Chapter 5- The Red Jewel
Hermione sat half-hidden from the outside surveying the area for a slight swish of cloaks or the slight popping sound or a fluttering butterfly to pass by. She watched as the wind bent the trees and the sun move slowly up, signaling noon. She scratched her head thinking very hard as to what might have delayed Cho from coming back. She hoped she had not been attacked by Death Eaters or snatched by a muggle kid (if ever there are still any of them left) while she flew slowly to where Hermione thought the whereabouts of a sacred jewel was. She eyed one of the fiery red rose patches some distance away thinking that Cho might pass through there since the color would camouflage her. She felt a little irritated and a little scared. Maybe Cho was really in trouble? She thought frantically. She looked around again but there was still no sign of Cho.
"Hey, Hermione!" Someone shouted from the back. Hermione hopped out from where she was hiding in panic and wheeled around. Dean was waving at him joyfully. He looked like he had recovered fully but still shaking a bit. Hermione was relieved to see him walking. She was also thankful that nobody heard Dean's din.
Hermione ran toward him and gave him a good pat. "Good to see you up Dean. How was your visit to the underground hospital wing?" She inquired grinning.
Dean ruffled his hair sighing, "It was very damp in there. Luna and Ron had to move me twelve times before they were sure that water droplets wouldn't drop on my head or anything." He shrugged. "I'm fine now though." Hermione looked at Dean from head to toe. He did look fine but he was shivering a bit. "So..." Dean began, "I asked Dumbledore where you guys went."
Hermione goggled at him bewildered. "Dumbledore didn't know."
"Of
course he didn't."
"Then how did you?"
"Well,
I kinda' guessed where you were going."
"How?" Hermione's
stare became wider and more perplexed. Dean blushed a little, and
looked down feeling Hermione's eyes dig deep into his.
"Hermione! I'm here to help." Dean whined.
"Oh! I'm sorry Dean." Hermione exhaled. "I'm waiting for Cho. She's taken so long that I'm feeling uptight." She smiled shyly.
"I think that's her coming, right now." Dean pointed out to the tunnel exit. Indeed there was a red butterfly fluttering toward them. Hermione looked at the butterfly with forced disinterest. She ignored it flying close to her face and didn't even move when the butterfly landed on her hair. Giving up, Cho transfigured back laughing but she was the only one. Dean was looking away, apparently interested in some other thing. Cho stopped laughing when she realized that her giggles were ten times louder inside the tunnel and when she had become human again.
"What took you so long?" Hermione said sounding exasperated.
"Well, I never thought that it would take so long to fly to that place as a butterfly," Cho replied honestly, twisting her hair playfully. "I checked though and I didn't see any danger." She moved around naughtily. "Well, except for a few birds that chased me around for minutes trying to eat me." She grinned but Hermione, who had her back to Cho, wasn't blinking. "Oh Hermione! What's bugging you?"
Hermione whirled around and glared at Cho. Cho stepped back in fear. Hermione looked as though she was going to explode. "What took you so long?" She demanded.
"I told you." Cho explained again "It took longer traveling there as a butterfly. And with that bird chasing me around." Cho stared into space thinking of the horrible experience she had just been through. She shook her head hard hoping it would shake out the horrible memory.
Hermione eased up a bit after listening to Cho explain to her for the second time. "Don't worry. I just wanted to make you feel how mad I was."
Cho felt the weight in her heart lift on hearing this. "Okay. So can we go on?" Cho started walking toward the tunnel exit. "It's quite safe. Dean, are you coming?" Dean Thomas whirled around and snapped to attention.
"What was it?"
"Are you coming?"
"Oh! Yeah, of course."
The three proceeded to exit the tunnel. They made sure to take a quick look around before they hurried past the glaring sunlight and shaded in the trees. They checked again for the second time then scurried off to a large area filled with short bushes.
"Well this is more fun," exclaimed Cho. Her eyes were gleaming with zeal and she moved with a slight jump in her feet.
Hermione looked at Cho reprovingly. "You should go out more often Cho."
"Maybe I should," she replied with excitement in her voice. Hermione rolled her eyes and Cho was sure Hermione mouthed the word naïve to herself.
"We should head here next." Dean pointed to an area filled with tall grass. "Look over there. I can see an old looking building." He turned to Hermione. "Is that it?"
"Yeah."
They
ran quickly to the tall grass. The long leaves scratched at them and
their skin itched but they didn't care. Once or twice they poked
their head out of the grass to look around. The trip through the
ensnaring turf took about half an hour and then finally they were
free of the itchy field. They made another quick sweep of the area
and saw nothing that presented any danger.
Hermione ruffled her bushy hair hard to take off some of the grass that had snagged inside. She looked up at the towering building in front of her. It was old and grey like aged hair. There were cracks that ran along the sides and all over the building giving it the look that it was about to fall any second. Hermione looked at Dean and Cho to check if they were still there.
Cho, grinning back at her excitedly, told Hermione in a shrill voice, "That was great fun!" Hermione rolled her eyes. Cho's mood, however, could not be put down. She had a sort of skip hop in her step and she was beaming with delight. Hermione pardoned her behavior: after all, it was Cho's first time out of the tunnel doing an actual mission (though there was not enough danger for this to be even considered an actual mission).
"Guys, be careful." Hermione warned looking a little serious. "Voldemort's followers might not be patrolling this area but I have a feeling that some strong magic is guarding whatever is inside." She pointed to the top of the ancient building. There was something dark clouding it. The three felt a shiver as they stared into this shroud.
"Cool! That makes it more adventure-like!" Cho blurted out eagerly.
"She's mental." Dean whispered to Hermione shaking his head. Hermione nodded in agreement. Dean turned to Cho frowning and said, "You should really stay alert, Cho. You never know what's going to come."
"Ay, ay captain!" Cho answered with elation snapping her legs together and saluting at Dean. The other two shook her head and had she's-hopeless looks on their faces.
The three walked a good number of paces from the grass field before reaching the marble-like entrance of the building. They slowly peered inside and saw a vast chamber ahead of them. The inside was unusually larger than the building itself. It had towering arches that supported the structure and huge painted ceilings. They stared at it in awe for a couple of seconds before realizing that the place was completely empty. There were no ornaments or candles or chairs or tables or any other rubbish that could fill up the towering cavern. The only object that they noticed was inside was a glass case containing something that was glowing bright red.
Hermione gestured to the object signaling that it was what they were looking for. They entered slowly, feeling every tap of their beaten up shoes on the smooth floor. Cho wasn't hopping so excitedly now, but examining the paintings above them with interest.
Cho tapped Hermione's shoulder- mouth still open- and said, "So the legend is true..." Hermione gave her and Dean a didn't-I-tell-you look. "Look at the painting over there." Cho slowly raised her hand and pointed to a corner painting. "That is when the priestess found the first celestial warrior." Dean and Hermione had confused looks on their faces so Cho explained, "This was the story my grandma used to tell me when I visited her in Japan. It was kind of boring, the way she told her stories, but I grew to love them. You can tell that that guy's a celestial warrior because he has a mark on his forehead." Both Hermione and Dean examined the giant painting to the corner. Sure enough, there was a bright red glow on the man's forehead. He had his hand raised and in front of him was a demonic figure that exploded in a burst of red light. "They had fallen in love with each other," Cho continued. She then pointed to another painting next to the one on the corner. "The Celestial Warrior, Tamahome, was very fast and strong, and his magic enabled him to use his own life force to fire at his enemies."
The three had now stopped to examine more of the paintings. Many of them portrayed Tamahome and the priestess kissing or hugging passionately. From the way it was painted, the celestial warrior looked much older and taller than the priestess was.
"She's very beautiful," exclaimed Dean, his eyes growing larger.
"Oh..." Cho whispered to herself in a deep long sigh.
Hermione waited for the two to gawk at the last picture for about two minutes before she tapped them heavily on the shoulders and forced them to move along. They examined the glass case thoroughly: Hermione was tapping it with her wand muttering; Dean stared at it with his eyes inches to the surface; Cho was feeling it with her fingers as though to feel some crack or dent. After doing this for an unbearable amount of time, they concluded that the glass case was just a glass case.
Dean was scratching his head as he asked, "So should we just break it."
Hermione shook her head. "No." She held the glass with both her hands and lifted it out of the way. She placed it in the side grunting. "We can just take it out."
"Oh!"
The jewel inside had stopped glowing red the moment Hermione had taken out the glass that covered it. She reached out and grabbed the jewel. It fitted perfectly inside her hands. She smiled at them saying, "That wasn't hard."
"I was expecting something like a giant or something to come out and attack us," Cho said excitedly but had relief in her tone.
"Let's
go," Dean said looking around warily. "I'm not so sure that
we're safe."
The three turned to the entrance and started
walking slowly. They realized that the building had grown quite dark
and shadowy. Their steps echoed around the room. They quickened their
pace some more feeling a little more nervous this time. It looked as
though the shadow of the room was following them; extending its dark
arms to reach out and grab them by their necks, choke them to their
death.
"We're almost there." Dean whispered anxiously to his companions.
Bang! The three were a step or two away from the door when it slammed shut. The three jumped in obvious surprise and began to look for another exit. Dean bolted to the door and slammed it hard with his shoulders. The door did not budge but darkened and pushed Dean away with extreme force. He fell flat on the floor, conscious but hurt badly. He strained to get up but felt the bones in his back cracking so he flopped back down.
Hermione rushed to Dean's side and helped him down saying, "Dean, just stay here. We're going to get out soon."
"What's that?" Shrieked Cho. Her finger shook as she thrust it toward a massive black cloud approaching the three.
"I don't know. Stun it or something!" Ordered Hermione in panic. She gently put Dean down and started shooting stunning spells at the black cloud. Every single spell just passed through and the shroud's approach was unhindered. "Try the Impediment Jinx!" She instructed Cho and at once both of them were firing spells again. This one had no effect either.
The black shroud was so close that Hermione could now see what was coming at them. It had big yellow eyes and a gaping mouth that released the thick black smoke. Its silver claws were sharp and poised to strike. The rest of its body was hidden in a shroud of darkness that seemed to consume everything in its path. The dark creature spat a mud-like substance from its mouth that went speeding towards the three.
"Look out!" Cho screamed. Both of them jumped out of the way and the black blob missed and splattered onto the big door. "We must apparate out of here, Hermione!" Cho cried frantically.
"We can't! The Death Eaters will find us." Hermione dodged another black blob and hid on one of the columns. Cho ran quickly to join Hermione breathing rapidly. The shrouded creature was still going for the door. Hermione realized who the creature was after. "Dean!" She yelled. She ran to Dean as fast as she could. Cho ran after her but stopped feeling her side burst in pain. Hermione looked back at her. "I'll go on." Cho nodded; her hand was clasped tight on her left side. Hermione reached Dean and pushed him away right before a black tongue came lashing toward Hermione.
The creature had caught Hermione by the neck. Hermione struggled hard to wriggle free but the thick tongue stuck on to her like crazy glue. She moved her head left then right but the creature had a tight hold on her. She looked up and saw the big yellow eyes turn icy blue and the mouth open even wider than it was.
Hermione feared her end was coming and thought of Ron; if he were only here to save her; if only she had just held on to him in that tunnel. I love him very much, Hermione thought to herself about Ron. Oh, Ron, I'm sorry I couldn't give you a better life. Hermione thought about Ron again, alone in the bed, tossing and turning, having nightmares of her being swallowed by a black cloud. Tears rolled from Hermione's cheeks as he pictured Ron and everyone she ever loved destroyed by Voldemort. She was their only chance, and she failed them. Her heart began to wrench as she fell into darker and darker thoughts.
Yet, she felt a spark of hope. She wasn't about to give up without a fight. I was sorted into Griffyndor for a reason, she thought to herself as her courage built up. I am not going down this easy. I will not fall for this dark spell! She began to think about Ron, about Cho, about Dean who was lying unconscious on the floor. They depend on me. I mustn't let them down. She began to think about all her friends. She thought about Harry, Ginny, and Neville who have died in the battle against Voldemort. I won't let them down! I love them! She thought to herself firmly.
Slowly, Hermione felt a warm sensation travel all over her body. She felt her neck released bit-by-bit as the creature shrieked shrilly. She tried to open her eyes to see what was going on but she felt too weak to do so. She could hear explosions, the constant screaming of the monster, Cho's desperate spell-casting. She could see flashes of red light, red orbs that traveled to the black blurry shroud and explode releasing huge splashes of black all over the chamber. Then she felt a warm hand catch her when she fell back to the floor, no longer having strength to stand. Then she saw, heard, and felt nothing as she fell softly to a pit filled with red light.
