Hi everybody! Happy Memorial Day weekend! Yay, no school Monday! I just got a haircut! I'm so happy—it looks too cute! Plus, Harry Potter opens next Friday!! WHEE!!

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Chapter 34

The Marble Chamber

The further that they went along the left hand passage, then the warmer it seemed to get again. It was as though the cool chamber had never existed. Not only that, but steam seemed to be rising up from the floor and walls, making the hall feel even more like an oven than ever before.

The strange thing was, that the steam started to sting Lily's eyes, until she was close to tears. The heavy smell of smoldering wood reached Lily's nose and it was this that made her suspect if the steam that surrounded them was really smoke.

After what seemed like a long time, they reached a large, metal door. It was circular, which led Lily to believe that this was the right place. Not only that, but curling fumes were swooping out of it's corners, reaching up to the ceiling.

James approached the door with caution, and gently placed his hands on the large knob that was placed dead center.

"Ow!" He hollered, as he drew back his hands. "It's burning hot!" He carefully nursed his hands, as Remus and Lily stepped forward. Cautiously reaching forward, they placed the backs of their palms toward the door, as James had done earlier.

"It is hot." Lily agreed.

"No shit, Sherlock." Peter groaned.

"Well, do you have any ideas, Wormtail? All you've done so far is complain about how I've done things, and yet done nothing yourself!" Lily shouted.

"Lily!" Sirius reprimanded, grabbing her elbow. "You do realize that they'll hear you." He didn't even have to explain who 'they' were, because everyone grew tense, and Peter didn't say a word. Lily didn't even think that she would have been the one scolding Sirius a few months ago.

"Alohamora," Belle whispered, pointing her wand at the door, but to no avail. Lily looked at the wand, and it hit her.

"We have to work together, maybe? Alohamora on three. " She suggested. She counted down, and everyone said the spell in clear, precise, voices. Sure enough, the door made a loud creak, and opened inward. Six spells did what one alone could not.

"In we go, then." James muttered, looking nervously over his shoulder. Lily wondered if Voldemort had made it through the floating door yet. And suddenly, she wondered with a shiver if he was already in the dust coated halls, following them closely.

Lily stepped down into the small room, and her jaw instantly dropped. Everything was made of marble. From the three steps, to the ceiling, that sloped upward. Behind a line of pillars surrounding the room's perimeter, flames were crackling and dancing menacingly. But the thing about the room that confused Lily the most was the fact that there was no crystal to be seen. But there was one more door, just behind the bright red flames on the other side of the room.

"Is it hot in here, or is it just me?" Sirius joked, licking his finger, and touching his butt jokingly making a sizzling sound.

Ignoring his friend, James said, "So, are we supposed to run through the fire, or what?"

"Is there a spell to freeze flames?" Belle asked hopefully. Surely there was, and even though Lily was wracking her brain, nothing came to mind. Their party grew silent in thought.

Suddenly, in their stillness of thought, Lily could hear shouts and orders from down the hall. Her heart rate quickened until she thought that Voldemort would hear it from all the way down the corridor.

"Oh, God." Belle muttered under her breath. "He's coming."

James quickly made for the big metal door and, cringing, shoved it closed with all his might. "That could hold them back for awhile." He said confidently.

"You think they know what passage to go down?" Remus asked thoughtfully.

"I don't know." James said. Peter looked very pale.

"We should hide." He said, his voice quivering. "This isn't safe at all."

"Safe?" Sirius spat. "We knew this wasn't going to be safe!"

"Well, I'm not going to wait in this death-trap for the Dark Lord to get me." Peter said, as Lily watched his hands trembling like little leaves in the wind.

"Hiding is not what we came here for." James said so forcefully, that pitiful Wormtail jumped. "We came to help. Now let's find that crystal."

"A-and what if we d-do?" Peter stuttered. "We c-couldn't leave." He was right, after all, but no one was listening to him. Every ear was straining to listen to the distinct footsteps that were drawing nearer and nearer to the big, metal door.

Everything went on mute--the flames stopped their mischievous pop and crackle, and Lily's bated breath silenced--as the steps' sound only increased until it was pounding into Lily's brain. James grabbed her hand protectively, and led her away from the doorway, but she didn't even feel his clammy hand grasping hers. Belle took a stumbling step backward, her eyes focused on the circular door, but Lily didn't hear her feet on the marble.

All eyes were concentrating on the circular knob, as it started to turn in slow motion. Lily's heart pounded, and she closed her eyes for a moment, wishing and praying that she was dreaming, and that she could open her eyelids and be safe and sound in her four-poster bed.

But she opened her eyes, and there was the large metal door, and she could still see James holding her arm out of the corner of her eye. Lily didn't even realize that she hadn't been breathing, until the door slowly started to creep open.

Peter let out a small, indistinguishable cry and collapsed to the floor. Lily didn't see whether or not he fainted, and frankly, she didn't care. For, the only thing that Lily could see was those two, horrible, red eyes.