it after those lines, an expression of his writer's block last night. No, his thoughts were already traveling back to that moment that had inspired him to this union of their fears in the first place, to that fateful day in their fourth year when it had first occurred to him that the love of his life would not be an easy one...

It was a cool autumn morning when Harry found himself on his way to the Owlery to visit Hedwig, and to send a letter to Sirius. Since his godfather had been acquitted of all charges last summer – and because Harry was staying at Hogwarts until Christmas anyway – he let it all hang out in southern climes under a bright and warm sun. He deserved it so much, and Harry granted him every second of his first holiday in thirteen years, even if wet dog apparently smelled terrible.

"Harry!" a shrill voice suddenly ripped him out of his thoughts. He looked up to see Astoria running towards him, her face almost as red as the decorations on her school uniform. Above her, her little owl Eros flew. "Harry! Harry! Harry!"

Instantly, his alarm bells started ringing in his head. Something had happened. Something bad.

He ran and within seconds was at Astoria. "What's wrong?" he shouted as he fumbled in his host pocket for his wand. Damn, he had forgotten it.

"Daphne!" cried Astoria, grabbing his hand to pull him behind her, toward the wall walkway to the West Tower. "You must help her! Now, or else –"

"What about Daphne?!"

"She can't get away! Oh please Harry, you must help her!"

He wanted to question Astoria further, but from one moment to the next she disappeared completely from his perception. They had reached the wall walkway, and there he now caught sight of Daphne. Not on the wall walkway, though, but on a smaller, narrower wall that connected the walkway with another one. These narrow walls were not meant to be stepped on, but still Daphne crouched with her knees on it, a gaping abyss beneath her. She looked as if she were petrified, only her blonde strands blowing in the cold wind.

Daphne was afraid of heights! What the hell was she doing there?

"It's my fault," Astoria sobbed beside him. "Eros hurt his wings somehow. He was lying on the wall and couldn't fly anymore. Daphne immediately got on it and ran to him. She healed him, but now she won't move. Oh Harry, help her! Please!"

He had known from the beginning that it was a stupid idea to give Astoria this little owl! But it didn't matter now. Without thinking about it, he now also climbed past the battlements onto the narrow wall, which was just half a meter wide. The wind tugged at his cloak, below him gaped an abyss of more than two hundred paces, and he would have given anything to have his wand or broom with him at that moment, but the sight of the huddled Daphne dispelled all such thoughts.

Slowly he walked forward, taking one step after another, careful not to lose his footing, all the while keeping his eyes fixed on his friend. "I'm coming, Daphne," he called to her, but she didn't seem to hear him. She was still kneeling on the wall, transfixed, as she stared into the abyss with her eyes wide open.

And then he was finally with her. He knelt beside her, reaching out his hand to her; but he didn't want to frighten her, so he didn't touch her yet. "It's all right, Daph. I'm here. It's all right."

And now Daphne reacted. "Take me away from here," she said, trembling all over.

Gently, Harry grabbed her by the shoulder. "Get up, Daph. I'll take you away from here."

"I ... I can't." Daphne pressed both hands firmly on the stone floor. Still she gazed down, transfixed. "It's like the deep is calling me," she stammered. "I shall jump. Like a bird."

"Don't look," said Harry. "Close your eyes. You must not look. I will lead you away. Come." He tightened his grip around Daphne's tense shoulder. "Avert your gaze."

"This ... the abyss, it holds me captive. I..."

Harry saw no other way out. He reached under her chin, forcing her to look him in the face. "Do you see my eyes? Get lost in this abyss. Tell me what colour they are." Daphne wanted to tilt her head to the side again, but he held her chin. Her skin was sticky with sweat. All colour had drained from her face. "What do my eyes look like?"

"They're green."

Harry grabbed her by the wrist. Still she pressed her palms to the floor, her fingers curling in a futile attempt to find grip on the cold stone.

"You're going to stand up now, okay? And keep looking me in the eye. Don't you think 'green' is an inadequate description? What kind of green is it? Look closer."

Harry rose to his feet. He held Daphne captive with his gaze. Hesitantly, she straightened up.

"Your eyes are the colour of moss, the kind you find on the rocks near Hagrid's hut. There, where we danced with the Flower Fairies. Your iris is framed by a thin, black rim. The green is not even. Fine lights and shadows run through it."

Harry walked slowly backwards, Daphne following him with uncertain steps. He now held both her hands, and he had to look into her face to keep her from averting her gaze.

"When the abyss of your pupils widens, the green turns. It becomes denser. Darker. I see my reflection in your eyes. Distorted. A grotesque creature. I don't want you to see me like this."

Daphne had come very close to him, her breath gently touching his lips.

Harry cleared his throat. "It's the curvature of my eyeballs that distorts your reflection, Daph."

"Your eyeballs are a flawless white," she continued, not responding to his words. "There is no hint of yellow, no burst veins to offend the white with obscene red. Your eyelashes are thick. They rise in gentle sweep. Some witch would envy you those lashes."

Her voice had taken on a harsh tone. The tone was in stark contrast to her thin lips. Harry imagined what it would be like to kiss those lips, to be kissed by them...

Daphne's eyes were also green. A light green, as he had noticed before, but now he also noticed fine, golden speckles running through the green. It was truly beautiful.

Harry tried to concentrate fully on his steps. He did not lower his gaze, but his heart was pounding wildly in his chest. There was something about Daphne that touched him deeply and confused his emotions.

Just watch your steps, he admonished himself. He felt the solid stone through the soft soles of his boots. Cold and hard it was, but fortunately, it was still too early in the year for morning frost and snow.

"Do you think eyes could be the window to the soul?" asked Daphne.

"Would I find gold in your soul?"

Daphne replied nothing.

Just then, out of the corner of his eye, Harry caught sight of the battlements. They had left the narrow wall. And then, loud clapping sounded.

"That was SO romantic!" exclaimed Astoria, accompanied by the approving "Huu-hu-huhuhuhuu" of her little owl.

Abruptly, Daphne broke away from him. "Don't talk nonsense, Tori."

"Guys, I don't think we're in Hogwarts anymore," Ron's voice brought him back to the present.

And indeed, behind the pillars of the Sphanxes, not the Slytherin common room awaited them, but a vast, empty desert landscape over which an icy wind glided. The landscape was in the bright glow of the moon, but a good half mile ahead of them, where the edge of the desert was, everything suddenly ended. There was nothing left, no ground, no sky. Just nothing at all. From a distance, it looked like a pitch-black darkness rising from the desert's edge up into the sky. And in front of it, seemingly completely randomly, stood a small, stone archway.

"This must be the Abyss of Darkness from your fairy tale," Hermione said. "Your magic must be incredibly powerful if it could create all this ... What's next, Harry? How do the friends cross the abyss?"

"They don't," Harry said with a shrug. Ron and Hermione looked at him in confusion. "Well, I skipped it," he continued to explain. "I wanted to get to the end of the story as quickly as possible and figure out a solution to it later. But we definitely need to get to the other side of this abyss to reach the Ice Queen's castle."

"But how?" asked Ron. "I don't see any way at all."

"You can't see it either," said Harry seriously. "That was the whole point with this Abyss of Darkness, you know. You see, the rock is so completely black that all brightness is swallowed up. There's just no light left to see. So even light spells would have no effect. Only when the moon shines very brightly, a very small glimmer remains. Then you can see a faint violet spot at the top of the sky. But otherwise, there's just deep darkness there."

Ron looked at him as if he had lost his mind. "WHY WOULD YOU MAKE SOMETHING LIKE THAT?"

Harry shrugged again. So far, he had only told Daphne about how the Dursleys had locked him in the cupboards under the stairs, and what a fear of the dark he had had then.

"But if there's nothing to see," Hermione asked apprehensively, "then how can you find your way?"

"My idea," said Harry, pointing to the little archway in front of the darkness, "was that the path goes straight ahead from the beginning. But you mustn't deviate from the direction on any account. For to the left and right are deep, terrible chasms beside the path. If you fall, you would die of thirst before you hit the ground."

"You're crazy, mate," Ron muttered. "Absolutely insane."

"I never intended for it to become a reality. But that's not all. Since it's eternal night here and we're about to enter the Ice Queen's realm, it's going to get colder and colder."

Hermione rubbed her forehead. "So, the only thing standing between us and certain death is the assumption that everything is actually as you thought it up, even though you didn't write it down. And our ability to run dead straight forward, which, by the way, is not as easy as it sounds."

"Right," Harry said. They had reached the archway by now, just half a meter wide, as he remembered. And behind it, towering steeply, was the impenetrable darkness.

"All right," Ron said. "Then we'll go one after the other. Me first, then Harry, and finally Hermione. We'll each hold onto the shoulder of the person in front of us. And most importantly, we'll walk VERY slowly."

Harry and Hermione did as instructed and lined up behind Ron before walking off one after the other, right into the pitch-black darkness.

First Harry noticed how he could no longer see Ron's head, then his own hand on his shoulder, then his arm. And then he couldn't see anything at all. He looked back over his shoulder. The world of the living had disappeared. Only a dull violet spot stood somewhere high up in the black sky. All around, everything was completely dark.

Their progress was very slow. Before each step, Ron paused and felt the floor with his foot while Harry held him. Only when Ron was sure that they were still on the path did he take a step forward, and the whole procedure began again.

And despite his previous words, Hermione tried to create a magical light, but it was of no use. The light was swallowed by the black rocks and it remained as dark as before.

The longer they walked, the colder it got. They covered themselves with even more warming charms, knowing that they were probably useless. Hermione had already cast her strongest charms on them before. At one point, Harry began to freeze so badly that his teeth were chattering. And his feet, despite the thick winter boots, felt like blocks of ice, only there to numbly put one step in front of the other.

And then even the pale purple stain in the sky disappeared as the cold wind howled more and more hideously. The sound wasn't particularly loud, but it penetrated the black solitude so wailingly that it was almost unbearable.

Harry wondered how Daphne was feeling right now. Was she as miserably cold as he was? Was she just as frightened?

And would she hate him? For what he had done to her? Would she understand?

What if she never wanted to have anything to do with him again? Would he be able to bear it?

He had always known that the naive hopes with which he had begun to write this story were just that. Naive. Stupid. Pathetic. As if a few words on parchment would make any difference, as if they would cause her to suddenly change her mind...

The next moment, Harry's heartbeat stopped.

His foot stepped into nothing. He lost his balance ... and fell.

But he just managed to catch the edge of the stone path. His friends' cries of fear rang out in the darkness, and then hands grabbed him.

"Harry!" cried Ron's voice. "We've got you, but you've got to hold on. Hold on."

Harry felt his legs dangling in the air. His gloved fingers clutched desperately at the cold stone. He couldn't let go. He had to fight. But with each passing second, it became more difficult to hold on. Slowly he slipped.

His friends' hands, however, clutched at his arms all the more doggedly. Hermione shrieked.

"We have to pull him up," Ron shouted. "Now. And go!"

Harry felt a jolt go through his body. Strained groans sounded from above, and then he was slowly pulled up, millimetre by millimetre.

He felt his chest hit the stone, then his arms. Immediately he straightened up on his elbows, pulling himself the last bit to the path, where he came to rest with his heart pounding. Next to him lay Ron and Hermione. He couldn't see them, but he heard their strained gasps, and felt the warmth radiating from their bodies.

They had saved his life. Without his two friends, he would have died.

For several minutes no one said a word, too exhausted they were. Harry felt his breath form clouds in the cold air before his mouth. And for a brief moment, he could see a grey glow in the darkness.

"Yes, are we completely stupid?!" Hermione suddenly called to his right. "All we had to do was use our brains. Why didn't I think of that much earlier?!"

"What ... what do you mean?" sounded Ron's strained gasp from his left.

"What did you say, Harry?" said Hermione. "We can't create light because the black rocks swallow up all the light?"

Harry nodded, before remembering that Hermione couldn't see him. "Right," he said. "But what's your point?"

"My point is that the problem, then, is the rocks. We need to make them stop being black!" Harry felt a rush of air from Hermione's direction, and then he heard her loud voice again. "Nives!"

The Snow Charm.

At first, Harry saw nothing, just scattered glittering snowflakes erupting from Hermione's wand. But then he realized how it was growing brighter around him, an ever more brilliant white.

For the plaintive wind drove Hermione's snowflakes before her, and little by little the surroundings around her covered themselves with snow. The white swirls settled over the black rocks, and where these were covered by snow, they could no longer absorb the light. And suddenly the path was visible. In the middle of the black nothingness, a piece of white path suddenly floated.

"We're stupid, but you sure aren't, Hermione," Ron muttered.

Harry saw Hermione's cheeks turn slightly pink at his words. Great, everyone found their love's bliss but him.

"Let's keep moving," he said. "We still have a long way to go."

And off they went again into the pitch-black darkness.

Several hours must have passed in which they had trodden over the white path, when suddenly they heard the splashing of water ahead of them. And then they saw white as far as the eye could see.

They stepped out of the darkness and had reached the other side of the abyss. A desert of snow spread out before them, interrupted only by a few bare trees and a bright blue stream running through the landscape. The wood of the trees creaked in the cold, and Harry heard the call of a kingfisher from somewhere.

"We're here," he said. "The Ice Queen's realm. Somewhere out there is Daphne."

Hermione and Ron stepped to his side, both squeezing his hand.

"Then we shouldn't wait," Ron said. "Is there anything else your fairy tale can help us with?"

Harry shook his head. The future was a mystery that could not be fathomed in the past. And if you wanted to reach new shores, you had to cast off at some point.

Therefore, the three friends enchanted the bare trees so that they formed a raft. And on this raft, they let themselves slide down the river, ever further towards the castle of the Ice Queen, which, as Harry knew, was waiting for them somewhere out there.

I'm coming, Daphne. I'm coming.

AN: At this point, I would like to refer to two books that have a special place in my heart and have significantly inspired this chapter. First of all, there is "Jim Knopf" by Michael Ende, from which I drew the inspiration for the "Abyss of Darkness". My parents used to read it to me before bed, and I can't wait to read it to my children in the hopefully not-so-distant future, hoping they will love it as much as I do. The second book I would like to recommend is "Elven Winter" by Bernhard Hennen. It contains one of my favourite (romance?) scenes. Harry and Daphne's walking on the deep is heavily inspired by this scene. So a big reading recommendation for that one, too, on my part!