A/N: Was a bit moody when this was written. I think you'll see what I mean....
CHAPTER EIGHT
MESSAGES
Harry stared at the magnificent tunnel. He slowly took a step forward, peering into the never-ending darkness. The damp ground made a dull sound as he walked farther into the mysterious tunnel. Harry held his wand high over his head to see more clearly.
I wonder where this goes? he thought.
He sped up now, anticipating the destination of the tunnel. Harry went to a bend and when he looked behind himself, he no longer saw the exit to the statue's mouth.
The tunnel seemed to be leading nowhere. Harry had been walking for awhile now. He wasn't even sure how long. The boring darkness seemed to lengthen the supposingly passed time, and when he looked down at his watch, only a minute or two had passed ever since the last time he had glanced at the clock. Therefor, he stopped checking the time. Now, all he could think about was the infinite tunnel.
Harry groaned thinking: I'll turn back if I don't get anywhere in 15 minutes.
But, fifteen minutes came and went, and still, Harry did not turn around. He kept telling himself that something would happen in five minutes.
It was strange. The tunnel was definitely something different, almost eerie. It seemed to grasp at Harry, drawing him into its depths, into the darkest of secrets, where no light could help him....
Harry shook his head lightly, telling himself not to think negatively. He gave a small laugh that rang nervously into the tunnel, trailing off, never to be found again. Harry listened for an echo, hoping to hear one. Nothing but silence followed.
It wasn't a cold night, but nonetheless, Harry felt cold. He felt like ice water was washing over him. He felt like his breath came out as cold fog.
He felt that something or someone was watching him. Every few minutes, Harry spun around; staring into a nothingness so real that it almost drove him to the edge of his nerve. He realized that no one but Hermione knew where he was, and even she didn't know about the secret tunnel. If he were to get lost... or hurt somehow-
Harry stopped and pushed his glasses up again. Although it felt cold, he was sweating.
He laughed inwardly to himself, telling his conscience to stop imagining things. Nothing could harm him here... or so he thought.
Harry continued on, stopping himself from gazing into the long passageway in front of him. He stared at his moving feet instead, the feet that felt like they belonged to someone else, oddly enough. He told himself to turn around, but the strange feet kept moving along as if they had a mind of their own.
The tunnel was magnetizing. It just kept propelling one to its end. It was like something really important was at the exit, something that was needed to be seen and found....
Finally, Harry reached another wall. This one greatly resembled the one before. It was creme colored and it was a little dusty, but something was peculiar about the snakes carved onto the wall. Harry looked closely at them and made out that they had clear gems for eyes.
Knowing what to do, Harry said: "Open."
A deep rumbling came from beneath his feet as if a great explosion was coming from the center of the earth, but he noticed that the floor did not shake as badly as the one before. He managed to keep his footing without support, only wavering once.
The walls parted as they had so before. And Harry stared up in awe. He gasped.
The tunnel had opened out into the wilderness. It was something he had never seen before. He scanned the ground and trees and guessed that it was the mountains by Hogwarts.
Hesitantly, Harry walked out of the tunnel. The moon shone brightly overhead as a full circle. The sounds of nighttime life rang out from the shadows.
Nearby, an owl hooted. Harry jumped, then looked into its bright brownish/yellow eyes. The owl hooted again, opened it wings and flew silently off into the night.
Harry bit his bottom lip nervously, then looked around at the scene in front of his eyes. Nothing particularly interesting was in sight, like the green gem.
Harry walked forward into the shadows. His eyes swept the ground for anything that resembled what he was searching for. Although it seemed silly, Harry also looked up into the trees. Their dark figures were outlined by the moon's light overhead.
The shadows grew more menacing as he walked into the rows of trees more. Glancing around, Harry thought of what to tell Hermione.
"Oh, there was nothing there, only trees and bushes. There were a lot of shadows also," he would tell her.
"Are you sure? Did you double-check? Perhaps you should go again. No. You should go again, just to be safe. You have to go again."
Harry wondered why Hermione was so bossy sometimes.
Suddenly, he heard something to his right. He held out his wand in front of him and stared into the darkness. There had been a subtle rustle.
Probably an animal.... Harry thought.
Warily, Harry walked on a little. He didn't hear any more strange noises, but nothing else happened either.
After a few minutes of useless searching, Harry turned back again. He doubted that the gem was still in Hogwarts or near it. Voldemort had probably used it, then hidden it somewhere else.
His mind was somewhere else as he walked back, and as he thought about the gem, he kicked something and stumbled.
"Ah!"
He dropped his wand as he tried not to fall, maintaining his balance barely.
Harry muttered, "I have to watch where I'm going...." to himself and bent over to retrieve his wand. He turned to see what had nearly tripped him.
A flat, white rock- made out of marble, Harry guessed- that was the size of his palms was half buried in the ground. There was a small hole in it, near the bottom.
Harry narrowed his eyes suspiciously and was about to take a step forward when something rustled again.
He spun around, staring into the darkness. Something was there, but he didn't know what it was. The sound repeated, now in a different place than the last. Harry turned toward where he guessed the noise was coming from.
Taking a last look into the darkness, he turned around and went back to the Secret Tunnel. The strange rock was practically forgotten under all his questions.
* * *
The moonlight streamed down onto the ground, flooding it with a silky presence. The tall trees cast mysterious shadows and the forest was vivid with sounds. But the noise suddenly died down in subtle submission.
Standing alone in the middle of a clearing in the trees, a rock began to glow softly white. This rock had a smooth surface that seemed to glitter from the shadows.
Carvings were inscripted onto the rock. The words were scrolled across the top because the bottom had a small hole dented into it. The hole had a strangely familiar shape to it....
Again, the stone glittered softly; sending small sparks onto the ground it was buried in. The mysterious white light grew.
From the rock, voices seemed to whisper....
* * *
Harry ran into the tunnel. He started to go farther when the light from the moon behind him caught his attention. The tunnel hadn't closed yet.
Harry went back. He stared up at the barely visible snakes. The wall was almost overlapped by the other one.
"Close...." Harry hissed in parseltounge.
He heard the rumbling, but he ran into the darkness of the tunnel, not caring if the terrible quakes made him fall. They echoed off the walls eerily as Harry ran on. Eventually, the rumbling stopped and all was silent.
"Lumos," Harry whispered when the darkness had swallowed him into its depths and he could no longer see in front of himself.
The light flickered on at the end of his wand. It looked small and insignificant to the size/length of the tunnel. It was the tiniest ray of hope in a world filled with darkness....
Harry finally slowed down, then walked. He tried to catch his breath. A stitch that had bothered him while he ran now grew more painful. It seemed strange to Harry that his cramps got worse when he stopped running.
Using his wand, he guided himself in the dark, damp tunnel. His own shadow flickered on the wall dimly, lighted by the small point of his wand. His footsteps sounded dully to him as he walked on through the tunnel.
Harry looked down at his watch.
2:53am
He sighed. Hermione would probably have a fit if she were still awake.
Harry wondered what Ron would say when he found out that Harry had gone to the Chamber of Secrets without him. Hopefully, he wouldn't be too upset....
Harry walked on, trying to think of his warm bed instead of the damp tunnel. He tried to think of what the next day would be like, not the present day that he was walking in.
Suddenly, almost indistinguishable, a small breeze blew from behind him.
Harry stopped. He felt the small hairs on the back of his neck rise. Suddenly, he felt strangely cold again.
Another breeze came and Harry held his breath, his fear and suspicion growing with anxiety. He thought the wind had whispered to him....
Impossible.... he told himself.
The words had been too soft to distinguish... if there were any words....
The wind again whispered to him, soft as can be, but he heard them:
"Come and go, as you may, but the Cavern of Souls shall always stay...."
The words (if they were words) repeated themselves. They were so muted that the keenest of hearing would not be able to tell them apart from the slightest breeze.
Harry slowly turned around, staring back at the darkness.... He held his wand over his head and squinted into the black of the night.
A stronger burst of wind flew. This one moved his hair as the message rang out softly, but louder than the last.
"Come and go, as you may, but the Cavern of Souls shall always stay...."
"Who's there?" Harry asked, surprised by the own sound of his voice.
He was only answered by an echo of the words spoken before....
Then, a small sparkle appeared at the end of the tunnel. It grew larger and glittered like a bright star.
The wind whispered again....
The sparkle of light slowly grew larger as the message changed.
"What lays in front of you shall always remain true, but it can be changed by none other than you...."
"What?" Harry asked to no one, now livid with fear.
"The future is cold like ice, as seen from above, but warmed not only by sacrifice, but love...."
There was a burst of light and the wind flew again, stronger than before.
"The sacrifice of the past, will become true at last, but one cannot go on, until one learns to forget...."
The small light at the end of the tunnel seemed to have become a mirror, because Harry saw himself, looking strangely pale with his wand raised. It changed and his two friends were standing beside him. Then, in slow motion, he saw himself, Hermione, and Ron turn and run....
The image misted and morphed into another.
Everyone in the school was running in havoc. They were outside of Hogwarts though....
Harry took a step back.
"What lays in front of you shall always remain true, but can be changed by none other than you...."
And the picture changed once again.
Harry's blood ran cold as he stared into the image. Dread swept over him in fury. The darkness seemed to grow darker. It seemed to press down upon him.
Harry slowly backed up even more, his head pounding with thoughts and questions.
"No...." he said, shaking his head numbly.
The image grew clearer. Sharp lines replaced the static and brought it into focus.
"No," he repeated louder.
The image flashed and changed; and right then, he spun on his heel and ran, but not before seeing Hogwarts crumbling before his eyes....
"What you see before you is true... although you will not believe...."
The voice grew louder behind him and he ran faster. He didn't believe.... It was rubbish.... It was a lie....
But something told Harry that it wasn't a lie....
"The truth is not hidden forever!"
And those words pierced Harry's heart. He strained to think of other things, but it was stamped in his mind.
He sprinted down the tunnel blindly, running as fast as he could. If he ran fast enough, he could leave reality behind him....
But from behind him, a haunting song arose. It was a human voice that sang it. The voice belonged to a female... and it triggered something in Harry's mind. He knew that voice....
It rose beautifully into the prolonged silence. Although its uniqueness was amazing, it also cut through the darkness and it chilled Harry to the bones.
He shivered involuntarily and tried desperately to block out the voice. It was only a voice, but that voice brought such impacting emotions into him. It was only a song, and it could not hurt him.... Yet, he felt as if he was torn into a thousand pieces by the echoing notes held together by a long strand of connection: each piece with millions of questions contained in them....
Harry ran faster although he thought that it was physically impossible for him to move any faster. He heard the pounding beat of his heart in his head, but even that could not sustain the eerie sound from behind him.
The voice seemed to be warning him... a warning of the terrible things that were to happen.... It was telling him in sorrow that he could not hide from the darkness forever; he could not cower behind the walls of his school any longer. He would not be protected forever....
The image before the one of Hogwarts demolishing flickered into his mind even though he was urging it out.
No....
It danced like a candle's flame, turning this way and that; and blinking every now and then.... Harry's pleas with it were in vain, for the image would not leave. It would not disperse with the mere thought of it leaving. It would not go until it served its purpose as the truth. And for a second or two, the image cleared and Harry saw it distinctly for the second time in that night.
The voice rang out from behind him as whispers clashed in. The image added on to the chaos in Harry's mind and his head pounded even harder.
No.... he thought.
Harry stumbled sideways, hitting his shoulder on the wall. He heard the harsh whispers and the song from behind him rise as he pushed himself away from the tunnel wall. He suddenly found himself standing in the statue's mouth again.
Harry turned around, eyed the snakes and gasped: "Close...."
The huge rumbling echoed off the walls. It seemed like a monstrous thing was growling. But miraculously, the singing was still heard above all the noise.
Suddenly, there was a huge flash and the tunnel was flooded with white light. Simultaneously, the voice sung a high note that cut through all evil: destroying all darkness and giving only pure hope. The note was hauntingly held and it swirled like the wind, the hurtful truth.
For a second, Harry saw someone standing in the tunnel, the light shining with power behind her. The note held by her voice rose high above everything as Harry stared into her eyes that shone like an angel's.
Harry gasped and took a step forward, toward the light. A gust of wind blew. The note and the light were abruptly cut off as the tunnel walls closed.
Harry plunged into darkness.
He took a step back as his knees buckled and he slumped against a wall. Harry slowly sat down onto the cold floor; aware of the insecure breaths he was taking. He blinked, thinking of the woman that he saw.
Her hair had been blowing around her swiftly as her white dress whipped around her ankles. She had been holding a single flower in her hands. The flower had been white, the color of purity. The light had seemed to wrap around her blindingly, but nothing could have prevented Harry from seeing her meaningful eyes: the eyes that held depth and sorrow, love and truth. The eyes that Harry recognized....
In the split second that he had seen her, Harry had recognized her.
"Mum...." Harry whispered, almost as a question. He clutched his wand tightly in his hand and closed his eyes.
It's not possible.... he thought. Then: How many times have I told that to myself? It's not possible.... Anything is possible....
Harry's mind quickly set on the message that was being delivered through the song.
"It's the truth...." it had seemed to tell him.
But could he believe? He could hardly comprehend what he had seen in the tunnel, much less what he had heard.
The Cavern of Souls... the future... cold as ice... sacrifice... love....
What did it mean?
...It can be changed by none other than you....
What could be changed?
Was Hogwarts going to fall? Was it going to be taken over by the dark lord?
But... Voldemort is scared of Dumbledore.... He can't attack the school under the headmaster's care.... Harry told himself.
Still, his subconscience told him otherwise.
The truth....
Quickly, Harry got up and ran down the stairs to the Chamber of Secrets. He didn't even stop to close the entrance into the statue.
"I can't believe it.... I won't believe it...." he told himself, yet he knew that it was another lie.
He had lied to himself that nothing could happen to him while he was at Hogwarts long ago. He had lied to himself that Voldemort couldn't have taken the green gem. Now, he was lying to himself about everything that had happened, and he knew that all the lies couldn't cover up the truth.
Before he had run away from the images, before he had seen the school destructed, he had seen something even more frightening.
Harry had seen Hermione, but her eyes had been closed. She had been pale.... She had been dead....
* * *
A small stream of light from the moon trailed into the 6th year girls' dormitory. It was a sparkling presence of good. Around it, the darkness grew.
Hermione tossed in her bed. She muttered and kicked at her covers while having a nightmare.
"No...." she moaned.
In the dream, she was in darkness. The night seemed to suffocate her, wrapping her with fear.
"Harry.... Ron...." she called out.
Then, she saw a clearing. Hermione walked out of the darkness, but it was replaced by redness. Everything was covered in a shade of red.
Hermione looked up. The sun-no, the moon- the moon was glowing red. The deep red made her insides churn and she turned away from it, staring at the ground. It was also flooded with red... a red that resembled blood....
Hermione recoiled.
Suddenly, a cackle rang out. It was all around her. It was evil laughter, and it was laughing at her....
"No.... Harry! Ron!"
There was a flash and the red was replaced by pure darkness.
There was a loud thud and a high scream.
Hermione stared down at her hands. They were shaking, and blood ran down them. Blood.... No.... Were they her own?
As she looked up and saw two red eyes looming out of the darkness. They sneered at her.
Hermione turned and ran. She ran into the darkness. She kept running blindly. She didn't dare to stop. If she stopped, something terrible would happen....
Then, something hit her foot and she tripped, falling onto her bloody hands.
Hermione looked up in horror and gasped. She saw Hogwarts, but the school was in ruins: in clumps of ashes and rocks... the very things that the magnificent castle had been built with....
Hermione turned away, got up and ran again. She ran as fast as she could go, until her throat was dry and every breath felt like she was inhaling fire; until her heart was pounding madly in her chest; until she felt like falling down in a heap, unable to do anything but lie on the floor.
But still, she wouldn't stop.
Then, Hermione came up to a wall that loomed out of the darkness menacingly. It was a barrier that would stop her.... She wouldn't be able to escape the darkness and something terrible would happen....
"No!" Hermione screamed, throwing herself onto the white, marble wall. She pounded it with all her might, making her hands throb even more with endless pain. But the pain in her hands was nothing compared to the emotions she was feeling.
It was indescribable. She had no idea why she hurt so badly; why she needed the barrier to open once more....
Hermione realized that she was crying, sobbing. She collapsed onto the ground from exhaustion. Sobs racked her body and she simply let the tears flow down her face: gingerly falling onto the earth beside her.
Something will happen... she thought, something that I have to avoid....
But inside her, she knew that she would be able to avoid nothing.
Then, a gray slab of stone appeared in front of her. With a sickening sensation, she realized that it was a gravestone. Hermione sat upright slowly and looked down at it with horror... but it was blank: it was smooth with nothing written on it.
Hermione sighed slowly, but her relief was short-lived. Letters-one by one-started to appear on the rock's smooth surface as if some unearthly force was just then imprinting them on....
H-A-R-R-Y
Everything from all around her suddenly glowed a deep, dense red.
P-O-T-T-E-R
Hermione felt a sense of dread wash over her slowly: inch by inch.
S-t-u-d-e-n-t o-f H-o-g-w-a-r-t-s
"No...." Hermione moaned, taking deep breaths. She was suffocating.... She would die also....
"NO!" she yelled, putting her hands on the gravestone as she vainly tried to push it away.
Her eyes started to sting as she looked back at the words.
She drew her hands quickly away from the tombstone and moved back wards. She had to get away from it.... It was a lie.... She had to get away from the lies....
Her handprints stood out on the surface of the rock. They stood out as an accusation.
Her hands burned hot. They hurt as if they had been scathed by fire.
It's my entire fault... she thought. It's my entire fault....
Her tears came in hot swells now. Agony ripped through her body and she clenched her fists to drive it away. A loud ringing seemed to fill her head as her words echoed around her. They grew louder, pounding in her ears.
Someone was calling, calling for her.
"Stop!" she yelled.
Someone -or more than one- started to whisper, joining the chaos.
A flower... a beautiful, white flower lay in her hands. She stared at it, bearing the pain in her head. It was so perfect. It seemed to glow.
Then -in slow motion- a drop of blood fell onto the tip of its petal. It slowly absorbed the blood and soaked red. Just as slow, the flower wilted.
Everything was red. Everything was wrong. Nothing was right. This couldn't be happening.
All the voices mixed up in her head grew louder. Her temples throbbed. She couldn't make out what they were saying; couldn't hear the individual voices.
She stood up quickly, holding her forehead.
"Hermione!" Harry's voice called from far away.
She turned around, eyes searching in all directions.
"Harry!" she screamed, trying to reach him. "HARRY!"
She ran toward where his voice had sounded before. She ran into the everlasting red.
But the gravestone appeared again.
HARRY POTTER
Student of Hogwarts
She wouldn't be able to find him. He was gone....
"It's your fault!" someone seemed to yell at her, or was she yelling at herself?
Hermione covered her ears and shut her eyes tightly, trying to block out the sounds.
"It's not my fault.... It's not my fault!"
Notwithstanding her efforts, the voices and pounding in her head continued.
Hermione turned in all directions blindly. Why were they accusing her? She couldn't have done anything. She had tried.... She had tried, but not hard enough....
Her thoughts changed and she began to blame herself.
It's my entire fault.... she thought. My fault....
Hermione held her head in her hands, trying to push out the havoc.
Darkness.... Evil....
It was too much. The redness... the blood... the laughing, the whispering, the voices.... It wasn't her fault! She couldn't have prevented it! No one could've prevented it.... Her head pounded even more painfully.
Hermione screamed.
A/N: I know it probably didn't make any sense at all.... I'm sorry! It has future meaning....