By Katie Davidson (Virtue)
Harry reappeared in the halls of the Maze where a sudden gust of wind shot by him, almost knocking him against the wall. Velicity screamed from a far shouting, "Harry!" She ran up to him and jumped into his arms.
Harry caught her and gave her a big hug, placing her on the ground softly after. Tsutsami walked calmly up to Harry, "What do we have here?"
Harry looked at Tsutsami, "How you doing Tsutsami?"
"I see you still remember us," she snickered. "What you been up to?"
"Where's Elora?" Velicity interrupted, "Didn't she want to come too?"
Harry looked down to Velicity, "She wanted to, but she had to stay in Hogwarts. Hogwarts has experience three of its first tremors. We believe it's an earthquake."
Tsutsami nodded, "Well. Let's go see Cecil. He knows the lands better than anyone - inside and out."
"That's exactly what I was going to suggest." Harry said.
"Velicity," Tsutsami said down to Velicity, "Show Harry what I've been teaching you. Take us to Cecil."
Velicity nodded and stepped between Harry and Tsutsami. A wind picked up and a tornado appeared which lifted them off the ground and made them disappear. They reappeared near Cecil's cottage.
"Whoa." Harry exclaimed, trying not to get sick. "That was sure... uh... fun!"
"It takes some getting used to." Velicity said.
Harry looked around him, the forest in which Cecil lived looked different from what he saw before. The ice and snow that covered the trees were gone, and it was particularly bright. Birds sang and critters scattered; it was springtime. Tsutsami started to shout Cecil's name, as he was no where in sight around the front of his house. "Cecil!"
A sudden OUCH! Broke into the echo. Cecil popped up from behind the house, his thumb in his mouth. "Oh... it's you guys. What's up Harry?"
Velicity ran up to Cecil. "You're doing it all wrong!" she shouted, and ran behind him... the sudden banging of metal against nails was heard, and soft melody played.
Cecil laughed, "Velicity. You're a genius!"
"No problem!" Velicity smiled.
Cecil crouched down and picked up a small wooden box from the ground, the melody stopped, and he headed towards Harry. "It's a present for Elora."
Harry growled slightly, "Cecil. I need to know what could possibly be causing the Earthquakes at Hogwarts."
Cecil hummed silently, "I see Harry. Well, like I told you and Elora before; I've been busy working with the forests. And even so, Hogwarts isn't in the correct geographical area to experience Earthquakes."
"Well, we should still try to look into it. The tremors are starting to become a real nuisance," Harry stated, "Let's have a meeting."
Elora sat in the Ravenclaw Common Room next to the fire talking with Lizzie and Victoria. The room shook from another tremor; this was shorter than the others were.
"This is scary." Lizzie whimpered.
"Don't worry Lizzie, we'll be all right. We have Elora remember?" Victoria said trying to calm Lizzie.
Elora grinned slightly. She had told Lizzie and Victoria everything that happened to her. She knew she could trust them, they were her best friends after all. A vaster tremor came, shaking the tables and making the fire flicker out. Elora
"I'm gonna go to bed to get some rest and maybe get my mind off these tremors." Lizzie said, heading off up to the girls' dormitory.
"She's seems freaked." Victoria whispered.
Elora hummed, "I would be too if I were her. I mean, I've never experienced earthquakes before, and they are scary but..."
Suddenly another tremor hit; this one was rough. Screams echoed from the girls' dormitory, "Someone help!"
Elora and Victoria rushed to the girls' dormitory. They were both shocked at what they saw; the tremor had opened up the floor of the dormitory. Furniture hanged over the side and some fell in. "Lizzie!" a girl screamed, "Lizzie fell in! Quickly, get a Professor!"
A couple girls left to go get Professor Flitwick, the professor for the Ravenclaw House. Everyone carefully stared down the crater. Lizzie was sitting on her bed which was hanging loosely from a cliff about 10 meters down, she quivered and screamed; "Someone help me!"
"Elora." Victoria nudged Elora, "Can't you do anything?"
"I-I don't know." Elora studdered. She didn't want to look down. She was deathly afraid of heights. "I can't... just can't go down there Victoria!"
"And why not?"
"I'm afraid of heights!" Elora quivered, clinging to the doorframe.
"Oh come on!" Victoria shouted. The other girl's stared at her. She then lowered her tone and whispered to Elora, "You can defeat Voldemort but you can't save Lizzie? What kind of ultimate elemental are you?" "An ultimate elemental afraid of heights." Elora cried. Another tremor shook the room and Lizzie screamed louder, a cracking was heard. The bed Lizzie sat on started to give way on the cliff.
"Please Elora!" Victoria said, "Save Lizzie."
Elora took a deep breath, "Okay. Um..." Elora looked around, then it came to her. "Tie together the bed sheets, we'll create a rope, you can lower me down."
Soon enough all the girl's pitched in and created a long rope out of the bed sheets. One end was tied around Elora's waist and the girls held the other end as they lowered Elora down into the crater. Elora reached Lizzie, she was trembling when she noticed Elora. She tried to move, but Elora told her to move slowly. Lizzie carefully made her way off the bed over to Elora, they hung on to each other as another tremor shocked through the walls of the crater and the bed fell, crashing against the rock walls.
"That was close." Lizzie said with a sigh of relief.
"It's not over yet." Elora said, not looking down the deep crater beneath her. "I got her! Pull us up!" Slowly the bed sheet-rope pulled Elora and Lizzie upwards. They neared the top when - SNAP - the bed sheets broke and they plummeted down the crater.
Continued: Chapter 3 - First Encounter