The Last Gate
It was sometime long after curfew, Sirius wasn't quite sure when. He was crossing a bit of ground close to the entrance hall which had too little cover for his liking, when lightening flashed, illuminating the sky with a sliver strobe. The gentle wind which had begun to alleviate the heat in the late evening had grown, feeding on the sea breezes thrown off by the lake. It was now whistling, with intent to howl, through the trees. The storm was nearly directly over head now, the stars which had been twinkling brightly were covered in a heavy blanket, and it would start pelting it down any minute, which was why he was heading back to the tower. Hopefully the couples would have managed to break eye contact long enough to get some rest, he was doubtful, but it could happen.
He was so lost in unhappy day dreams that, his lack of concentration, along with the winds incessant noise, caused him to bump into something half way across the open space. It took him a split second to realise that the something was in fact an invisible someone and he raised his hands to defend himself from this unseen attacker. The force showed no signs of aggression however. It moved quickly from in front of him to by his side, still using what he assumed was an arm around his waist to stop him from walking on. He heard the rustle of an invisibility cloak, and felt it brush softly on his cheek, brushing against his stubbly sideburns, as a rather short someone stood on their tiptoes, balancing themselves on his arm.
Soft lips ghosted past his ear, hot breath fell on his neck, and a tiny whisper said "you're walking into a trap. McGonagall is ahead by the steps; Professor Vulpus is coming in from by the lake, he's somewhere in the greenery behind you". She had just named the two known animagi on staff, but there were others on his tail too.
"Flitwick and Pomfrey are coming in from right and left. They're trying to catch you in the middle". Every muscle in his body tensed.
"Am I in their sights?" he asked determined to keep his voice casual.
The cloak brushed his cheek again as she shook her head and a lock of green hair tickled his face. "Not yet. Put your cloak on".
He did, sweeping it over his head in a smooth motion, but replied "how will this help, they'll still catch us in the middle". Another peel of thunder sounded over head and the first fat dollops of rain began to fall.
Again a shake of her head "I know a way through, and a place where we can hide, you'll have to follow me".
"How? You're invisible". So much for that plan he thought.
With a little too much patience in her voice she replied "put a marker charm on me, then you'll be able to see an orange glow where I am. This is its symbol", she sketched it on his arm with her nail. "Draw it with your wand while speaking the word………."
"I know how to do a marker charm" he snapped, and promptly drew it on her forehead with his wand.
"OK" she whispered, "follow me, and watch for Cat's eyes in the dark".
With that she pulled away from him. Sirius took a quick look left and right, and then followed a rapidly fading orange haze towards the forest.
Twenty minutes later he was still following her and was beginning to think she'd lost her way. The forest around him was very thick and they'd long passed any parts of it he knew. He could hear ominous rustlings from either side of him but was unsure whether it was the teachers following them, or simply some of the forests nastier residents considering whether or not to attempt to eat them. He was also soaked to the skin due to the torrential rain which was now falling. The trees around them thinned suddenly and Sirius found himself in a medium sized clearing, one which he knew well. He and his friends had used this clearing as a base for their first few outings as amimagi in 5th year. The reason he hadn't realised where they were heading was that he had never come to it through the forest, only skirted around the sides passed the gamekeepers hut.
The existence of this clearing had always bothered Sirius. From the west side of the forest it was 5 minutes in on the only straight path from one side to the other. That journey took over an hour and evolved going directly passed the lair of the acromantula, a very dangerous place to be. This clearing however, contained no monsters.
As it was this far into the forest it couldn't be a natural occurrence, and yet Sirius could see no real purpose to its construction. It was also not a very good place to hide. Nearly everyone in the school knew of its existence, even if most of them only had a vague idea where it was.
"Please let her have somewhere better than this" he begged inwardly.
He could see Alin only with the aid of his marker charm. She had walked over to between two trees on the Northern edge of the clearing, whose branches had grown intertwined to give the appearance of a doorframe which tilted towards the ground between them. Alijanna walked to the tree on the and turned her hand around a knot in its bark, as if trying to turn a doorknob, then moved to the other tree and repeated the ritual. Finally she stood in the "doorway" and knocked the intertwined branched overhead.
The response to this was instantaneous. The branches glowed a bright mossy green, then five shoots on the branches sprouted and began to grow rapidly downwards. At first they were thin and swayed in the wind, but as they got closer and closer to the grass they grew wider, flatter and became a dark brown colour. They formed themselves into a door which would have looked very like the entry to a muggle garden shed if it hadn't been covered with strange carvings. Trees, centaurs and other forest creatures surrounded a large centre motif of a castle with a small open door in its side. Inscribed across the top were the words The Last Gate. Behind the door a passage way which seemed to lead down into the ground had appeared.
Sirius only had a second to admire the carvings before the door swung open and the orange haze disappeared inside it. He moved towards it, stood in the doorway and looked down into total blackness. In the very small distance he could see ahead of him he made out two solid looking stone steps, which seemed to descend steeply into the darkness, and a slightly curved earthen roof overhead, from which the roots of the grass above hung in several places. Beyond that there was nothing, or may as well have been.
However, as unsavoury as the passage might look, it didn't smell of damp or decay. In fact, from what he could smell the air was quite fresh down there. "Besides", he told himself, "I don't really have any other options". So taking a deep breath he plunged into the dark.
The stairs went straight down for three steps, and then turned so sharply to the left that Sirius walked right into the wall, stubbing his toe. Biting back all the curses that he wanted to yell about "Bloody stupid green haired outcasts who, while promising to bloody help you, make you follow when they disappear down bloody rabbit holes and leave you stubbing your toes in the bloody pitch black", he turned the corner and continued to walk with his hands against the passage walls, hoping that he would at least have some warning if the passage turned again.
As the pain in his feet subsided, the stairs continued their steep descent for fifteen more steps, then took another 90 degree turn, this time to the right, which brought him out into a short level tunnel. A tunnel which had a faint light at the end of it.
The room he emerged into was rectangular, probably about 5m by 4m, but it was hard to see the far wall in the dim light. The source of this light was a small lamp which sat on the table in the middle of the room. Through the shadows he could see Alin's discarded invisibility cloak lying over the back of a kitchen chair. The girl herself was no where in sight, so when she spoke to him he jumped about a foot in the air.
"Do something useful, will you, and light the wall torches", she asked as her head appeared, and quickly disappeared again, from the shadows behind the table.
It wasn't until he returned to the table after lighting the torches with a quick spell, that he realised why she was kneeling on the floor- there was a fireplace on the far wall and she was setting the fire. With the torches lit and the fire going the room was much lighter and Sirius got his first look around. The room showed signs of frequent use. There was a large pewter cauldron in one corner which was filled with a viscous looking yellow liquid and bubbled through there was no heat underneath it. A large mirror hung on the left wall. A book, "Why I died when Augurey cried", lay with its spine cracked on the table with sheaves of parchment, which looked like unfinished herbology homework stacked beside it. Above the fire place he saw the same motif which appeared on the door, except that underneath this one was inscribed a list which had the heading "Keepers Of The last Gate". At the top of this list were the names of the four Hogwarts founders and at the bottom was Alijanna Dumbledore.
As she left the fire and walked to sit opposite him Sirius asked "what's the last gate, and how'd you get be its keeper?"
"That's the last gate" she replied, pointing at the fireplace, "and the sorting hat picks a new keeper once every eight years, when the old one leaves school. I'm the only one who can open that door", she pointed at the way they came in, "from inside or out".
"What's the point in it" Sirius asked confused, "If all people can do is get into this room but not out into the castle it's not much of a gate is it".
She considered carefully before answering, watching the potion in the corner bubbling. "What do you know about the castle's security systems, the more complex ones?"
"Not a lot" he admitted, "'Hogwarts: A History' always seemed really heavy going; Mooney's the only one who's really read it".
She smiled in agreement. "Well, most of them are so complex that I don't understand them" she said "but one of the most important ones is the headmaster's control of the fires. You know that all the fires, except the teacher's, are monitored to prevent the students sneaking away from school?"
Sirius nodded his affirmative and she continued. "Well, at any time he wants to my father can close down all floo access to the school, so as when anyone tries to get in it's like trying to run against a brick wall. The last gate can be exempted from this, so that even if the castle is under siege your friends can still get in and out."
Seeing that he still really didn't understand she elaborated saying "anyone who wants to get in gives 'The Last Gate, Hogwarts' as the address and, when they arrive here, they look into the mirror on that wall, and the headmaster lets them in through the fire place in the great hall. Monitoring how many people come through. That's the only time this fireplace is monitored though".
Sirius nodded for a moment to show he understood, then suddenly realised the implications of what she'd just said.
"You use this place to get in and out of school, don't you" he accused.
"Well it's better than breaking into Professor Binns' office" she said, laughing slightly. The potion in the corner gave a loud pop as a bubble in it burst.
While inwardly thinking "how the hell does she know about that", he outwardly protested, "We only did that once and we didn't even go anywhere interesting". In fact the four of them, in the days before the girlfriends, had gone back to his parent's house to remove the last of his belongings and steel a bottle of Black Bush whiskey from the liquor cabinet. She continued to laugh at his shock, her hair falling in front of her eyes, while he glared at her.
Sirius, not quite sure how to ask his next question, spoke slowly "I suppose not very many people know about this place" he said. She nodded to confirm. "Then why bring me here" he asked, "You don't know me, why trust me?"
She looked very awkward, and stared at the fire while answering his question in a whispered rush. "I figured that I kind of owed you for earlier". Now it was his turn to laugh while she glared.
"Speaking of reasons" she retorted, "why help me at all. Why does a Pendon fighter help a Nithan one, who he barely knows, escape from his own brother who also fights for Pendon?"
"I don't fight for Pendon anymore" he replied, "I haven't since I left home and as for the other, anything I can do to piss off my ape of a brother has to be worth doing". That made her grin from ear to ear and they laughed about it for a few minutes.
She looked shyly across the table at him. "You know, you fight very well for someone who hasn't trained in so long. Would you like me to sign you in as a guest at Nithan? I mean, I can't promise you'll be made a member or anything, but is a start"
Sirius was astounded. "You'd do that?" he asked, running his fingers through his hair, "why?"
"At the moment we need every fighter we can get numbers are so low, even if they are Pendon rejects" she admitted, "besides your too talented to waste; and we seem to have some things in common" This last thought sounded as if it surprised her, it certainly did him.
"Like?" he asked, perplexed.
"We both fight, have bad relationships with our parents and assholes for brothers".
They both laughed again not realising that in the future, when people asked what they saw in each other that would be exactly the answer they gave.
