Chapter Eleven
"We all have to fit under your invisibility cloak?" Sara asked in disbelief, "Mike will never fit."
"Enough with the tall jokes, please." Mike rolled his eyes.
"Well, some of us don't have to go," Hermione suggested.
"NO!" we all shouted at the same time. She shrugged. "Just a suggestion."
"Then we'll have to go in shifts." Harry said, "The third floor's not far from here. I'll go back and forth bringing everyone."
We had to agree. I had to anticipate an entire evening in the common room, waiting for everyone to go to bed. It was torture.
"Ha! Got ya again! Checkmate!" Ron grinned.
"Aw, I give up." Mike groaned. "Chess is stupid."
"No it's not, not wizard chess. It's better than that muggle thingy you call chess."
"Whatever, you are too good."
Mike got up and walked around impatiently. Finally, fifteen minutes later, the last person went up to bed and we got ourselves ready. I tied my robe tighter around my neck, trembling. I knew I probably wasn't gonna be in that last chamber, but still.
"Hey!" Sara whispered to me, pointing her finger around the group as if counting, ".five, six, seven. We're almost the Fellowship going out on a noble quest. You're still Merry."
"Then who are you? Harry's obviously Frodo."
"I want to be Legolas."
I giggled and marched to the painting opening. I was the second shift. Ron and Hermione were going first.
"You're going out again, aren't you guys?" I spun around, it was Neville, of course.
"N-no, Neville we're not." Harry stammered.
"You can't go out again. You'll get into trouble. You've already lost too many points for Gryffindor. Don't go. I-I'll fight you." He raised his pudgy fists timidly.
This part of the movie always made me cry. Don't ask me why. (Now you parlez vous-francais.) I held back a tear that almost escaped for the pitiful boy who just wanted to be like his brave and bold friends. (Sniff, sniff)
Anyway, Hermione raised her wand.
"Neville, I'm really, really sorry about this." She shut her eyes and said, "Sintrificus Totalus!" Neville's whole body froze and he fell backwards, stiff as a board. Ron and Harry were watching in disbelief. Then they recovered and put on the invisibility cloak, whispering, "It's for your own good, you know." Then they left.
It was a little awkward standing there watching a frozen Neville wiggle his eyes around (because those were the only thing he could move in the full body bind). Harry swiftly came back and took Sara, Mell and me.
We walked slowly, carefully not stepping on anyone's foot. When we stepped cautiously inside the third floor corridor, Sara took out her wooden flute. Harry, Ron and Hermione watched curiously as she started to play.
"The way to tame Fluffy is to get him to fall asleep with music." Mell whispered to them. They nodded in understanding. Sara started a tune that I recognized as "Concerning Hobbits," a pretty tune that made you think of sunshine and running through the fields with the daisies.
We edged toward the sleeping creature.
"We have to move its paw," Mell hissed. We each took a side and shoved it carefully away from the trapdoor. Harry opened it and gulped. It was total darkness down there.
"I'm going first, wait for my yell, then follow me. If something happens to me, get out and send a message to Dumbledore." He slowly lowered himself down so he was hanging by his fingertips. I held my breath.
There was a silence. Sara had stopped playing to get ready to jump. There was a growl and a gargle. We looked up, the dogs had awakened. We all screamed, or at least I did. Harry let himself drop and I clambered down after him.
Now, one of my worst fears is falling. I hate the feeling that your stomach is in your mouth and when you land, something terrible will happen. But I landed with a "flump" on a soft plant. Like rain, we dropped from the little postage-stamp size trapdoor. After recovering from my fear, I jumped off as quickly as possible. Harry was still in though, catching his breath. After we were all down, the ones that knew what we had landed in got off quickly. Hermione got off after us, figuring there was a good reason. Harry, Ron, and Mike were still there gasping for breath.
"Lucky this plant was here to break our fall," Mike panted.
"Lucky?" I shrieked, "Look around you!"
Already the plant had wrapped itself around the boys' legs and arms sneakily.
"It's Devil's Snare!" Hermione remembered, "You guys, remain still and calm, or it'll only kill you faster."
"Kill us faster?" Ron struggled, "Oh now I can relax!"
"Trust me!" Hermione said.
"Yeah, trust her!" Sara, Mell and I echoed.
"Please, just stop moving so much!" Hermione pleaded. The vines and wrapped around Mike's neck now, making him choke and his eyes tear. I gulped.
Harry was the first to get out. He relaxed himself and fell onto the cold floor, gasping.
"Ron! Mike! Come on!" we shouted, beckoning. They were both unable to speak by now.
Hermione seemed to be thinking hard.
"Oh, what is it that Devil's Snare doesn't like? What is it? What is it?" she hammered her fingers on her forehead.
"Doesn't it like cold, wet places?" Sara asked.
"YES! That's it! It hates light!"
"Then get on with it!" Ron screeched.
"Well, yes, but there's no wood!" she panicked, wringing her hands, looking around.
"HERMIONE! Are you a witch or not?" Ron yelped.
"Oh, right." She flung out her wand and whispered the magic words (pun intended). Fire shot out from the tip and flew towards the plant. It shrank away, quietly releasing the two boys from its grip. Gasping on the floor, they slowly stood up. Ron was rolling his eyes, looking angry.
" 'There's no wood!' Honestly!" Hermione glared at him.
We walked in a tight group to the next chamber. Sara had stuck her wooden flute in her belt. She had her wand on the other side. I did the same.
"Look Sara, now I have a little hobbit sword!" I said, swinging my wand around, then sticking it back in my belt. She didn't answer as we entered the next chamber that was filled with a fluttering of wings sound.
"They look like birds!" Harry said.
"No-no, they're keys!" Mike said. I elbowed him in the ribs.
"Let them figure it out!" I hissed, giving him a look.
"Yes, they are keys!" Ron agreed. "Winged keys! I'll bet one of them goes to that door."
He pointed to the door on the other side of the room, about fifty feet away. There were ten brooms laying by the wall on the left. Ron ran to the other side.
"The key is probably silver and old-fashioned, like the handle," he shouted. We each took a broom and flew up, some more steadily than others.
"There!" Hermione shouted, pointing, "The one with the bent wing!"
As soon as she said that, the keys started flying around really fast, like in the movie.
"That complicates things a bit." Mike said, swatting at the keys.
"It's over there!" Mell pointed to the corner. We all stationed ourselves. I got under it, Sara and Mell around it and Mike and Harry above it. After counting to three, we all zoomed towards the silver key. It flew towards Sa and she drove to the wall, slamming her hand over it with a sickening crunch.
Giving a wild whoop, I yelled "Go Sara! Go Sara!"
She sailed down and handed the key to Ron who opened the door. We all came down and went through the next door, closing it quickly as the keys came raining down on us.
It was all dark until we came in and fire was lit on little torches surrounding the room.
"Oh great." I said, looking at the scene. It was the giant chess set.
"It's a chess set!" Ron said. "I'll bet we have to play our way across!"
Huge black pieces about three times the size of me lurked in front of me as I stepped forward. Ron motioned everywhere.
"Now, no offense, but you guys can't really play chess."
"No, no, go ahead." We said in unison.
"I'll be a knight." Ron said, "Harry, you be the queen side castle. Hermione, you can be the king side castle. The rest of you can be pawns."
I walked timidly to the empty square in the front.
"Ron?" Mike asked, "You don't think this is going to be like real wizard's chess, do you?"
"I don't know." Ron looked really pale. "Look, white move's first."
A huge white pawn moved ahead one place.
And so the game began. It scared the living daylights out of us the first time the white queen smashed the head off one of our pawns. After a while, Ron looked perplexed.
"What?" Sara asked.
"Well, um, some of you will have to sacrificed, including me."
I swallowed, shaking. I'll just duck, that's all, I thought, I'll just duck. Sara and Mell got a little pale. Ron shouted the command and I walked over one block. The queen slowly proceeded my way. She swung out her stone sword and lashed at me. I ducked, obviously, and she singed my hair, covering me with dust. I tripped and rolled off the board.
"Oh my God!" someone shouted as the dust cleared.
"I'm okay!" I yelled. I felt a small gash on my forehead from falling forwards. The blood felt sticky on my trembling fingers. Sara leapt off the board as the queen swung at her. Then it was Ron's turn. I saw him shaking uncontrollably, giving the command. His stone horse moved ever slowly towards the queen.
"Check," he whispered hoarsely. The queen came closer and closer to him (cue dramatic music) and swung at him. He couldn't duck so the horse crumbled into pieces and Ron slammed onto the floor cut by the stone fragments. I'm sure we all screamed that time.
"Ron!" Hermione shouted.
"No, don't move!" Harry shouted at her, "Remember we're still playing."
Harry moved towards the king and whispered, "Checkmate."
As the movie, the king's sword fell at Harry's feet. There was a brief silence and we all rushed to Ron's quivering body. He was covered in dust and stone pieces and he seemed alive, but in a faint.
"I'll stay with him." Hermione said immediately.
"But-
"No Harry, the rest of you go on. Mike can stay here and help me get him back up to the hospital wing. Go on."
Harry sighed and stood up. He was covered in dust and his robes were ripped.
"Come on you guys."
Mike stayed behind and picked up Ron. Hermione hugged us all and whispered a faint goodbye.
The next door opened with a creak. A protrude smell filled the air and I was instantly reminded of the toilets at the mall.
"It's a troll," Mell whispered. It seemed to have been passed out, but was stirring, and was starting to get up, grunting.
"Ffssitsck!" an arrow whizzed past my ear and pierced the neck of the troll. I turned around and saw Sara lowering a bow.
"Where on Earth did you get that?" I asked.
"It was on the floor here. Told you I was Legolas." I raised an eyebrow and we stepped over the now dead troll to the next chamber.
It was again dark and there was a small table on the left side wall. As we entered the doors slammed shut and locked. There was no way out. We cautiously stepped over. It's gonna be Snape's thing, I thought, but I was wrong.
There was a picture with a symbol that was lit up in a strange light. The symbol was of a 'w' with little 'wings' on either side of it. We looked at each other confusedly. There was a note on the table. It said,
"Interpret the symbol above and write on the red line below. If correct, only one will be able to enter the next chamber, all others will return through the other door.
Beware the next chamber!"
"I'll go over," Harry said. We all knew he had to be the one anyway, but we nodded.
"Hey, I know what that symbol is!" Mell smiled, laughing. Harry looked over at her, wearily.
"WEEZER!" she yelled and the doors on either side opened.
"All right!" I said. Harry started towards the other door.
"Hey, be careful," I said to Harry before he left. He nodded timidly and turned, entering through the last chamber.
"We all have to fit under your invisibility cloak?" Sara asked in disbelief, "Mike will never fit."
"Enough with the tall jokes, please." Mike rolled his eyes.
"Well, some of us don't have to go," Hermione suggested.
"NO!" we all shouted at the same time. She shrugged. "Just a suggestion."
"Then we'll have to go in shifts." Harry said, "The third floor's not far from here. I'll go back and forth bringing everyone."
We had to agree. I had to anticipate an entire evening in the common room, waiting for everyone to go to bed. It was torture.
"Ha! Got ya again! Checkmate!" Ron grinned.
"Aw, I give up." Mike groaned. "Chess is stupid."
"No it's not, not wizard chess. It's better than that muggle thingy you call chess."
"Whatever, you are too good."
Mike got up and walked around impatiently. Finally, fifteen minutes later, the last person went up to bed and we got ourselves ready. I tied my robe tighter around my neck, trembling. I knew I probably wasn't gonna be in that last chamber, but still.
"Hey!" Sara whispered to me, pointing her finger around the group as if counting, ".five, six, seven. We're almost the Fellowship going out on a noble quest. You're still Merry."
"Then who are you? Harry's obviously Frodo."
"I want to be Legolas."
I giggled and marched to the painting opening. I was the second shift. Ron and Hermione were going first.
"You're going out again, aren't you guys?" I spun around, it was Neville, of course.
"N-no, Neville we're not." Harry stammered.
"You can't go out again. You'll get into trouble. You've already lost too many points for Gryffindor. Don't go. I-I'll fight you." He raised his pudgy fists timidly.
This part of the movie always made me cry. Don't ask me why. (Now you parlez vous-francais.) I held back a tear that almost escaped for the pitiful boy who just wanted to be like his brave and bold friends. (Sniff, sniff)
Anyway, Hermione raised her wand.
"Neville, I'm really, really sorry about this." She shut her eyes and said, "Sintrificus Totalus!" Neville's whole body froze and he fell backwards, stiff as a board. Ron and Harry were watching in disbelief. Then they recovered and put on the invisibility cloak, whispering, "It's for your own good, you know." Then they left.
It was a little awkward standing there watching a frozen Neville wiggle his eyes around (because those were the only thing he could move in the full body bind). Harry swiftly came back and took Sara, Mell and me.
We walked slowly, carefully not stepping on anyone's foot. When we stepped cautiously inside the third floor corridor, Sara took out her wooden flute. Harry, Ron and Hermione watched curiously as she started to play.
"The way to tame Fluffy is to get him to fall asleep with music." Mell whispered to them. They nodded in understanding. Sara started a tune that I recognized as "Concerning Hobbits," a pretty tune that made you think of sunshine and running through the fields with the daisies.
We edged toward the sleeping creature.
"We have to move its paw," Mell hissed. We each took a side and shoved it carefully away from the trapdoor. Harry opened it and gulped. It was total darkness down there.
"I'm going first, wait for my yell, then follow me. If something happens to me, get out and send a message to Dumbledore." He slowly lowered himself down so he was hanging by his fingertips. I held my breath.
There was a silence. Sara had stopped playing to get ready to jump. There was a growl and a gargle. We looked up, the dogs had awakened. We all screamed, or at least I did. Harry let himself drop and I clambered down after him.
Now, one of my worst fears is falling. I hate the feeling that your stomach is in your mouth and when you land, something terrible will happen. But I landed with a "flump" on a soft plant. Like rain, we dropped from the little postage-stamp size trapdoor. After recovering from my fear, I jumped off as quickly as possible. Harry was still in though, catching his breath. After we were all down, the ones that knew what we had landed in got off quickly. Hermione got off after us, figuring there was a good reason. Harry, Ron, and Mike were still there gasping for breath.
"Lucky this plant was here to break our fall," Mike panted.
"Lucky?" I shrieked, "Look around you!"
Already the plant had wrapped itself around the boys' legs and arms sneakily.
"It's Devil's Snare!" Hermione remembered, "You guys, remain still and calm, or it'll only kill you faster."
"Kill us faster?" Ron struggled, "Oh now I can relax!"
"Trust me!" Hermione said.
"Yeah, trust her!" Sara, Mell and I echoed.
"Please, just stop moving so much!" Hermione pleaded. The vines and wrapped around Mike's neck now, making him choke and his eyes tear. I gulped.
Harry was the first to get out. He relaxed himself and fell onto the cold floor, gasping.
"Ron! Mike! Come on!" we shouted, beckoning. They were both unable to speak by now.
Hermione seemed to be thinking hard.
"Oh, what is it that Devil's Snare doesn't like? What is it? What is it?" she hammered her fingers on her forehead.
"Doesn't it like cold, wet places?" Sara asked.
"YES! That's it! It hates light!"
"Then get on with it!" Ron screeched.
"Well, yes, but there's no wood!" she panicked, wringing her hands, looking around.
"HERMIONE! Are you a witch or not?" Ron yelped.
"Oh, right." She flung out her wand and whispered the magic words (pun intended). Fire shot out from the tip and flew towards the plant. It shrank away, quietly releasing the two boys from its grip. Gasping on the floor, they slowly stood up. Ron was rolling his eyes, looking angry.
" 'There's no wood!' Honestly!" Hermione glared at him.
We walked in a tight group to the next chamber. Sara had stuck her wooden flute in her belt. She had her wand on the other side. I did the same.
"Look Sara, now I have a little hobbit sword!" I said, swinging my wand around, then sticking it back in my belt. She didn't answer as we entered the next chamber that was filled with a fluttering of wings sound.
"They look like birds!" Harry said.
"No-no, they're keys!" Mike said. I elbowed him in the ribs.
"Let them figure it out!" I hissed, giving him a look.
"Yes, they are keys!" Ron agreed. "Winged keys! I'll bet one of them goes to that door."
He pointed to the door on the other side of the room, about fifty feet away. There were ten brooms laying by the wall on the left. Ron ran to the other side.
"The key is probably silver and old-fashioned, like the handle," he shouted. We each took a broom and flew up, some more steadily than others.
"There!" Hermione shouted, pointing, "The one with the bent wing!"
As soon as she said that, the keys started flying around really fast, like in the movie.
"That complicates things a bit." Mike said, swatting at the keys.
"It's over there!" Mell pointed to the corner. We all stationed ourselves. I got under it, Sara and Mell around it and Mike and Harry above it. After counting to three, we all zoomed towards the silver key. It flew towards Sa and she drove to the wall, slamming her hand over it with a sickening crunch.
Giving a wild whoop, I yelled "Go Sara! Go Sara!"
She sailed down and handed the key to Ron who opened the door. We all came down and went through the next door, closing it quickly as the keys came raining down on us.
It was all dark until we came in and fire was lit on little torches surrounding the room.
"Oh great." I said, looking at the scene. It was the giant chess set.
"It's a chess set!" Ron said. "I'll bet we have to play our way across!"
Huge black pieces about three times the size of me lurked in front of me as I stepped forward. Ron motioned everywhere.
"Now, no offense, but you guys can't really play chess."
"No, no, go ahead." We said in unison.
"I'll be a knight." Ron said, "Harry, you be the queen side castle. Hermione, you can be the king side castle. The rest of you can be pawns."
I walked timidly to the empty square in the front.
"Ron?" Mike asked, "You don't think this is going to be like real wizard's chess, do you?"
"I don't know." Ron looked really pale. "Look, white move's first."
A huge white pawn moved ahead one place.
And so the game began. It scared the living daylights out of us the first time the white queen smashed the head off one of our pawns. After a while, Ron looked perplexed.
"What?" Sara asked.
"Well, um, some of you will have to sacrificed, including me."
I swallowed, shaking. I'll just duck, that's all, I thought, I'll just duck. Sara and Mell got a little pale. Ron shouted the command and I walked over one block. The queen slowly proceeded my way. She swung out her stone sword and lashed at me. I ducked, obviously, and she singed my hair, covering me with dust. I tripped and rolled off the board.
"Oh my God!" someone shouted as the dust cleared.
"I'm okay!" I yelled. I felt a small gash on my forehead from falling forwards. The blood felt sticky on my trembling fingers. Sara leapt off the board as the queen swung at her. Then it was Ron's turn. I saw him shaking uncontrollably, giving the command. His stone horse moved ever slowly towards the queen.
"Check," he whispered hoarsely. The queen came closer and closer to him (cue dramatic music) and swung at him. He couldn't duck so the horse crumbled into pieces and Ron slammed onto the floor cut by the stone fragments. I'm sure we all screamed that time.
"Ron!" Hermione shouted.
"No, don't move!" Harry shouted at her, "Remember we're still playing."
Harry moved towards the king and whispered, "Checkmate."
As the movie, the king's sword fell at Harry's feet. There was a brief silence and we all rushed to Ron's quivering body. He was covered in dust and stone pieces and he seemed alive, but in a faint.
"I'll stay with him." Hermione said immediately.
"But-
"No Harry, the rest of you go on. Mike can stay here and help me get him back up to the hospital wing. Go on."
Harry sighed and stood up. He was covered in dust and his robes were ripped.
"Come on you guys."
Mike stayed behind and picked up Ron. Hermione hugged us all and whispered a faint goodbye.
The next door opened with a creak. A protrude smell filled the air and I was instantly reminded of the toilets at the mall.
"It's a troll," Mell whispered. It seemed to have been passed out, but was stirring, and was starting to get up, grunting.
"Ffssitsck!" an arrow whizzed past my ear and pierced the neck of the troll. I turned around and saw Sara lowering a bow.
"Where on Earth did you get that?" I asked.
"It was on the floor here. Told you I was Legolas." I raised an eyebrow and we stepped over the now dead troll to the next chamber.
It was again dark and there was a small table on the left side wall. As we entered the doors slammed shut and locked. There was no way out. We cautiously stepped over. It's gonna be Snape's thing, I thought, but I was wrong.
There was a picture with a symbol that was lit up in a strange light. The symbol was of a 'w' with little 'wings' on either side of it. We looked at each other confusedly. There was a note on the table. It said,
"Interpret the symbol above and write on the red line below. If correct, only one will be able to enter the next chamber, all others will return through the other door.
Beware the next chamber!"
"I'll go over," Harry said. We all knew he had to be the one anyway, but we nodded.
"Hey, I know what that symbol is!" Mell smiled, laughing. Harry looked over at her, wearily.
"WEEZER!" she yelled and the doors on either side opened.
"All right!" I said. Harry started towards the other door.
"Hey, be careful," I said to Harry before he left. He nodded timidly and turned, entering through the last chamber.