"Apprentices?" asked Hayley faintly, after a couple of awkward moments of silence. "Dark Apprentices? You're joking, right?" Tom Riddle flashed her a grin, white teeth contrasting starkly against his dark apparel and features.
"I'm afraid not, Hufflepuff dearest." He made a sign with his fingers, and Gabriel felt a slight jerk of movement on the left side of her scalp.
Looking around to see what was wrong, Gabriel saw four rather large strands of hair; a springy curl from Sarah, a waver lock from Hayley, a handful of Robert's cropped cut, and a group of straight blond hairs from Gabriel herself. They were all floating in the air, outlined in purple magic, twisting about eerily. Gabriel shuddered.
There was an explosion of magic (strangely, it was white), and where the locks of hair had been before, there were four silver pendants, golden with strange, exotic carvings decorating the perimeter of the circular object. In the center of all of them was a rather large black stone, glistening in the dim light, and reflecting swirls of color back at them. Tom made a careless flick of his wrist, and one pendant flew to each individual.
"Those are Binding Pendants, spelled to keep you here. The stone inside is a black opal, the best kind of stone in the world to store magic. If you try anything funny, or attempt to destroy them, the opal will take your life essence right out of you. So," he concluded, "don't try anything stupid, and you'll be fine."
Robert studied the medallion (which was about the size of his palm) and moved his fingers along the elaborate etching it had on it. He could almost feel the magic of it radiating up into his arms, connecting to his life essence. He sighed, and noted that there was a slim silver chain strung on the pendant. He put it around his neck, and swallowed, as it seemed to glow. Noting his appearance in a wavery mirror, he sighed again. It was too bad that an article of jewelry that was so pretty had to be so evil.
"We shall start the lessons tomorrow. Today, you need sleep to rejuvenate from the wounds of inter-dimensional travel. Chenelle, show them to their rooms," he ordered the girl in the potato-sack dress that was standing guard by the ground. Chenelle nodded obediently.
"Yes, Master Tom. Come along, you four," she beckoned. Chenelle led them out of the room, with Tom Riddle staring after them.
Chenelle picked up a clear orb that appeared to resemble a miniature crystal ball. She muttered something, and the ball filled with that eerie green glow, throwing light shadows around the halls. Picking up her plain brown dress, she nodded, and led the foursome down the long, empty corridors of the castle.
Finally, they came to a hallway that seemed a little peculiar. This hallway seemed to be a little brighter than the other ones, and the one picture that was in the hallway was one of a bright, sunny day, that made Robert feel a little better, a little less homesick then he was before. In this hallway, there were four doorways, and Chenelle pointed to all of them, explained that there was a bathroom in each one, and to summon for her if they needed any assistance. With that, and a quick bow, Chenelle left.
The girls stood outside to talk for a little bit, but Robert was in no such mood. He excused himself with a polite nod, and saying that he was tired. The girls nodded back, and went to talking in quiet whispers. Robert staggered into his room.
It was the only room that he had seen that was furnished in a color other than black. It was navy blue, close to black, but not black. The room was furnished with mahogany wood, stained a warm honey color, and there was a large mirror on the Western Wall. The bed itself was larger than life, and on either side was a window that was about four feet wide and at least fifteen feet tall, surrounded by navy curtains. There was a huge dresser under the mirror, and two doors on either side of the room. One, he assumed, was the bathroom, and the other was probably a link to one of the girls' rooms.
Too tired to do much else, Robert stripped off his boots and his heavy tunic, now only wearing the leggings and the light undershirt. He flopped on the gigantic bed and pulled the covers around him, wanting nothing more than to fall asleep and wake up at the infirmary at Hogwarts, for his aches and pains. He didn't want to be here, he didn't want to become a Dark Wizard and work for the former Voldemort. But then he felt the medallion press into his chest as he rolled onto his stomach, and knew that that was not possible.
Too tired to get up, too awake to go to sleep, Robert lay there and let his mind wander. It hit upon various things - his old school - his crotchety aunt - The first day he had met the other girls and came to Hogwarts. He even got a short glimpse of his mother, who had died when he was three. She was tall and curvy, with long, reddish-brownish hair that fell to her shoulders in ringlets. But her face was a blur, and the image was whisked away as abruptly as it had come. Then another Tarot card entered his mind. One of the cards he had gotten from his first spread with Alex popped into his brain: the Death card.
It was a card of great change, and the change depended upon the events of the spread. Robert dimly supposed that the fact that he was going to become a Dark Wizard trained by Voldemort himself, that must have been a great change. He wasn't so sure if he liked this change at all.
Finally, the soft mattress that was cradling his body like a mother's arms, and the warmth of the blankets was too overpowering. Unable to think about anything else, Robert let himself pass over into sleep.
# # #
Harry was pacing the length of the Gryffindor common room anxiously, and Hermione and Ron were watching him. Finally, Ron put a hand up to his head.
"Harry, stop pacing like that. You're giving me a bad headache, and if I think I know what you're thinking about, running a rut into the Common room floor isn't going to bring Gabriel back." Harry smiled sardonically.
"Yes, but it's better than sitting down doing nothing," he said, stopping his movement for a few moments. Hermione sighed.
"You don't have to be doing nothing, you know," she said sensibly, "You could start studying your notes for the Astronomy test tomorrow, I haven't seen you touch your notes yet, for that matter." She motioned to the pile of haphazardly stacked sheets of parchment on the table next to her. Harry looked at them and shook his head.
"I just - just hate sitting around being helpless! You know what I mean!" he cried, walking over to the fireplace and placing a hand on the mantle. Ron sighed.
"Then what do you suggest we do? It was one thing when Voldemort was in the school, but - but Harry, he's in another dimension for Christ's sake! What are we going to do? Build a machine that's can rip through the fabric of time? How do you suppose that we do that?"
Harry sighed and looked into the crimson fire, which was still leaping merrily in its iron grate. He didn't really know what he wanted, but he knew that he couldn't have it.
# # #
Hayley couldn't sleep that night. It didn't matter how comfortable her bed was, or how warm her covers were, she couldn't sleep. She was terribly homesick for one thing, and when she thought of Hogwarts her eyes began to burn painfully, but the tears wouldn't come. Rolling over, she staggered out of bed and pulled back one of the curtains. It was about the same sky as before, save it was a tad darker. Thinking about the yellow sun and the stars twinkling at night just made her homesickness worse, and she dropped the curtain and let it fall into place. Her green fire in the fireplace had been extinguished a long time ago, and it was pitch black in her room, almost. There was a lamp in the room also, but she had no idea on how to light it and she sat there in the dark until there was a creak to the left of her.
It was Gabriel. She had her hair knotted back into a dilapidated ponytail, and smiled crookedly at Hayley, who was relieved to see a familiar face.
"Hi," Gabriel said, in an unusually quiet voice. "Mind if I join you? I can't sleep either." Hayley nodded and moved over on her spot on the bed. But that was really unnessasary, as the bed was huge. Gabriel sat across from her and picked at a loose thread in the bedspread. They said nothing, just glad to be in each other's company, when the door on the other side of Hayley's room opened. In walked Robert and Sarah, and Sarah was holding something that was glowing in her hands. It was a gigantic crystal sphere.
"We thought you all might be lonely," Sarah said with a conceding smirk. Robert managed a weak smile, his face ghostly illuminated in the light of the sphere.
"Actually, we were going to see if you guys weren't too tired to be part of an experiment with us," he said wearily. Hayley smiled slightly. Anything to keep her mind off of where she was and where she wanted to be was fine with her. Sarah looked at the other two girls and smiled sleepily.
"While you guys were where ever you were, I was wandering around this castle, and I found something interesting. I found a room with a crystal ball in it, and by some means of sorcery, I was - well, maybe not me as in myself, but a projection of me was able to travel back to Hogwarts. I don't know how I did it, or what happened, but I think it might be nice to at least get a glimpse at what is going on back at home, don't you?" she asked, shooting half-lidded gray eyes around the bed. Hayley and Gabriel nodded numbly.
"Well, I found a crystal ball in one of my drawers, and well, let's try this and see if it works." She set the glowing ball in the center of them and looked at it.
"Put your hand on it and concentrate on going back to Hogwarts," she instructed. Gabriel raised a sleepy eyebrow, highly skeptical, but did so.
They all put their left hands on the ball, and started to breathe in sync. Soon, the thudding of their hearts fell into rhythm with the breathing. They shut their eyes and thought about magic, schoolhouses, friends, and whatever else made them think of their magical school. Then, little bolts of colored power - red, blue, yellow and green - started to play all over their arms, slithering in the spots in-between their fingers, and racing up into their hair. After about ten minutes of this, they all passed out.
# # #
Because of the time change that warped in-between the two dimensions, it was around breakfast time at Hogwarts when the quartet was trying to communicate with its occupants. Instead of the normal happy gossip that would have been taken place, the talking had been dowsed to a low murmur. Essex was picking at her food miserably, talking idly with the other people that were sitting at her table, her eyes occasionally gravitating towards the empty seat where Sarah normally sat, when there was a loud explosion.
The entire school looked up; the murmurs now increased to shouts of confusion. Mist was swirling around in the corners of the room, and the teachers stood up, looking around. The blobs of mist started to shape.
It was not unlike when Sarah had been projected here, except for the fact that instead of it being a perfect image, the four ghost-sculptures of Hayley, Sarah, Robert and Gabriel were not as exact. There was an exact duplicate of their bodies from the waist up, but below that, it was like a billowing cloud of gray fog. The forms opened their mouths to speak, but the words were all chopped up, like they were talking into a gigantic fan.
Finally they gave up trying to verbally communicate. Sarah, looking disgruntled, shoved her ghostly hands into the swirl of mist that must have been her bottom half. Then her eyes widened, as if she had struck something. Turning her ghostly form around to face a terrified Draco, she winked, and withdrew something from her pocket, and dropped in into the pitcher of pumpkin juice. The orange liquid slopped over the sides, dowsing everything and getting mixed in with the grits that had been lain out on the table. Then the vision of all four children started to flicker - like an image on a badly tuned television - twist, and finally dissipate into nothing. The entire hall was silent for a second. What had that been all about?
In one abrupt movement, Draco lunged for the pumpkin juice pitcher and without much regard for the floor, turned it upside down.
The juice hit on the floor, and sloshed all over the place. Along with the liquid, there was a loud 'clink' of the sound of thick glass striking tile. On the tile, covered with a thin layer of pumpkin juice, was a spherical object. Draco picked it up and wiped off the orangy residue with a clean napkin.
It was Sarah's Lumosphere. The ball was fogged up on the inside, there was a huge chip in the thick glass, and the colored orbs inside of it were gone. But it was definitely her Lumosphere. It must have gotten abused during her journey through the dimensions.
Seeing this, Draco felt bad all over again for being here, while Sarah was still stuck at that 'Castle Sapius' place. Wrapping the forsaken sphere in the napkin, Draco discreetly put it in his pocket.
# # #
When the foursome finally came to, they were all lying in the same bed, in odd positions. Gabriel had her head hanging off of her bed; Hayley was all twisted up like a pretzel. Robert had completely fallen off of the bed and was lying in a mangled heap on the floor. Sarah was laying on both of her arms that were bent awkwardly behind her back. On top of all of this, a scowling Tom Riddle was looming over top of them, looking like he could chew lead and spit bullets.
"What do you think you were doing?" he asked indignantly. "Interdimensional travel, even in spirit form, is very dangerous! You could have been killed!" All four of his apprentices groaned, and tried to rise out of their uncomfortable positions.
"I didn't know you cared so much," snarled Gabriel. Tom's white nostrils flared with angry annoyance.
"I care because it won't do to have my students killed on the first day, before we even begin!" he snapped back. "Up. Get up. All of you. NOW," he ordered. Robert drug himself off the floor with a groan. It was too early, his mind felt all muddled, and the right side of his head was throbbing, probably from where he had struck the floor when he fell out of the bed the night before. He was in no mood for this at all.
Sarah shook her arms, which were so asleep that she couldn't move them properly, and they felt numb. "So, Tommy boy, what're we doing today?" she asked, wincing as pain shot through her arms like a blazing fire. Tom sighed and rubbed at one of his temples.
"Today we're going to experiment with the Dark Arts, and see how good you are at them. For the last time, Hufflepuff, get up. It's breakfast time." He dragged all four of them, grumbling and complaining all of the way, out of the room and down to the Dining Hall.
# # #
"I want you to light that candle up over there for me," Tom Riddle said to Gabriel, pointing to a black candle on the other side of the room at which they were standing. Gabriel sighed. They had been at this for about three hours, and nobody had really been able to take to the Dark Arts very well. The only one that had managed anything was Hayley, who moved a leaf about an inch, but she was still out cold. And nobody knew if she had actually moved it or not, or if the wind had blown it over, and Hayley had fainted from the effort.
"Point at it, and say 'Somul'," Tom directed her. Gabriel planted her legs, and concentrated on the wick of the black candle.
"Somul," Gabriel said wearily, expecting nothing to happen. But something actually did happen this time.
A whirling feeling erupted in the back of her skull, making her sick. Then a feeling of pure evil swept through her. The feelings of anguish, suffering, fear and vile emotions all in one foul swoop. Frightened, Gabriel threw herself out of the magic. Tom Riddle drew his brows together in an irritated look.
"Why did you stop? You were about to light it, but when you threw the Darkness out of you, you melted the candle!" he pointed to the candelabra, which had a big glob of melted black wax drooling all over the brass. Gabriel wiped her forehead, as sweat was beginning to bead there.
"That was terrifying! All of that evil feeling just to light a candle?! There's no way in hell that I'm going to be a Dark Wizard, if I have to deal with that every time I call on your great Darkness, or whatever you call it. I want to go home! Why can't you just send us back and choose some other people that would be better suited for your job?" Gabriel wailed, her voice wavering towards hysteria. Tom stared at her with a look that was almost - almost piteous, but them it changed to a look of innocent balefulness.
"You'll get used to it. After a while, you won't notice it at all. It's a minor irritation, but as I already said, you'll get used to it. I chose you for the Dark Arts, because it is your destiny to be a student of the Darkness, and you will serve it well. You will be a good vassal for me, and then we will have power. Don't worry about going home. You will go home, eventually, but first, you have to know how to do curses, and if you can't light a bloody candle, then we've got a ways to go, right?" he asked, voice starting to get annoyed. Gabriel sighed.
"Look, we've been at this for about four hours. Don't we deserve a break? We've got all of the time in the world, literally, to learn about the Dark Arts," she pleaded. Tom sighed and rubbed his temple - his favorite sign when he was very exasperated.
"Very well. We will begin this again tomorrow," he said, almost sadly. With that, he muttered something and disappeared in a flash of purple light. Hayley, who had just groggily arisen, groaned and staggered to a sitting position.
"I suppose that that means that we can go wherever we want," she sighed as she leaned on her palms tiredly. Robert looked at the rest of the group.
"I say we split up and take different parts of the castle. That way we can get a vague idea of the layout of this place," he said. Gabriel sighed and looked at the dark walls of the castle. It did make sense, but she didn't really want to.
"Oh, very well. I'll see you at dinner then, I suppose," she sighed, taking the eastern door, from the room. Sarah and Robert looked at each other until Sarah gave them all a mock salute and left through the southern passage.
Robert sighed and gave a hand to Hayley, who accepted it and stood up on wobbly legs, dusting off her dress awkwardly. Robert nodded to her.
"I'll see you later, Hayley," he said with a slight bow, while maneuvering towards the northern exit. Hayley looked somberly at the door that he disappeared through. She didn't want to be alone, but it looked like she had no choice. Heaving a great sigh, Hayley headed towards the eastern wing of the castle.
# # #
Robert had taken the passage that lead to the rooms that the foursome ate and lived in, so there really wasn't any new rooms. The only peculiar thing that he found was a room with a greenish glow, but it had a lock on it that wouldn't budge, no matter how hard he pulled on it. He'd expected as much; most locks don't just open with a slight tug, unless the lock putter-onner is very stupid. And Tom Riddle/Voldemort was not stupid.
Sighing, he wandered the halls until he heard some faint cursing and sneezing from behind a pair of double doors. He knew that the French doors led to the Dining room, as Robert and the girls had eaten lunch in there about a half-hour ago. He gently pushed open a door and peeked in.
It was a very large room, about two hundred feet tall at it's shortest, and about the size of four Hogwarts' Great Halls combined. About fifty magnificent, shiny-brass chandeliers hung from the ceiling, each laden with three hundred black candles each, and each candle sported a green flame on it, making for a dazzling spectacle of green light that blazed along the walls, ceiling and floor, illuminating even the farthest, darkest corners of the room. The huge table with it's black tablecloth was set for at least five hundred people, and the thick, carved crystal glasses caught the green light and shimmered gracefully. The walls were black, shiny granite, carved with intricate designs of wars and bloodshed. The entire thing was so disgustingly evil-looking that it was beautiful, and blood curdling at the same time.
But the thing that caught Robert's eye was the gargantuan fireplace that engulfed the entire Western Wall. The thing was so big that four normal-size houses could have fitted inside easily. The grate was taller than three men, and the logs were entire trunks of redwood trees. Under the grate, sweeping the coal dust around was a tiny, piteous-looking creature - Chenelle.
Robert walked up to her, his shoes making quite a racket against the floor, but Chenelle was so busy sweeping, sneezing and cursing that she didn't notice him. Robert crossed over the threshold into the fireplace and thrust a handkerchief under her nose. She was so surprised that she dropped her coal-sweeper, which sent up more dust, making them both cough.
"I'm so sorry, Master Ravenclaw, I didn't see you there. Do you need anything?" she asked hurriedly, not paying any attention to the handkerchief in Robert's outstretched hand. Robert just shook his head.
"No. I just came to see if you needed any help." He handed her the handkerchief and picked up the broom, and began sweeping haphazardly around the place. Chenelle flushed.
"N-n-no, I-I-I don't think that will be necessary, I can do it myself, Master Ravenclaw," she stuttered, genuinely surprised. Robert just started to sweep the grate.
"Rubbish. Don't call me 'Master Ravenclaw'. You make me sound like a dictator, or a slave owner, and I am neither. Robert is fine, if you please," he said absentmindedly.
Chenelle grumbled and picked up another broom, and started poking it into the corners of the large fireplace. "If you insist, Robert," she said grudgingly.
"Oh but I do," he remarked saucily. He shot a side-glance at Chenelle. "I have a few questions for you, if you don't mind." Chenelle shot him a side-glance.
"My boundless fountain of knowledge is yours to tap, Robert," she replied just as saucily. Robert stifled a loud snort of laughter.
"I thank you, Chenelle. But this is kind of personal. I want to know your alliance with Tom Riddle. Are you a hired servant?" he asked. Chenelle bit her lip, and for a moment, Robert regretted posting the question at all. He was about to call back his question, but Chenelle cut him off.
"Master Tom - rather, when he was Voldemort, killed my parents when I was five, and made off with me. He did a memory charm on me, so I would think I was his daughter, but it backfired somehow, and he forgot he was going to adopt me, and thought of me as a bound servant. He started calling me 'Chenelle' for some odd reason, and the name stuck," she whispered, throat starting to close over. Robert looked at her.
"What's your birthname?" Chenelle looked at the ceiling and scowled, as if she had a hard time remembering.
"Samantha. Samantha Bronxton," she said slowly, fingering the handle of her broom as she spoke. Robert felt sorry for her.
"I'm sorry Chene - I mean, Samantha," he said awkwardly. Chenelle/Samantha just shook her head.
"I'd prefer if you call me Chenelle. If the Master finds out I still know about my parents and such, things will not go well for me." Robert nodded.
"I understand." They worked in silence for a few moments, until Chenelle piped up again.
"So, what about you, Robert Ravenclaw? What's your story?" she asked. Robert took a deep breath and tried to think up a good way to summarize things.
# # #
While Robert was befriending Chenelle (Samantha?) in the Dining room, Gabriel had wandered into the armory of the castle.
It was a very tall, narrow room, so much that it was almost like a very large, tall hallway. Taking her handkerchief, she wiped a layer of dust off of a shield. There was etching in it in a tongue that Gabriel could not speak, nor read, but the letters were elegant and curvy, and the metal shield was large, and had two arm-straps on the back.
Picking it up, she put it on her left arm, which would have been her shield arm. It had a nice heft to it and gave Gabriel a feeling of charm, gracefulness and ferocity at the same time. It was a nice feeling.
Next to the shield was a long-handled saber. It was covered with dust thicker than wool, but Gabriel cleared some of it off, and the metal shone true under it. The handle was fine ivory, with carvings inlayed in it - not just for looks, but it gave grip to the user of it as well. The finial on the top of the handle was twisted intricately and sculpted up into a gorgeous updoing.
Gabriel hefted the saber as well as the shield. It was quite heavy, and when she tried a sidesweep with it, unused muscles burned a bit. There was a greenish mirror in the back of the white room, which reflected back a wavery image when Gabriel paraded in front of it. She giggled at how silly she was being. She was in a Dark Castle, learning the Dark Arts, facing the possibility of not ever returning home ever again, and here she was, playing dress up.
Striking a heroic pose in front of the mirror, she grinned. She had always loved tales of chivalry and courage, and one of her favorite stories was about King Author and his knights. Many a night she had spent dreaming about cantering over green fields on a horse (normally white), in the squadron of brave knights. She would be the fiercest warrior maiden that ever walked the planet, for her generation, and for many to come. She would wear beautifully handcrafted, light chain mail, and fight ogres, slay evil dragons, rescue the damsels in distress and the like. 'Gryffindor the Great', they would call her. Gabriel giggled at her own foolishness. She did a bad imitation of a backsweep slash and saw her reflection in the mirror.
She could dream, couldn't she? She slung the shield over her back, twirled the sword, and went to explore the rest of the armory.
# # #
Hayley's wing of the castle had almost literally, nothing in it. She had passed by three empty rooms, a portrait gallery full of half-done pictures and empty expanses of halls with nothing in them except for torches stationed on the walls. Hayley sighed. She knew that she should be grateful that she hadn't encountered the flesh-eating lion room, but this was almost worse.
Thinking absentmindedly, she didn't notice where she was walking until she felt something tickle the top of her scalp. She almost shrieked out, but bit on her lip and ran into a corner, heeding the saying: 'Before you turn around, you'll be six feet underground'.
Finally, when she was sure that it wasn't something trying to kill her, she turned around. It was only a knotted rope hanging from the ceiling. Feeling very stupid, she stood under it and looked up. There was a box-shaped outline on the ceiling. Curious, she gave the rope a tug.
Part of the ceiling shuddered back into a groove, and a rope ladder, made out of magic descended from it. Hayley climbed up it.
It led to a huge attic. Make that a huge empty attic. Hayley thought that she would scream with frustration.
"Isn't there anything in this castle worth looking at?!" she screamed to nobody. The shout echoed throughout the castle. Hayley blushed at her own outburst, and chastised herself, saying that she should keep a better leash on her temper.
Sighing, she looked around the attic dejectedly, and something caught her eye. In the farthest corner of the room was a shadowy object. She scampered to her feet, and started to walk over to it, careful not to put her foot in between any of the beams.
It was a giant trunk. Looking at it, Hayley began to breathe faster, and her heartrate picked up. Maybe it was a book of spells, telling her how to get out of here. Or maybe it was a potion, which would transport her and her three friends somewhere. Or maybe it was the instructions on how this 'storybook dimension' was created, and they could reverse it somehow, so the dimension would cave in on itself. Maybe...Maybe....
It was locked.
Wanting to scream in frustration again, Hayley stood up and kicked at the lock, shaking the entire trunk, and the sound of her foot connecting with the metal, and the metal knocking back against the wood echoing about a thousand times. In anger, she kicked it again.
Snap!
The old lock snapped in two, and the bottom half fell to the ground with a clatter. In awe, Hayley stooped and picked up the broken lock. It was rusted clean through, and Hayley's force on it must have finally overpowered it, and it had broke.
Not exactly mourning over the forsaken lock, Hayley flung the top up. When the cloud of dust had settled, Hayley peered into its contents.
It was practically empty. The insides were lined with silk that had thinned and worn from age. The entire thing was coated with a thin layer of dust, and it made her sneeze. All that was inside was a large bag, and folds of fabric. Hayley took both out.
Looking into the bag, Hayley found something very odd. Spools of thread. But it was no ordinary thread. It shimmered with vibrant colors, so vibrant that it made Hayley's eyes hurt just to look at it. White power emitted from it. The bright, radiant pinks, blues, reds and yellows were strange compared to the dark, drab colors of the castle. Inside was also two smaller pouches, one holding needles, and the other holding a finely engraved, elaborate pair of silver scissors. Putting all of this back, Hayley unfolded the white cloth.
It was a huge, intricate tapestry. The stitches were almost microscopic-looking, and they were perfectly straight and the same size. The border was finished, and it was a harmonious picture of grapevines, ribbons, and ivy, with tiny, perfect doves embroidered so they would look like they were weaving the ribbons throughout the ivy. Every now and then, there would be a beautiful flower erupting from one of the ivy vines, or a bunch of juicy-looking purple grapes from the grapevines. Hayley ran her fingers over it in awe. That alone would have taken her a lifetime to finish.
But, in the center of the border was something even more curious. It was a picture of Dark beings fighting Light beings; the typical fight between good and evil. But it was only half finished.
Although for the fact that Hayley Hufflepuff was no seamstress, nor was she very competitive in team things, she did love a challenge. To see the tapestry half-done seemed a terrible waste and a crime. Her fingers itched to pick up the needle herself, and try it.
And why not? It wasn't like anybody had been using it, or working on it recently. It had probably been there for centuries.
Looking around, she refolded the tapestry and shouldered the bag. And with that, Hayley Hufflepuff looked for a place to sit and freshen up on her embroidery skills.
# # #
Sarah walked around the castle sleepily. She wasn't looking for anything, and she didn't really care if she found anything. Personally, she would have been perfectly content to just walk around aimlessly. It was nice to be alone for a while. She had been walking for about five minutes when the smell of paper, ink and dust filled her nostrils: the smell of a library.
Squealing with delight, Sarah tore into the room to her right. It was indeed, a very big library, jam-packed with books. Sarah looked around joyously for a few moments, before a very thick book that lay open on a table attracted her attention. Sarah walked up it it, and peered down her nose at the words.
I never claimed to be a king
I never claimed to be a monarch
I never claimed to be a ruler
I never claimed to be a righteous heart.
I never wanted to be a king
I never wanted to own lands and pride
I never wanted to rule the people
I never wanted to make rules for them to abide.
I never thought to be a king
I never thought to be prepared
I never thought it would come to this
I never thought anyone cared.
I don't want to be a king
I don't want to deal with horrors of the land, air and sea
I don't want the problems
Simply because I never claimed to be.
Sarah blinked at the short poem. Grabbing the book, she flipped to the cover page of the large, leather-bound book.
The Ballad of the Underworld.
Sarah scrunched up her nose in thought. Didn't Tom Riddle say something about this book being the setting for the Castle Sapius? Maybe if she read it, she might understand things better.
Looking around, Sarah Slytherin found a comfortable niche where she could read her large, newfound book. Read she did.
# # #
Finally, when all of the clocks of the castle clanged seven o'clock. That meant it was dinnertime. The foursome hid their objects, and entered the dining room.
They didn't know why, but they all thought it for the best not to tell Tom Riddle about their finds. Robert shot a side glance at Chenelle, and she returned it with a look of terror, obviously telling Robert that she would prefer to keep their meeting in the fireplace a secret.
Hayley sucked at her right finger. She had spent the rest of the day trying to sew the rest of the design on her tapestry. It was slow, tedious work, but Hayley felt this strange compulsion to finish it. She hadn't sewn in a while, not since she had left her mansion in Ireland, so she was quite out of practice. Her entire body ached with the effort of sitting still, her eyes felt strained out by the efforts of staring at little stitches, and the needle had pricked her fingers so many times that they were bleeding. Cursing softly, Hayley wrapped her fingers in a napkin and added pressure so she could stop the bleeding.
Gabriel's muscles were burning like anything from hefting the saber and the shield for long hours in the armory, and she now felt overly lightheaded from not having them on. Gritting her teeth, she painfully brought her fork to her lips. She had never remembered when eating had been so hard. But her body still itched to pick up the armor again, despite the pain. Gabriel couldn't figure out for the life of her why.
Sarah had a very bad headache from straining to read the tiny print in The Ballad of the Underworld, and she still hadn't gotten very far. Avid reader though she was, the text of the book was done in rhymes and sonnets, and that made for difficult reading. What made it even worse was that the words were in Old English, and Sarah had trouble translating some of it. She rubbed at her swollen eyes miserably.
Tom Riddle looked at all of his students suspiciously. Something was up with them, though he couldn't figure out what. He had even gone so far to try to See into their minds with Dark Divination, but something odd was happening. He was encountering some kind of White barrier that deflected the Dark magic that he was sending out. Very peculiar. The only way that one could do that was if one was expert at White magic (which was even harder to learn then Dark magic) or if some supernatural force had Chosen the children and decided to protect them. Since Tom was quite positive that they didn't know much (if any) White magic, that only left one other other option. Tom Riddle shuddered a bit. Who would think to do that? The only other kind of magic like that he had encountered was one of a certain Harry Potter, but that was only because his mother had died to save him. Nobody had died for these four.
Thinking their own separate thoughts, the five ate their supper in silence.
# # #
A bright white flash of light awoke Robert from a deep slumber. At first he had thought it was nothing, but when it occurred again, he sat up in bed. He heard a muffled shriek from Hayley's room, the shuffling sound of someone sitting up in Gabriel's room, and a loud thud and some colorful language from Sarah's room, as if she had fallen out of bed. Robert eased out of bed and went out into the hall, staggering into a black silk bathrobe on the way. The other three girls appeared also, looking very sleep-deprived and bedraggled as they stumbled out of their rooms.
"What the hell was that?!" asked Sarah indignantly, putting her hand on her hip.
"I don't have any idea at all..." Robert began, but Hayley cut him off.
"Look!!" she cried and pointed down the hallway.
It was a bright, glowing speck of some sort, flitting around the hall, like some sort of deranged, oversized firefly. It came closer, and then flew a little ways away again, in a taunting fashion.
"I think it wants us to follow it," Gabriel said, stepping closer. Sarah snorted.
"No joke, Jack. Got any more intelligent observations to make, Dr. Stupid?" she asked, with rather a swagger tilt to her voice. Gabriel rolled her eyes. She knew better than to take Sarah seriously at this hour. But they all followed the flying white speck.
It raced down hallways, up stairwells, and through doors tapestries or pictures concealed that. As they ran father, the walls got dustier and dustier, and Robert could tell that this was a place where nobody had traveled in a long time.
Finally, after the flying...flying thing led them around for nearly a half hour, when they came to a hallway that had dust on the walls nearly an inch thick. It was a slim corridor, so slim that they almost had to walk Indian file. Oddly, there was a torch on the wall, throwing dusty light over the walls. Hayley looked at it strangely. Why was there a torch here, if nobody had been here in ages, so it seemed. All eyes were on the flying dot as it landed on a tile, and dissipated into nothing, leaving a slight shimmer on the square, dust-covered tile. Gabriel walked up to it, and gingerly pushed it.
The tile pushed into the wall, and the dead end in front of them opened into a small room.
The room was not much bigger than a standard size bathroom, and there was a dust-covered chair and a table in the center of it. There was an inkwell and a flattened quill lying on the table, looking like it had been used and abandoned quickly. There was a white candle on the table, burning with the normal, friendly red flame. Hayley pursed her lips. Why was the candle lit? On the table, there was a puddle of dried ink, and a folded piece of parchment. Sarah picked it up and was about to unfold it, when there was a shriek from Robert. He pointed to the wall behind him.
There were words crookedly carved into the tile, as if the person who had been chiseling them was in a great hurry when he or she was carving. Robert quickly took off his bathrobe and buffed away the dust. The foursome read the writing.
They think that I am dead
But they know naught at all
Up - as is
To the four inside this hallowed room I call
There is beauty in the horror
Hope within the sorrow
Up - as is
The future may be bright tomorrow
Four days ride from home
The sun strikes true yonder
Up - as is
A thought for you to ponder
Four of you have entered
But five of you will leave
Up - as is
With your power, we may believe
Heart strengthens the soul
Blood strengthens the spell
Up - as is
Then, I will return as well.
-King Archibald the III
The foursome said nothing as they inspected the etchings. What did this mean? Up - as is? What the heck was that? What will return? Their heads were buzzing with questions that had no answers. Finally, Sarah opened the ancient parchment, and the foursome looked at the words.
Yongher Meridian
What was that?! The foursome looked at each other with awe and fear. Finally, Sarah snorted and put the piece of parchment in her pocket.
"Looks like another job for the Boxcar Children," she scoffed.
Authors Note: Sorry that that took so long. It was just that I had to call upon my *great* poetic talent to do this chapter. There will only be one, maybe two more chapters, and then this will be over with! ::Assorted cheers and boos:: Well, I don't know whether to be happy or sad about that. Up - as is? Well, I know what it is (well, obviously), but do you? If you do, don't post it up in the review columns, please. I want people to be able to figure this out themselves. Just for a fling, how many people here have read Redwall? That's where I got the idea for the 'Up - as is' from. Be sweet and Review! (As always, no flames if you don't like!)
~Moxie ^_^
Disclaimer: Everything here that is in the Harry Potter series belongs to J.K. Everything that isn't mentioned in the Harry Potter series belongs to me. Nuff' said. ~_^