Chapter Sixteen
The Coming of Ciardoth
"I don't believe I'm going along with this," Mandria said as they walked down the hall. "I don't even believe you're going along with this," she added to Rose, who hushed her to keep her voice down.
"We are just going to take a quick peek," Rose said.
"Inside a janitor's closet," Mandria said.
"Come on, Mandria, even you have to admit that soap story was a bit fishy. He didn't even have anything in his hand when he came out, remember? He pulled us both up," Alex pointed out.
"I know, I know. I only came along because you kept me awake all night talking about it," Mandria said. "Thank goodness we're nearly there."
"The coast is clear," Alex said after peering around the corner. "If anyone asks, we were just going to the bathroom."
"Right, like that's going to stick when we have them near our rooms," Mandria said.
"Come on then, if we're going," Rose said impatiently, letting Alex lead the way. As they hurried down the hall and reached the door, a bright flash of light lit up the windows, stopping them dead in their tracks.
"It's just lightning, relax," Alex said, rolling her eyes. Then there was a piercing scream in the distance, unmistakable as it echoed through.
"That wasn't thunder!" Mandria said.
"It came from the stairwell, somewhere upstairs! Let's go help!" Rose said.
"No, we can't! We'll be in trouble for sure! Maybe even blamed for something!" Mandria said.
"Well one thing's for sure, all the professors will be up now, and if we're caught in this hallway we'll be in for it. Come on," Alex said, casting a spell on the doorknob to open the closet, pulling them inside.
At first Rose was reluctant to close the door all the way, but as her eyes adjusted, she realized there was a dim blue light coming from somewhere, and even in the dark she could see clearly. The smell of floor wax was heavy in the air, along with bars of soap, brooms, and all sorts of rags and tools and things.
"Strange," Alex said at once, lighting a match and holding it up a moment so she could see better. "Why are the shelves stacked back to back like that?" As the other two looked around, they could see what she was talking about. A tall shelving unit, completely full of supplies, had been pushed parallel against another, making it nearly impossible to get to the items on the back shelves.
"You'd think it'd have been more efficient to have put this against the back wall so you can get to everything," Mandria said. "Filch isn't much on organization, is he?"
"Unless there's a secret door or something," Alex said brightly.
"A secret door?" Mandria said, stepping to the wall. "I don't see any…" but the moment she touched the wall it disappeared, and if it hadn't been for Rose's quick reaction would have ended up falling onto the stairs.
"Woah, you were right, Alex!"
"Of course. I knew my godfather wouldn't be anywhere as uninteresting as a janitor closet," Alex said, taking a step out onto the stairs. It was at that point she made the fatal mistake of looking down, for the spiraling stairs continued down into the darkness as far as the eye could see with only its silver banister standing out in the dim light.
"This could take a while," Alex admitted.
"This could take the rest of the night," Mandria agreed.
"Perhaps we'd best go back now. There's no telling what's down there, and I am a bit worried about that scream," Rose admitted.
"She's right, let's save this for another day," Mandria said. Alex stood there for a moment looking between them and was about to answer when they heard voices in the hall. "What if they're heading here?" Mandria hissed.
"Guess our minds are made up for us. Follow me!" Alex said, hopping on the banister. Down she disappeared before anyone else could stop her, and Rose quickly followed with Mandria leading up the rear. Down into the darkness they rode, their back turned against their destination as the banister seemed to get slicker and faster until suddenly it ended and they found themselves falling on Alex and rolling over onto a mound of pillows.
"I think I'm going to be sick," Mandria said, staring up at the long spiral staircase.
"You do realize that we're going to have to walk up those stairs, don't you?" Rose said.
"At least someone must have used my method to get down, or these pillows wouldn't be here," Alex said, sitting up.
"That also means that someone's been down here recently," Mandria said.
"It also might mean someone is down here now," Rose said, staring straight in front of them. That was when they all turned around to see a shadow with glowing eyes approaching them.
Alex scrambled to her feet and took out a match, holding it up so they could see who it was. The brief glimmer from the match was just enough for them to see a tall pale face with red eyes, the light glinting off a pair of long fangs.
The three girls screamed in terror, running into one of the huge sewer pipes that surrounded them. They hadn't noticed that the vampire had screamed when they had, dropping his wand from sheer surprise as he turned into a bat and fled in the opposite direction.
Jennifer and Severus was hurrying down the front stair when they heard a scream, stopping dead in their tracks as the staircases all began to move at once.
"That sounded like it came from the Gryffindor rooms!" Jennifer said, hurrying to the bottom of the stair and jumping to catch the next one up.
"Stop doing that!" Severus snapped, barely jumping in time to grab onto it as Jennifer quickly moved to steady him.
"Come on!" Jennifer said insistently, hurrying up.
When they arrived, they found the painting open and all the students awake and in complete chaos as McGonagall tried desperately to get them all in order.
"It was a woman! Standing right in the girl's dormitories! I'm not making it up!" Hilda Broommaker said. She was visibly shaken and her eyes were red and watery.
"I saw her too. I woke up just after Hilda screamed and she was standing in the common room when I came out," Stewart said in her defense. "Only, I thought she was a ghost at first. She was very pale."
"Where did she go?" Severus demanded.
"Burst open the door as if it were nothing and then just… faded," Stewart said. "I don't think she was a ghost now, though, she was something else entirely."
Jennifer was already hurrying to the painting guarding the door, hearing a soft sob coming from it as she began to pry it away from the wall, Severus coming over to help.
"I don't think I want this job anymore," the Fat Lady sobbed. Parts of the frame had been chipped, and even a bit of the painting itself had torn away at the corners.
"It'll be all right. I'm sure Pyther will have you back to your old self in no time," Jennifer said comfortingly.
"Pyther," Severus repeated with alarm, his eyes darting to the next closest painting, a man holding a fish who was listening intently. "Warn Pyther at once that something is heading his way! Now!" he snapped. "Stay here."
"Oh, no you don't, I'm going. You're not going down th …"
"Severus! Jennifer!" Minerva said, hurrying out to them from inside. "Rose Bailey is missing! She was sleeping in the same room the woman appeared. Something must have happened!"
"You! Tell the other paintings to wake up the rest of the staff," Severus barked at the painting of a wizard with a floppy hat before heading down the stairs with Jennifer following close behind.
"Vampire! There is a vampire down here! What is a vampire doing it the school?" Rose said when they finally slowed down to catch their breath. "We've got to get out of here!"
"Does anyone even remember how we got here?" Mandria said.
"I… I think we came from that way," Alex said, pointing down one of the tubes.
"You don't know?" Mandria asked.
"Well, we did take a few extra turns," Alex admitted. Mandria groaned.
"We are never going to get out of here. Not with a rabid vampire between us and the only way out."
"We don't know that for sure. Some of these pipes probably lead upward. We might be able to manage it," Alex said.
"Maybe. We have to try something. Why don't we follow this corridor for a while first? It's bound to lead somewhere," Rose said.
"Probably right back to the vampire," Mandria muttered.
"Look, there's three of us and only one of him, and we all know a simple spell to get past a vampire, lumos solem, right?" Alex said. "We panicked the first time, but we're ready for him now."
"You should have thought to use that spell instead of the matches. We'd be halfway up the stairs by now," Mandria said.
"At least a quarter of the way," Rose sighed.
"Well, I suppose that's what we get for not using out heads," Alex said, walking down the corridor and through a huge open doorway towards a better-lit room, turning to look at them as they walked. "From now on we use our wits and try to be prepared for anything."
It was then she realized her friends had both had stopped short, staring ahead in awe. Frowning, Alex turned around and found herself looking down a long chamber full of snake statues and symbols and towards the largest statue of Salazar Slytherin she had ever seen.
"Uh oh," Alex said.
"D-don't come any closer!" a hoarse voice called out. "Stay where you are, I don't want to… to have to hurt you!" Coming out from behind one of the snake statues, Francis Pyther came out to stand between them and the other end of the chamber. He was fishing in his pockets and sleeves frantically, and looked a great deal less intimidating in the torch-lit area. "Don't make me have to use… where's my… I mean, don't make me have to use force!" he finished, finally whipping out a long wooden stick. Unfortunately, the bristles at the end gave away the fact it was a paintbrush.
"That is what we were afraid of?" Mandria said, feeling foolish.
"We got lost. Might you point us the direction out?" Rose said politely.
"Who are you? Why are you down here? Does anyone else know you're down here?" Alex asked.
"Alex!" hissed the other two girls at the same time.
"You're not… why, you're students, aren't you?" Pyther said at last, lowering his paintbrush. "In that case, what exactly are you doing down here, and does anyone know you're here?"
"We were uh… looking… for my godfather. Harry Potter," Alex improvised.
"Oh! Well, he left on an emergency, but that is neither here nor there. I dare say that Dumbledore would not be pleased to find out there were students running about under the castle at this hour," Pyther scolded lightly. "I suppose I better show you the way to the stairs. Maybe we'll get lucky and find my wand on the way. I seem to have misplaced it."
But as he stepped forward, apparitions of every age, shape, and size began entering from the walls, ceilings, and pipes. Alex had always known the castle had a large host of ghosts and had met quite a few of them, but never had she seen so many gathered so quickly.
"Pyther! Our time has come at last! Severus has sent word to expect the enemy at any moment!" Janus Craw warned.
"Take your men and do what you can to distract them! We will try to lead him into the trap," Pyther ordered, sounding a bit surer of himself.
"Her," Janus corrected, floating down the corridor towards them.
"Her?" Pyther repeated, losing his brief surge of confidence as the ghosts scrambled around him. Janus paused only a second as he passed the girls, eyeing Alex warily.
"So, this is where you are! Your parents are not going to be happy," he tsked, heading back to his work
"Boy, that's the understatement of the year," Mandria said. Pyther looked at the three girls worriedly.
"Come here, hurry! You must hide! Janus, open the other chamber," Pyther said frantically.
"Very well," Janus said, walking through the mouth of a snake statue. There was a soft click and a door swung open.
"Hurry, please. Get inside there, but don't touch anything! And if… if anything happens to me, stay there until someone comes to get you!" Pyther said nervously.
Shutting the door softly behind them, Alex, Mandria and Rose found themselves in a small workroom. Protective wards had been placed on top of several of the marks on the walls as well as one large symbol on the floor, and nothing else was in the room except a very old, empty desk and a skeleton shackled to the wall.
"I wonder who he was," Rose shuddered instinctively.
"Look!" Mandria, who had been busy inspecting the doorway, had managed to climb up a large pile of rubble and was looking through a crevice above the door. "You can see through the snake's eyes from here!" Alex immediately climbed up the other side to get a good view.
"I'll just stay and keep an eye on things from here," Rose said, still eyeing the skeleton as if not quite trusting it.
From where they were perched, they watched as the ghosts flew into walls and out of sight, leaving Francis Pyther to stand there and pace. For a moment, nothing seemed to happen, but then a whispering voice began to echo around them, startling Pyther who picked up his paintbrush again but this time holding it by its brush end so it actually looked like a slender wand.
"What did it say?" Mandria whispered nervously.
"It said, 'Let me Pass.' But be quiet," Alex hissed back.
"You are not welcome here," Pyther said to someone they couldn't see yet. "I am the Guardian of the Dead, and if you don't stop, I shall summon them to my aid."
"Guardian of the Dead?" a woman's voice repeated, her chilling voice breaking out in laughter. "If the dead needs guarding in this world, then there is no reason to fear them, and even less reason to fear you. It is time you meet their fate, Guardian of the Dead."
Alex careened her neck and leaned further into the hole until she could see a woman dressed in white with her face with so pale it made Pyther seem more human in comparison. Golden hair flowed behind her, whipping in a phantom wind, and her cold grey eyes went dark as she focused on the shaking painter, still holding his fake wand in one hand while snapping his fingers on the other. The ghosts of the castle flowed into the chamber, changing into such horrible visions of themselves that Alex could scarcely watch, but the woman was completely unaffected by their attempts to frighten her, puckering her lips slightly as if in a gestured kiss as she inhaled.
Pyther looked quite surprised as the air around him began to ebb away, the pull of her soft breath somehow strong enough to keep anymore from getting in. His face took on a horrible look of pure fright, his eyes grew wider and his face grew bluer and bluer until he at last collapsed at her feet.
"Fool," the woman muttered with a disgusted look, turning to the ghosts who had descended upon her. They were dropping things in her path and pelting her with everything from rocks to candelabras, cooking utensils, huge books and even water balloons from Peeves, but none of them seemed to reach her. Instead they dropped at her feet, which she gracefully walked around, stepping to the edge of the far chamber.
She raised her arms up and a flash of blinding light burst from around her. Shrieks of surprise wailed from the ghosts as their images suddenly tore apart and dissipated all together, the accumulated screams ending in an even more unsettling silence. Then she continued forward towards the statue, her lips pursed thoughtfully.
"She killed the vampire! And the ghosts! We're all going to die," Mandria said, fighting back tears.
"No! You can't kill a vampire by stealing their breath. I think he fainted," Alex whispered, getting down. "I'm not sure what she did to the ghosts. All I know is, we have to stop her."
"What? Are you barking mad?" Mandria said.
"She's after something. Some of the diamonds must be here, that's why the Aurors have been around. They wouldn't put it all the way down here if it wasn't important," Alex said, carefully opening the door.
"Air, air, what spells do we know that have to do with air," Rose murmured. "We could flood the chamber with water and use some gillyweed! I have some in my pocket I think."
"I have some Gill Potion on me if it came to that, it lasts longer," Alex said.
"No chance, I can't swim," Mandria admitted. "And I'm not risking going down the wrong pipe."
"I know a spell that may work, let's just hope it's strong enough," Alex said stepping out.
"Come on, Mandria, we only live once," Rose said, following Alex out.
"That's the whole problem with this plan," Mandria said as she followed Rose.
Another bright flash of light crackled through the chamber and Alex paused at the snake's mouth, getting out her wand.
"It came from behind the Slytherin statue," Alex said. "There must be another chamber back there. Back me up, I'm going out."
The two girls followed behind with their wands as Alex boldly walked out, veering a bit to one side to try to see around the statue into the next room.
"One! Only one!" an enraged voice cried out.
"What did she say?" Rose whispered, immediately hushed by Mandria.
Just then, the woman appeared from behind the statue, and it was then that they realized how incredibly tall she was.
Alex had seen her Aunt Viviane only a couple of times while staying with her Aunt Anna, and in some ways the woman before them resembled her. She was at least the same height if not a tad taller, and her expression had a cold, proud look with no feeling or remorse. But her eyes were wild and angry, as if behind the coldness she was indeed pure lightning, capable of striking them down at any second.
"Ah! There you are! So young, and so short on life… pity," the woman said softly. "And which of you will choose to die first?"
"If we are to die, why don't you tell us your name so that we'll remember it as you snuff our lives out?" Alex said, her wand pointed steadily at the woman, who was slowly walking towards them.
"I have many names; Death being one of them. Ciardoth, I suppose, would be the closest thing to a name I could have here, not that you'll remember it long. For soon even that will not matter, nor does it matter who you are, or were, or would have become. Meet your fate, Girl with a Question," she said, puckering her lips. As Alex felt the air pulling away from her she knew she couldn't waste another second, using the last of her air to cast a spell.
"Vacare vacuus!" Alex shouted, pointing it at the air and inhaling. Suddenly the air pulled back, caught in a tug of war between Ciardoth's breath and the spell. Ciardoth's face became more and more enraged until she finally stopped, the break of the two forces causing Alex to fall backwards into her friends. As the woman raised her arms to cast another spell on them, a giant hand made of smoke suddenly appeared between them, trailing out from the nearest torch, smacking the woman into the statue behind her.
"Get back!" Severus snapped at the three girls as Jennifer and he ran past them with their wands out. Rose immediately ran back to where the vampire was still laying, the other two following suit. Jennifer turned around immediately and put a bubble like shield around the four, turning back to stand beside Severus, nodding to him as the two of them pointed their wand at the woman.
"Ah, the Snapes! You're early," Ciardoth said grimly as she stood.
"Early bird gets the worm," Jennifer said. "Give us back the diamonds!"
"Give them back?" she repeated, laughing again. "You will never get them back. I will succeed in my task, it is already written. You shall witness it yourselves, and after eleven minutes pass, you will both join me in oblivion. It is no use fighting your future. Perhaps you would prefer to die now to spare yourselves the agony of watching your children die, this school die, and everyone in the world slip into nothingness!"
Jennifer felt the sync spell pulling her to join Severus in the words of the spell that she and she alone could have taught him, the two bracing themselves as the Shrieking Death spell burst from their wands towards Ciardoth, hitting her straight on. But instead of making any attempts to cover her ears from the beansidhe wails, the woman put her hands out in front of it, blocking part of the blow.
"Cries! They turn the cries of my sisters against me!" Ciardoth wailed, the shrieking of her voice echoing in the spell itself. "Fools! There will be no easy deaths for you now! You will pay, you will pay long and painfully for the sorrow you've inflicted on me!" A brilliant flash of light pulsed before them, and in that instant she was gone.
Severus and Jennifer called back the spell. Jennifer was panting softly, and even Severus seemed a bit unsteady, shaking his head.
"Curious how we could understand her wail," Severus mused.
"It's happened to me once before, when I cast it on that Beansidhe who was guarding the Forbidden Tomb," Jennifer said. "But we'll talk about that later. Right now, I have a daughter to kill."
"Allow me to assist you," Severus said as they turned around and Jennifer dispelled the Sonorous Shield. Pyther was sitting up now, encouraged by the three children beside them. But then he saw the look in Jennifer's eyes, a look of anger that he was quite sure he had never captured in any of his paintings of her.
"My, what a pretty girl Alexandria has become! She looks so much like you, Jennifer, I dare say she'll be a titian beauty when she gets older, and so intelligent too," Pyther said.
"She'll be lucky to get any older at this point," Jennifer snapped, Alex cowering behind Rose. "What are you three doing down here?"
"We were, uh that is… we were getting soap?" Mandria chuckled nervously. Jennifer's eyes pierced her for so long that Mandria began to feel she was standing in her underwear.
"Apparently they bumped into Harry coming out of the closet and got curious, so Alex talked them into coming to see why he was in there," Jennifer told Severus. "Rose, you even more than they have enough sense to have talked them out of it! You know our rules as well as anyone! No students out of the dorms after hours. No students allowed in any areas of the school designated for staff without the accompaniment of the staff member. And no students allowed in the Chamber of Secrets!" she shouted in pure fury.
"I don't remember that one in our rule books," Alex said.
"I think that's one of those understood rules," Mandria muttered to Alex.
"I am speaking to McGonagall the moment we get out of here, Rose, but expect all three of you to receive two detentions, fifty points deducted each for being out after hours, and letters home to your families. Oh, and since I seem to have just received a letter about your activities, Alex, I hearby revoke permission for you to attend any extracurricular activities until Christmas, assuming that you get a Christmas. No Quidditch games, no sparring class, nothing except you and your books. I expect you to spend the weekends indoors, studying or reading, and if you're not, I'm sure I'll hear about it from your professors. Do I make myself clear?"
"Yes, Mum. Professor. Both," Alex answered glumly.
"Good, because I have full intentions of letting McGonagall know your rights have revoked the moment we get out of here."
"There's no need, I heard," Minerva said calmly. Jennifer looked up to see she and Dumbledore walking in from the other end. "And Rose, for the record, I think her list of punishments for the students were quite generous and I approve of them, although her personal list might have been a tad harsh."
"Now, Minerva, it's her right as a parent to revoke such things if she feels it necessary," Dumbledore said. "Are you quite all right, Pyther? I found this in the hall," he said, holding out Pyther's wand.
"It's a woman. Why does it always have to be a woman?" Pyther asked, thanking Dumbledore as he took his wand. Minerva tried unsuccessfully to hide a smirk.
"Apparently her name is Ciardoth, Professor," Severus said. Rose and Mandria looked over at him with surprise. He had been so quiet when Jennifer was passing out judgment that they had nearly forgotten that he was there. "And it seems that my theories about her were correct. She was also able to get the diamond, thanks to Pyther," he said, glaring disapprovingly at Pyther, who frowned at him in return, "and she nearly killed a student. Had we been a moment later, she probably would have."
Jennifer stared at him openly for a moment, and he met her gaze evenly. A student? His daughter almost got killed and he refers to her as just a student? No, she realized, he was in the right. This was now a school situation instead of a personal one. The personal had already been dealt with. Reluctantly, Jennifer forced herself to calm down.
"Alexandria, how was it exactly that you were able to get past her?" Dumbledore asked calmly.
"I saw what happened to Mr. Pyther, and well, her spell sucks out air sort of like a vacuum so I basically used a cleaning spell that did that and ordered it to clean the air, thus creating its own vacuum to pull it back," Alex explained.
"Quite ingenious. Held her off with a simple cleaning spell, well done. Perhaps some points for creative Dark Defense is in order, what do you think, Severus?" Dumbledore asked.
"I suppose it could be worth ten points," Severus agreed, ignoring the freezing look that Jennifer was giving him.
"But sir, in all fairness, the spell was waning. She was getting ready to blow me to pieces when Professors Snape and Craw showed up," Alex said.
"I am very glad that you understand the gravity of that," Dumbledore said, a spark appearing in the otherwise stern gaze. "But despite the loss of the diamond, we've won an important victory tonight. Yes, she managed to get into the school, but she took no lives with her this time. We have broken the chain of her attack, and now she will have to rethink her strategy. Severus, I know Saturdays are usually your visitation days with your children, but once you get back…"
"Actually, Professor Craw and I have had a long night, and I was thinking of postponing it until tomorrow," Severus admitted.
"Very well then. I suggest that everyone get a bit of sleep now that we have nothing to guard. We will meet at noon. Come, Pyther, let us check on the ghosts and then allow me to walk you home so we can talk. Minerva, would you walk the children back to their dorms? And please inform the staff that the current crisis is over. I doubt we will have any further excitement tonight."
"Of course, Professor Dumbledore," Minerva said, nodding for the three girls to follow as she started down the hall.
"That was really scary, Alex. I've never seen your mum like that ever!" Rose whispered as they walked.
"What surprised me was how Snape didn't say a single word, and then gave points!" Mandria whispered back. "Very weird."
"Now you have a glimpse of my home life," Alex grumbled back.
"Come on, girls, you can move faster than that, I'm sure," McGonagall called out with a stern look over her shoulder. Reluctantly the three girls caught up, not looking forward to facing their classmates about why their houses points tanked overnight.