Disclaimer: the characters belong to J.K.Rowling.
A word of apology, the trials will not be as smart as I intended them. Sadly, the muse was not with me all the time.
Ideas came from: "The Mummy", the Indiana Jones series, "Relic Hunter", "The Fifth Element"
Chapter XV – Instead of OWLs and NEWTs
~~ 1 ~~
The chamber they had entered was dark and the air was stale, warm, unbreathable. When the door shut closed behind them, the image of an old man was projected from above. It looked like a hologram, but it was just a spell. Hermione's translators allowed them to understand what the ancient wizard was saying.
"You have reached the Gates of knowledge. Your wisdom will be tested. Let the trials BEGIN!"
"I wish he hadn't said that" Bill muttered.
"Where there's no choice, there is a way" Oliver tried to act brave, although he understood the gravity of the situation.
"Shut up you two!" Hermione remembered Harry and Ron.
"The answer is the question. The end is the beginning. The meaning is the form. What is it?"
"That's the riddle? That's absolute nonsense! Why don't they give us something to work with? I hate puns!" Hermione was furious.
"It's not a play on words. It's a definition" Oliver had seen the answer, but he had never been overconfident in his intelligence. *If Hermione doesn't see it, no way I'm right*
"Well, what is it?" Bill was willing to try anything. "I have the feeling it's a time limit to this game"
"What is it, Oliver?" Hermione looked at him hopeful.
Her trust warmed his heart.
"Life" he said, shyly.
"That makes sense. Tell him" Bill prompted Hermione. "He doesn't understand English, does he?" he pointed to the ghostly wizard.
Hermione took a deep breath and uttered. "Life"
The ghost bowed and disappeared. Behind him, stood a new door.
~~ 2 ~~
They passed the threshold and found themselves in an empty room. On the other side of the room, there was another door.
"Well that's too easy!" Bill commented.
"Maybe this trap has been disarmed" Hermione said, optimistic.
They walked carefully towards the new door. They were in the centre of the room when the ground first vibrated.
"An earthquake?" Oliver wondered.
His supposition was soon disproved as the floor trembled more violently, until it broke apart in four pieces. Beneath the broken floor, they could see opening an abyss. Bill lost his balance for a second and his cell phone fell in the dark depth. They never heard it reaching the bottom of the pit.
Oliver tried to get back in the room they had come from, but the door had vanished, as it seemed to be the custom of that place. The floor was breaking further apart, each piece becoming smaller by the second.
Bill was on the quarter of the floor nearest the next door and Hermione jumped away from Oliver unto another quarter.
"What are you doing?" Oliver asked her, frantic.
"I have an idea! Let's all lean forward and support each other. The weight will be evenly distributed and the mechanism should be jammed. It's all about cooperation and equilibrium" she tried to guess the meaning of the test.
"Lean over this bottomless pit? Are you serious?" Bill wasn't happy with that suggestion.
"No, but what choice do we have?" she answered him, just as unhappy with the situation.
"We're running out of time" said Oliver, stepping to the edge of his quarter of the floor, reaching for Hermione's arm.
Reluctantly, Bill did the same thing and as soon as they had propped each other up, the floor stopped moving.
"I hope it won't start that again when we try to get to the next door!" Hermione's voice showed concern.
"We can't stay like this forever" Bill pointed out.
"Let's count to three and step back" Oliver suggested. "One, two, three"
The floor reassembled itself, allowing them to get to the next door.
~~ 3 ~~
No sooner the set foot in the next room, that they heard heavy steps coming their way. At less then three feet away they could discern the figures of seven men who seemed to have come down from the walls of the pyramids. The Ancient Egyptian costumes, the impressive weapons and the dead look in their eyes were terrifying.
Oliver stepped protectively in front of Hermione. He had a magic dagger, but that was hardly a match for seven heavily armed guys who were already dead.
"What can we do? Without the wands, we're pretty much useless" Hermione reached for her wand, out of habit.
"Can't you tell them something? A command they could understand" Bill suggested, visibly shaken.
"Prudence is the better part of valour" Oliver thought of a theory he hadn't understood before.
"Yes!" Hermione agreed. "We shouldn't try to confront them. After all, whatever they're guarding is meant for a peaceful future. We should retreat"
Against their nature, they stepped back, in a respectful attitude. Oliver was still covering Hermione with his body.
The guards froze, leaving them free way to the next door.
~~ 4 ~~
They walked cautiously in the next room. The vast chamber seemed deserted. They could see the door on the opposite side of the room. They looked around for the possible dangers, but nothing appeared. When they got close to the door they noticed that the door had three locks and three plates were in the dust laying before it. Hermione carefully approached the sealed door. She started reading the hieroglyphs carved in the stone wall.
"A sign of man's life,
A part of the foundation,
And the flesh of the spirit
Will open the gates"
"It figures" she muttered. "Another one!"
"What is the most obvious proof of life? Bill wondered aloud. "Blood, right?"
"Yeah, so?" she wasn't sure where he was getting.
"The foundation of what?" Oliver asked.
"Who build this place? The Egyptians presumably. So the foundation would be the desert. But what is the flesh of the spirit?" Bill was making assumptions.
"What are you talking about?" Hermione shouted at Bill.
"Don't you see? We should match each plate with a symbol. A drop of blood for life, a grain of sand for the foundation, but the flesh of the spirit… I don't know!"
"I think it says flesh of the spirits if it helps" Hermione read the inscription again.
"Of course! Not spirit as soul, but spirit as God. What are Gods supposed to be made of? Air! Supposedly"
"I love working with suppositions" was all Oliver could say, having no better suggestion. "Let's try!" he reached for his dagger and punctured his hand.
A drop of blood fell on the first plate. The red liquid instantly vanished and a key appeared instead.
Bill sprinkled some sand on the second plate and the second key appeared. Hermione blew gently on the third and got the third key.
They unlocked the massive portal.
The blackness of the next room was as nothing they had ever encountered. Hermione reached for Oliver's hand again, but found only darkness.
"Oliver!" she cried out.
Her shout echoed through the walls. She was alone.
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