The god-awful stench swept into the entrance making him completely forget all about the stale smell he had been annoyed with before. He couldn't even connect it with anything he had ever known. Wanting to know what it was in a path that was supposed to be empty he pushed his way through a few of the aurors. The sight he was met with made him want to be sick and most of the others didn't seemed to be fairing any better. Snape flinched a bit but other then that remained as he was.
The narrow path was lined with bodies. Some of which were hung on the walls, others were sitting propped up by the walls. Harry was horrified when started to go through but he supposed they didn't have much of a choice. They had to walk through in a single line, as the path was so narrow especially with the bodies. Harry took extra precautions to not touch any of the bodies.
The walk seemed to take forever yet they still weren't even halfway across. As soon as the last person was in the door slammed shut making everyone jump and turn to look at what happened. When the door shut, the bones began to grow flesh and gained blood. The flesh of most of them was torn away to show the now bloody bones underneath.
Harry wasn't sure if it was his imagination but he thought he heard a moan. The smell seemed to get worse, the rotting of flesh mingled in with the decay. Unconsciously Harry backed away from the now closed door that led back to the safe warm morning. Tripping over a leg he would have jumped had he been watching, Harry fell back with a startled yell. He was surprised to find the fall wasn't as hard as he had thought the stone floor would be.
Even though it wasn't hard it was icy cold, like he had been plunged into ice. He tried to get up and move away from the cold only to find he couldn't move. Looking around wildly to try and see why he couldn't get up he realized his vision had gone black. Desperately he tried to move his unwilling limbs. It didn't feel like anything was keeping him down unless you counted the biting cold.
He was starting to think he was going to die, unable to move and freezing to death, when he felt a burning hot fire race through his unmoving arm. It was like when you were out in the snow to long and then come inside to the drastic change in temperature only worse. Fighting against the fire he found the arm that had been touched by the heat could move. He continued to fight it off and soon found all his limbs were able to help in his attempted escape.
Harry was forcefully jerked up only to collide with more of the heat. He pulled away from it, trying to keep the pain at a minimum. His eyes were starting to come back to him and soon he could make out the figure standing in front of him. Snape, wonderful, but why had he burned? He wasn't given time to question it further as someone yelled and he could hear curses being fired past him.
A hand grabbed him and started pulling him quickly down the hall. When he realized that the book was missing he jerked away from the fiery grip and ran back to where he fell. Grabbing the book he looked up to see one of the corpses reaching out to him. Before he could do anything he was grabbed by the back of his shirt and practically dragged through the path at full speed.
He could feel the icy grips on him, recognizing the cold from before he struggled away from the cold and concentrated on following the heat that was pulling him away from it. Harry barely registered when he stumbled and either kept running or was pulled up. He felt rather then saw; them enter a new room, as the temperature wasn't nearly as cold. To Harry it was to warm.
There was a slam as the door behind them was closed to prevent the dead bodies from entering after them. He sat breathing heavily from the running and his body was wrecked with shivers. His grip was tight on the book he had gone back to get, refusing to let it go.
Snape stood next to him regaining his breath from having to drag the boy through the never-ending passage. His job had not been made any easier as the bodies tried to grab them as they went by.
"D-Dance for the Dead-d" Once he had caught his breath he muttered still shivering violently "... I'll kill 'em" He was rubbing furiously at his icy-cold skin. Harry was pale, almost white. He kept himself curled up as much as he could to conserve what little heat he had left.
Those who weren't checking over Potter to make sure he wasn't hurt turned to look at where they were now. The room looked more like a swamp. The plenty room was humid, even more so then outside.
Dumbledore went over to the shacking Harry "Does it tell you the name of this room?" He kept himself from touching the boy to give any comfort as he had been pulling away from contact as if it pained him.
Harry looked up to the Headmaster "The G-Glade" He added, "s-somethin called a R-Rintorth" He was hoping it was something that Dumbledore would have recognized but by the looks of it he didn't. This wasn't going to be a fun trip.
MUAHAHA... uh... yeah, well anyway. I'm really getting into this story. Next up will be their journey through the Glade . I'm really entertained by this even though I wrote it! Reviews would be nice, like always.