CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE

The Missing Link

Amber watched helplessly as Rose disappeared through the bottomless flames. The bridge had stopped creaking. But that didn't matter to her. She had lost Rose. She was in her hands one second, and then gone the next. Amber could hardly even see the burning flames anymore as tears completely obscured her vision.

Voices were calling her name from behind her, but she didn't care. She was the one who brought Rose to this place. She was the reason Rose sacrificed herself. She was the reason Rose was d—

No!

She wasn't going to think that. She couldn't even fathom that possibility. The founders wouldn't kill children. This was a test. It had to be a test, right? She just had to figure out how to beat it.

Her crying started to slow as she caught her breath, and she was able to distinguish the voices behind her.

"Amber, it's not safe, you have to cross back!" George yelled at her desperately.

Cross back?

Amber stared down into the flames, still lying on her stomach over the fiery abyss. She slowly pushed herself up, her cheeks dripping with tears.

No, I can't cross back. I have to do something, Amber thought desperately. I'm a Gryffindor. I'm a bloody Gryffindor! I can save her!

"Amber," George called out again, "I can't come get you or the bridge will collapse. You need to come back!"

I need to think. What should a Gryffindor do? A Gryffindor can pass the test. So what do I do? I'm supposed to be strong. The badger told us to be strong. And brave, too. I must be brave. Those were the first two tests, so what else?!

"Amber, please!"

She ignored the voices.

The badger's test was strength and used earth.

"Four elements to test one's values…"Amber muttered out loud.

The eagle's was about bravery and used the air. But then Rose fell and there was fire. This is a new test. It must be. The lion!

Amber wracked her mind furiously, trying to find any answer that made sense. Anything to make her feel better and give her hope.

What is the lion's test? What Gryffindor value is he testing? Uhh, confidence? Recklessness, heroism? Boldnes? Loyalty? Agh! I don't know how to save Rose with any of those things. I need to be clever and think outside the box.

Amber stared into the conflagration, willing the answer to come to her. She sighed and pulled in toward herself.

What would Rose do?!

Amber froze suddenly, the fear and worry slowly melting from her face.

...That was the answer. It had to be.

Slowly, Amber pushed herself back onto her feet as she balanced on the thin bridge, now perfectly calm as she peered over the edge at the bottomless flames.

"That's it, now just carefully turn this way and head back," George called out to her.

Amber turned her neck in his direction, and met his gaze.

George must have understood the look on her face, because his expression dropped. "Amber, no, I know what you're thinking, but please—"

Before he could finish, Amber returned her focus to the flames, drew in a deep breath—feeling strangely calm about this—and jumped.

. . . . . .

Rose passed through the flames un-singed, and then suddenly the fiery light was gone and pitch darkness had taken its place. Before she could stop to wonder why, she felt her body plunge under water.

Rose kicked her legs wildly as she pushed her head back through the dark surface, sputtering out water as she tried to recover a breath.

She spun in the water, looking for any light, any clues, anything at all.

"Hello?" Rose coughed out, hearing her voice echo back at her repetitively. "Amber!"

Rose reached for her wand, and then remembered it wasn't there. What was she supposed to do?

She swam around in the watery void carefully, trying to find anything—see anything! But she couldn't even find the water's bottom or a cavern wall.

After a few minutes, Rose heard a big splash behind her.

Her mind began to panic. What water monster would she have to face alone without her sight or magic to aid her? Was this the crocodile moat where the founders sent the failures of their tests? What would happen if she—

"Rose!" called a voice, coughing out water.

"A-Amber? Is that you?" Rose yelled back, already swimming toward the voice.

"Rose! You're okay!" Amber cried out in relief. "Where are you? I can't see my own hand in front of my face, let alone you."

"Just keep talking, I'm coming to you," Rose said as she tried to follow Amber's voice.

"I thought you might be dead," Amber said slowly, wanting to cry.

Rose paused. "I'm sorry. I didn't know what else to do," she responded quietly. "...just keep talking until I find you."

"Right, okay... Well...I thought you were gone," Amber said, starting to rant her thoughts as she tread water. "But I wouldn't believe it. I prayed that it was another test. The lion's test. I wasn't about to accept that you were just gone and that there was nothing I could do about it. So I tried to think and figure out the test, or make one up to make myself feel better—make myself feel like I was doing something to try to help you. And I finally realized you were the answer! There are many Gryffindor traits, and some rarer ones that not all Gryffindors possess. Sacrifice."

Amber paused for a moment. "Self-sacrifice in this case," she said warmly. "You embody that trait. You didn't hesitate to sacrifice yourself to protect me. Just like you didn't hesitate to save Hermione from that troll. So I asked myself what the whole test was about. The cavern shaking, you almost falling, everything. It had to be part of the trials. You passed the test without even knowing it. You sacrificed yourself. So I figured, if I wanted a chance to get you back, I had to do the same thing... And that's why I'm here."

Amber paused to take a breath, but heard only silence. She turned slowly around in the water. "Rose? You there?"

She then felt arms pull her into a big hug from behind. Amber turned around and reciprocated the hug.

"I'm glad you're okay," Amber muttered through a few sniffles into Rose's shoulder.

"Me, too," Rose said through a smile.

They both turned their heads up as they heard a faint "Amber!" echo above them. Something dove past them and splashed into the water.

And not a second later they heard someone shout, "For Gryffindor!" above them, as that person also fell through the abyss and landed in the water.

"George, Fred, is that you?" Amber asked.

"Amber!" George shouted, swimming toward her voice immediately, completely ignoring her question.

Rose drifted away from Amber a bit to check on Fred, who she suspected had dived into the water recklessly, having no clue as to what was on the other side of that fire.

"George, are you okay?" Amber asked again.

But instead of a response, Rose heard a squeaky yelp from Amber. Rose imagined George must have tackled her into a hug.

"Please don't scare me like that," George said, refusing to let her go. "What were you thinking?"

"It was a test. I just wanted to save Rose," Amber said quietly, unsure of what else to say on the matter.

"In the future, please involve us in your plans of life threatening decisions before executing them, okay?"

"I promise," Amber laughed.

Rose finally heard Fred resurface as he drew in a long breath and began chuckling.

"Did you see how far I managed to dive?" Fred asked (to no one in particular).

"You are lucky this was water down here, and not another mountain," Rose chuckled.

"Rose, you okay?" Fred asked, his tone sounding a tad bit more serious.

"Yeah, I'm fine. The test wasn't designed to hurt me."

"Where's everyone else," he asked.

"Over here," Amber called.

"Just follow your instincts back to your other half," George mused.

"Okay, we should all get together," Fred said. "It's too dark to see anything; even movement. Whether this is another test, or a failed mark, we don't want to get separated."

They all followed Fred's directions, and managed to all make it to the same place. Fred had them all link hands and not let go. He put George on one side, with Amber and Rose in the middle, and himself on the other end.

"Okay, now what?" Amber asked, her hands linked with George on her left and Rose on her right.

"We try to find our way out of here," Fred said.

At that moment, they heard a course sound of stone slithering against stone, and they spotted two glowing green eyes.

There was a wall!

They heard the stone snake dip into the water, moving toward them. The snake floated right up to Rose, matching her stare with its hypnotic green eyes, giving off just enough light to reveal its head.

"Thisss is the test of the water," the snake said with a smooth, masculine, charming sounding voice. "Can you function as a proper team and find your way out?"

The snake then turned around to swim away. Rose knew the snake was about to leave, but she wanted so badly to talk to it, so in a panic, she yelled, "abna!"

The snake froze in the water, dove, and resurfaced face to face with Rose.

"What did you ssssay?" the snake asked.

Rose didn't know why, but this little, stone snake intimidated her. "I said abna," she replied. "It means—"

"Open," the snake interrupted.

"Yes," Rose breathed. "So you—do you speak parseltongue?"

"Indeed," said the snake. "It was imparted to me by my creator."

"Salazar Slytherin?" Rose asked, hoping for a confirmation.

"Yesss. Along with the three other founders."

"I have so much to ask you! So many questions about Salazar Slytherin, and learning parseltongue, and this garden—"

The snake cut her off, "Pass the testsss and you will have accessss to the knowledge of the founders. Good luck."

And with that, the snake swam away until the glow of his little, green eyes could no longer be seen.

"What now?" Amber asked. "If I tread water for too long, my legs are gonna get burned out."

"We find our way out," Fred said determinedly.

"How, exactly?" George asked.

"The snake came from a wall to our left," Fred said. "We start with that."

Fred had the group swim in the direction the glowing eyes had come from until they finally reached a wall.

"George, you follow the wall to the left, and I'll follow it to the right," Fred instructed. "Rose, push off this wall and see if you can swim straight across the water to see what's on the other side. Amber, stay here and be her point of reference."

They agreed, and the twins followed the wall in opposite directions to see what they could find.

"I hit another wall!" George called out. "This one branches out back the way we came. A perfect ninety degree angle, too."

"Good, keep going!" Fred replied.

George followed the wall, as it traced out a half square through the water chamber.

Fred hit a similar 90 degree corner and followed the new, perpendicular wall in the same direction as George's until his wall ended, leaving open water beside it. He felt around the wall to see if it curved in another direction, and was able to reach his hand around the edge to fell the other side of the same wall, which was only a foot thick. He held his position, awaiting the data everyone else was gathering.

"I found the other wall!" Rose shouted, having met no obstacles on her path. "How far did I drift, Amber?"

"Not too badly," Amber responded with her back up against the wall, trying to pin exactly where Rose's voice was coming from.

"You sound close to me," George called out from the same side as he followed the border until he met up with Rose

"So these walls are connected; and as far as I've seen, we seem to be boxed in," George said.

He continued to follow the wall around its box shape until he, too, finally found his wall's end.

"Fred?" George called.

"Right here," Fred said, sounding frighteningly close.

Traveling around a mere perfect square, they had nearly come together again, with simply a gap between them, about the length of an average man.

"Well, ladies and gents, we found our opening," Fred announced.

"Follow the walls or simply swim toward our voices," Fred directed to the girls. "We'll think of something to talk about to draw you in, now won't we brother?"

"Why of course, Fred. You in any particular mood today?" George responded.

"You mean, does the muse tickle my fancy on any particular topic? Not particularly. Not particularly."

"Well, we could always settle the score right here and now," George suggested.

"What score?" Fred asked.

"Which of us is the ultimate twin, of course? Spontaneity vs. planning. Action vs. reaction. Risk vs. caution. Freckles vs. dimples!"

Rose nearly choked on water, she laughed so hard.

Fred was laughing, too.

"George has a deep love of playing with words," Fred teased. "How about we just make a new game called name that guild," he said with a surprisingly good impersonation of an old game show host. "Team vs. club. Coalition vs. confederation. Guild vs. its next opponent."

George laughed, but only partially since he was still determined to come up with a good team name for them.

"On that subject," George said, "what would a good team name be? Are we a club? A gang? An order? A circle, perhaps?"

"Wouldn't we be more of a square?" Fred corrected.

"True, true, but that doesn't quite fit us if you ask me."

"A tribe, perchance? Or maybe we're more like a clan."

Rose finally reached the wall, bumping into one of the twins.

"You two are pretty good with the witty banter," Rose chuckled. "I wonder if there's a league you can join, or something."

"Hmm, a league…" George muttered.

"Made it!" Amber said when she had reached the wall. George immediately swam to her side.

"Excellent," announced Fred. "Now let's see what's on the other side, shall we?"

Fred took the lead, and swam forward through the gap. After about five feet, he met another wall that stretched out in both directions.

"Rose, we'll head left. George and Amber, you head right," he directed.

"Roger that," said George.

Rose and Fred followed the wall to the left until they felt the wall curve at another corner, twisting to their right. Fred swam perpendicular to it, and met a wall on the other end, heading in the same direction as the other.

"We hit a dead end!" George shouted from the other side.

"It's a maze!" Fred exclaimed. "We have another opening over here; come back this way."

George and Amber followed his instructions and they continued on through the maze. Fred directed everyone in separate directions when the path split, two in each direction in case the path split again, attempting to solve the maze in the dark.

Amber and George split up at a fork in the maze until Amber hit a dead end and traveled back the way she had come in order to follow George's path. When he hit another fork, he waited for her to catch up before proceeding. They kept announcing their progress to Fred, who fed them new instructions here and there.

Rose and Fred did the same until Amber and George hit their final dead end. Fred did his best to lead them back the way they had come, remembering surprisingly well the directions they had shouted to him earlier.

It took a while, but Fred managed to lead them back to their starting point and directed them through the part of the maze he had solved with Rose until they all met up and started the process over again.

Eventually, Fred was swimming faster without using the wall, whether out of excitement or impatience, Rose couldn't tell. She had split off with him at another fork in the walls. But then she heard a dull thud and a groan.

Rose backtracked and followed the sound, concerned.

"Fred, you okay?" she called out.

"Yeah, I hit a stair," he groaned.

"A stair?" she exclaimed, followed by another groan as she swam right into Fred. "Ooh, sorry," she whispered.

"I shouldn't have been swimming so recklessly," he chuckled. "My arms missed it because they were stretched out behind me. But my head wasn't so lucky."

Rose felt around behind Fred, and sure enough, there were these large, stone steps leading out of the water.

"You found the exit!" Rose exclaimed.

"Well of course I did. You expected anything less from the magnificent Fred?" He was trying to sound like his old self, but Rose could hear the pain in his voice.

"Here, let's get you out of the water," Rose said, helping Fred boost himself onto the first stair.

They climbed only two steps, and Rose sat Fred down. She carefully felt around his forehead, checking for anything serious, which was a bit difficult in the dark.

Fred winced a bit when she touched a point under his hairline, though he tried to hide it.

Even more gently, Rose felt around the injured area.

"I don't think you're bleeding," she said, though it was a bit difficult to tell since his entire head was soaked. "It's probably just a good bruise. You feel okay, otherwise? Any dizziness, nausea, fatigue?"

"I'm fine," Fred insisted. "Besides, we still have a job to do." Fred stood up quickly, and groaned as his head bumped into a short ceiling running diagonally above the staircase.

Rose did her best not to giggle, but couldn't help herself when Fred started laughing.

"You guys really find the exit?" George called out.

"We believe so," Rose called back, her voice echoing in the stairwell.

"All right troops, fall in!" Fred ordered, before guiding Amber and George to them.

"Watch your heads," Fred warned when they had all rejoined together. "It's time to get out of this maze."

They ascended up the steps together, which climbed high above the walls.

The moment Rose's foot hit the top step, torches began to burst into flame, lighting up a large room with Greek-like Architecture, 4 columns around the room, and no visible exits. After the others reached the top, a wall of stone descended from the ceiling and blocked off the staircase they had climbed out of, which gave Rose a sinking feeling.

"Did we pass?" Amber asked, looking around at the others. "We faced four challenges, right? One for each element and creature. So did we do it?"

"Not quite," came a gravelly voice from across the room.

The lion statue from earlier stepped out from behind a pillar and advanced calmly to the center of the torch lit room.

The lion looked over them. "You have yet to face me."

"But—but we passed your challenge, didn't we?" Amber asked, wondering if she truly had passed the fire test like she had believed.

She started to approach the lion, and on instinct, George grabbed her arm and tried to keep her at a safe distance.

"We followed the riddle," Amber said, looking directly at the lion. "Your founders were defending some kind of secret; that much is clear. So you statues made four challenges for us. We were tested by earth, air, fire, and water. That's it! We did it all!"

"Did you really face all the creatures?" the lion asked, even though he knew the answer.

"Wha—well, uh…"

"He's right," Fred interjected, patting Amber on the shoulder. "All of the other statues led us to their challenges. He didn't."

"But it is true; you have passed all the tests," the lion said as he approached them. "You have proven yourselves to be strong," he said as he passed George. "You have shown bold leadership," he said as he nodded at Fred. "You have displayed true courage," he said, smiling at Amber. "And you have been self-sacrificing in the face of death," he said, stopping in front of Rose.

They all began to swell with pride as they smiled at one another.

Along the back wall, behind the lion, sat four separate pedestals, and each of their wands appeared upon the pedestals in small puffs of smoke.

"There is but one more thing to be determined. Do you possess the might of a real Gryffindor?" the lion demanded with a low growl as he returned to the center of the room. "Show me what you're really worth by defeating me!"

The stone lion began to rumble again as his features began to grow with spastic twists and jerks in his limbs until he was the size of a massive, full-grown lion. His crevices and joints began to glow hot red, and he let out an earth shattering roar.