By Sweet 16 Movie Buff!
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Jillian rolled.
The jet of green light flashed as it hit the spot where she had once been, scorching the wood floor. Jillian got to her feet and stumbled to the center of the circle, looking about frantically for an exit of escape. But there was none. They stood shoulder to shoulder, blocking the only means of escape: an open doorway leading out into the murky shadows of what appeared to be a maze. The barred gate behind her would take too long to deal with.
Laughter echoed around her. Cruel, villainous laughter.
"Oh, the little girl dances," cooed one, a woman's voice, "Now lets see if she can sing. Crucio."
The spell hit Jillian from behind, throwing her to the floor. Pain as she had never known it filled her body. Her limbs twisted against her will, the tendons trilling from the strain. Her blood bubbled in her veins, then grew cold as ice, her heart racing and stopping in turns. Her nerves were burning, tearing and screaming for release.
She screamed as she writhed on the ground, trying to console her body against the pain. Even when the spell lifted, Jillian still screamed, gasping for air to console her aches.
Again they were laughing. Laughing at her agony.
Another faceless one stepped forward, wand pointed at her crumpled form.
This time Jillian reacted. She brought up her wand, in a sharp jerk, forcing her will behind the spell, concentrating on only throwing him away from her. Throwing them all back, hard against the walls. Dust fluttered down from the ceiling as they flew back against the walls, shaking the whole room. Her path was clear.
Scrambling to her feet, Jillian ran.She bolted through the open doorway, turning sharply into the shadows. She collided with the wall and stumbled back from the impact, her sore shoulder howling. A dead-end. Her heart caught in her throat, pounding irregularly fast. She had to get out.
To her left and right a large clown face, their paint fading, loomed mouths looming open and dark like ominous infinitive tunnels. She had no choice. Stifling a sob, she ran for the left opening and fell to her knees as her foot caught on a step she has missed. Her ankle woke from its numb throbbing to simmer painfully in reminder that she was not yet healed, but she had to keep moving. Even though the rubber padding beneath her slopped upward, she had to keep moving, had to hide, had to escape them.
It was like she was two again and playing in the fast food playpen, playing a pretend game of storm the castle, running, laughing from make-believe enemies, kicking them down every time and triumphing.
But this wasn't the playpen. This was real. From this she may not live, she would not live.
Behind her, Jillian could hear the Death Eaters coming too. No time to worry, just run. She scrambled blindly up the slope of the tunnel; well aware of what it was for the sides were pitched.
"Find her!" barked one.
She tried to stifle her breathing, taking small short breaths as she climbed up. She dug her nails into the fleshy padding of the floor, using her toes to push her up with all speed. She wasn't going fast enough. She reached out with her hand and grasped the edge of the tunnel. She had reached the end of it, but the prospect only made her dread grow.
There was a pounding of feet that stopped below her, somewhere far below her. How far had she climbed? Jillian pressed herself flat to the floor, lying her cheek against the rubber, willing her heart to still, willing her breathing to stop its blustery gasps.
Let them go away. Just let them go away.
"Rudolphus, Malfoy, Quiltz the left fork," snapped the Killer, her almost murderer. "Mab, Rabastan the right fork with me."
"Do you want to play little girl?" came the woman's voice again, echoing eerily up the tunnel. "Then let's play!"
Jillian bit back a startled cry as the tunnel came alive with light and movement, rolling in circles. Rudolphus and his fellows must have also been taken by surprise for there was a collection of curses below her. Jillian did not look to see how far below they were, but pulled herself out of the tunnel and rolled onto a floor, also padded in the worn rubber Styrofoam. Carousel music began to play over the speakers, skipping and scratching.
The floor of this room was nothing but padded squares of different colors. Lights from a chandelier high above swirled and blinked as the chandelier twisted and untwisted itself.
A little rhyme suddenly crackled, "Step on the cracks and fall and break your back. Step on the red and soon you'll be dead."
Oh, that's just lovely.
The thought was a sudden one, cutting like a knife through the smog and panic that had clouded her brain. But she didn't have time to think, she had to move, had to rely on her adrenaline to save her and give her strength. Her mind was a last resort.
Jillian took the eerie voices warning seriously for to her right a red square dropped open with a wicked laugh echoing up from it as a sudden jet of air streamed up. Her heart almost came out of her mouth, strangling a cry of fright. She moved swiftly, jumping from blue square to green square to orange.
"This way! She's up this way!"
She spun on her heel to see Rudolphus and Malfoy scrambling out of the tunnel, tripping over their feet. As they raised their wands, Jillian brought her own up, "Silencio!"
The spell hit them both, but Jillian did not wait to see what the other Death Eater intended to do. She took a step forward, not realizing what color the square was until she heard the crazed laughter.
The floor gave out beneath her.
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Sirius fell to the cement floor with a thud, his shoulder chaffing against the grain of the stone. He rolled onto his feet, wand out, waiting for a Death Eater to come at him, but the room was empty. A few Death Eaters were slumped against the wall, unconscious.
Oh God, she may yet be alive.
Though the thought had meant to comfort him, it only filled Sirius with more dread. She could be anywhere within this fun house. She could be anywhere in the infamous maze, trapped and he may not be able to find her before it was too late. More than anything, Sirius suddenly wished he had waited for James.
All ready breathing heavy, he trotted cautiously forward, stopping before the looming black wall, a tunnel to either side of him. Which one? The left slopped up, the right was a short tunnel into a dark room. She could be anywhere.
He could hear shouts, but from where? The scratching carousel was distorting everything; the blinking lights and maniacal cackles were throwing sounds.
Helplessness boiled in Sirius's veins. Too many choices – too many wrong choices – could cost him everything. It could cost him Jillian.
Shaking his head, he turned into a tunnel on the right, one with swirling red and white stripes. Sirius stumbled through it and into the first puzzle of the fun house.
The room was a circular one, the floor striped in black and white tiles. The walls were paneled in mirrors, but as Sirius watched them, he saw gaps in the mirrors, doorways to the next stage. The room moved clockwise before stopping and a voice saying, 'Oops, wrong way' and changing direction.
Which one?
He threw his shoulder against a mirror, rattling it. The doors appeared again for a split second before vanishing once more. He ran to one and pounded his fist against it, losing his patience. He didn't have time for this cat and mouse shit.
Taking a step back, he pointed at the moving mirrors where a door seemed to always appear. "Reducto."
In a cloud of seven years of dust, the mirrors blasted apart, revealing a large gaping hole. Sirius walked through as the walls continued to move, straight into a solid object. A trick wall, one that appeared like a long corridor of mirrors and yellow lights but in fact was a simple glass wall.
Sirius turned on his heel and looked down the long passage, the real one, lined with mirrors on either side. Some of the mirrors were standard flat ones; others were twisted and demented, contorting him into odd shapes. Strange shapes and colors . . . The eerie carousel music played faintly in the background, skipping and scratchy from years of disuse.
It was his dream.
Fear whelmed in him. Real fear, not the dream fear that always accompanied those images. Sirius took off at a sprint, swiftly overtaking the corner and letting his memory move him through the maze.
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Jillian slammed into another mirror as she reached another dead end.
No. No, no, no . . .
She spun, her heart pounding rapidly. She had to go back, retrace her steps, but not with them behind her. She was trapped. Choking back a sob, she ran back the way she had come, past twisted shapes, past reflections of herself. Left turn . . . right . . . right . . . crossroads which way? A le – no, another right . . .left . . .
Another dead-end.
"This way!"
"Take a left, Rabastan!"
"WHERE?"
Confusion had become her savior. They were lost in this maze same as she was, but her confusion had trapped her in this room with them.
"Enough of this . . .REDUCTO!"
Mirrors shattered somewhere, glass tinkling on the cement floor. Jillian let out a sob before running once more. Right . . . left . . . right . . . right . . .
Dead-end.
"Jillian!"
No, she was imagining things. That wasn't Sirius. It was her mind playing tricks on her. Sirius was at Hogwarts, safe. Why hadn't she listened to him?
"REDUCTO!"
An explosion erupted several yards in front of her. Jillian screamed, flinging her arms over her head to protect her face from the shards of flying mirror. Shards and slivers pattered on her shoulders like rain, nicking her skin like tiny razor cuts. She raised her head as she heard guttural chuckling in front of her. The Killer stood before her, legs spread wide, blocking off all means of her escape.
Oh God no.
He drew off his mask to reveal a sweat stained ruddy face, flabby with age. Pockmarks marred his complexion. He chuckled again, flashing yellow teeth in a triumphant grin.
"Gave us a run, did you, little girl?"
She gave him no answer. She merely edged closer to the mirror, trying to bury herself in the corner. It was vain, hopeless; her quivering was proof enough her body had accepted it.
It was said to be a painless death . . .
The Killer raised his wand.
"REDUCTO!"
Jillian shrieked again as the mirrors to her left shattered. Glass shards and slivers of the silver mirror exploded so forcefully that even when the man brought up his arms to shield himself it was no use. He flew back against the mirror walls, cut and stabbed by a thousand bits and pieces.
He didn't even have time to scream before he fell to the floor bleeding and dead.
"SIRIUS!" she stumbled to her feet, shards of glass and dust falling from her shoulders.
"Jillian!" Sirius stepped through the blasted hole in the mirrors and gathered her against him.
From his pocket he produced a Gobstone, large enough to hold palm to palm. Swiftly he took her hand. Jillian felt the Portkey drag on her navel before the hall of mirrors disappeared.
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They fell to the grassy yard as the Portkey dropped them presently on the school lawn. Jillian rolled a few feet away, letting the cool blades touch her, embrace her stinging and tingling skin. Tiny cuts ran up and down her arms from the splinters of glass and bruises were forming on her shoulders where she had hit the edge of the square before falling into the mirror maze.
She let the tears come, weeping with relief. She was alive. Her hands curled into fists around a handful of grass enjoying it as it tickled her palm.
"Jillian . . ." Sirius's breath tingled her cheek as he whispered her name.
"You came for me . . . You're alive . . . "her voice shook from the traumatized state her nerves were in.
"I would die for you." His palm rested against her cheek, his hands tenderly embracing her face, before his lips met hers in a passionate kiss.
Jillian cupped his face in her hands, not wanting to lose him again, not wanting him to ever stop kissing her again. She ran her hands over his face, through his hair, her fingers knotting comfortably in his mane of black hair
Sirius's hands trailed over her being; he wanted to make certain she was real, make certain she was his. His hand slid over her body, enjoying the touch of her flesh, running through her hair and along her hip. Her body was almost as soft as it was that day in the hall. He liked the feel of her arms around his neck. How had he forgotten that sensation?
Before he could content himself to her lips, Sirius was kissing her neck feverishly, making certain she was real.
"I should have listened to you. I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry . . ."
"It doesn't matter," he shook his head as he brushed her hair away from her face. He shook his head again, his eyes bright and filled with some intense emotion words had trouble describing. "You're alive. That's all that matters."
"Sirius . . ." she trailed off. Did she almost say it?
"Yes?"
"SIRIUS!" James's voice was shouting his name. Many pairs of feet were pounding towards them; teachers . . .Madame Pomphrey . . .Dumbledore . . .
"Jillian?"
"Nothing."
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AN EXTRA DISCLAIMER . . .
Okay, first off these lines came from my all time favorite movie Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves with Kevin Costner. I don't care if he didn't have a British accent, I don't care what says, that movie ROCKS!!!!!!!!!!! It was my first action movie and Robin Hood was my first crush (okay, I was five, guys, give me a break).
Anyway the lines "You came for me . . . You're alive," and "I would die for you," belong only to the production company and writers of that film.