'FRED? FRED?' Harry's throat had become hoarsefrom shouting, but as yet they had still heard no response to any of their calls. His heart was beating fast as though it was trying to bounce its way out of his chest, Harry looked over at his best friend. Ron was slumped against the wall, he was very pale and had an expression of pure disorientation on his face, every now and then he would shake his head as if he was trying to wake himself up from a bad dream.

In contrast George had a much different look about him. Rather then crying or shouting, or even the stunned silence that Ron was experiencing, George was standing above the pit and staring down at the stone circle with a cool look in his eye

Harry didn't know what to say to the other twoHe opened his mouth several timesto say something, anything, but the words just wouldn't come. They remained in silence for a few minutes, George was the first to speak, and his voice was so quiet Harry had to ask him to repeat it.

'I said, we should get going,' George turned around his face was completely devoid of emotion, nodding to himself as he said it.

'But what about Fred?' Ron blurted out, 'we have to help him.'

'And how are we going to do that?' said George evenly, 'we can't open the grates, if we could somehow manage that, we can't open that stone circle.'

'So what? We just give up?' snapped Ron.

'No Ron, we get help,' George sighed, 'we get ourselves out and we get help.'

'He's right Ron,' Harry agreed, 'the best thing we can do is get out and let Dumbledore know what's happened, he'll save Fred in a heartbeatI'm sure of that.'

As soon as Harry mentioned Dumbledore's name Ron seemed to calm downto some extent.

'Yeah, Dumbledore will save Fred like that,' Ron snapped his fingers. It was as if this news had suddenly given him a second wind because he had stood up and was striding purposely towards the door, leaving Harry and George to follow in his wake, 'right let's go.'

Harry moved into the next room behind George and stood next to Ron whose previous energy had somewhat been stalled by the presence of a rather large wall

'How are we suppose to get around that?' asked Ron.

'I don't think we are,' answered Harry who was looking up, 'I think that's the door up there.'

George and Ron followed his gaze and sure enough high above them, stuck in the upper most corner of the room, was the door. Harry looked along the surface of the wall where he saw there were numerous large coloured pegs, about the size of his foot, sticking out of it. George had noticed them too.

'Should we try the levitating again?' asked Ron.

'It'll take too long for all three of us to get over there,' George explained, 'and Fred's counting on us'

'Hmm I guess the only way up is to climb,' he reasoned looking at the other two.

'Seems straight forward enough,' agreed Harry.

'That's what we said about the last room,' Ron responded solemnly.

There were enough pegs spanning along the wall for all three of them to start climbing together. The progress was slow but steady and it wasn't long before they were half way up.

'Did anyone else hear that?' Harry asked.

It started very quietly but Harry could hear a scraping sound, as if two bits of stone were being ground against one and other. This noise slowly grew louder and louder until it became obvious where it was emanating from. All three of them looked down. The stone floor was slowly moving away from the wall, uncovering a gapping abyss below them.

'Well that's just perfect,' announced Ron, 'what happens if we fall now?'

'Were you planning on falling before?' asked George.

'No of course not'

'So it doesn't matter then, does it?' reasoned George.

'I guess not,' agreed Ron, 'but it doesn't mean I have to like it. Oh now what?'

The floor had stopped moving, there now only remained a small ledge along the wall with the door they entered through. If they fell there would be no chance of reaching the ledge, they would most certainly fall into the darkness below. The scraping sound of stone against stone had now ceased and had been replaced by a faint drumming sounding that was gradually getting louder and faster. Harry looked across at George who just shrugged with a confused frown on his face. All three of the boys looked down into the chasm waiting to see what the drumming noise would bring forth. The sound had now increased so much in speed and sound that it was impossible to distinguish between the beats, then as it reach a final flourish the drum-roll stopped.

Harry had been so intently looking into the void that he didn't realise what was happening until it was too late: the coloured peg that he had been resting his left foot on had disappeared. Harry's quick reflexes meant that he managed to grab hold of the pegs in his hand tightly and steady himself without falling, unfortunately Ron's reactions weren't as fast and if it hadn't been for George grabbing hold of his hand he would have certainly lost his balance and fallen into the emptiness below.

'What the hell happened there?' shouted Ron, who was now only holding onto one peg with his right hand as he grabbed tightly onto George's wrist.

'Some of the pegs disappeared,' said George struggling to keep his balance.

'Yeah I think I worked that part out when I nearly fell to my death,'

'I think it was just the blue pegs,' Harry said looking up towards the pegs above him, 'I was about to reach up to one before we heard that noise but now it's gone.'

'Speaking of 'that noise', those drums are back,' George pointed out, 'I think we'd better get moving quickly.'

The three of them started climbing again, trying to scramble up the wall as fast as they could while the drums gradually got faster and louder. As the sound entered into the drum-roll crescendo Harry stopped climbing and braced himself in case one of his pegs disappeared. He checked the pegs in each of his hands; one red, one yellow. He then looked down to try and see what he was standing on; both were green. It was too late to move to different colours, the drums had reached their climax.

Harry grunted loudly as all his weight dropped onto his arms. His cheek grazed against the wall causing pain to rippled through the side of his face but he still managed to hold on, his feet dangling over nothingness.

'You OK Harry?' asked Ron.

'Yeah, I'll be fine,' Harry gruffly answered as he swung his body so he could reach another peg with one of his feet, 'how about you two?'

'We're OK, just lost a hand grip,' explained George, who then swore loudly, 'there's those drums again, lets move.'

As before they began to climb up the face of the wall, although their progress was slowed somewhat by the fact that there were now fewer pegs to grab hold of. Once again the noise of the drums reached their pinnacle and fell silent. Harry could see a yellow peg near to him slide quickly back into the wall.

'Ron!' shouted George as his younger brother slipped from his position.

George reached out a hand and grabbed Ron as he dropped, unfortunately Ron's momentum pulled George off balance and he too fell from the wall. George shot an arm out and grasped hold of a peg. He grimaced in discomfort as Ron's chosen method of stopping his fall involved grabbing hold of one of George's legs and wrapping both arms around it. However this now meant that George couldn't stretch himself enough to climb up, as he required both hands on the peg to carry the combined weight of him and his brother.

'George try and swing Ron over to those pegs on your left,' Harry instructed as he slowly made his way across to help.

George, with the aid of Ron, slowly started to rock back and forth. With each swing Ron would extend out his hand and try to reach the elusive peg. Harry was making his own progress across to help George and was soon just above the next peg to the one he was grasping to.

'Nearly got it there,' Ron said as he just missed, 'one more go should do it George.'

George swung himself hard once again, he face turning red with the strain of the effort. Ron's outstretched hand closed around its target and he let go of his brother's legs. The momentum he had gained allowed him to swing his foot up and wedge it against another peg, which he used to steady himself. Now devoid of his brother's weight George was able to try and pull himself up a bit to reach the next peg. Although relieved that his two friends were safe, Harrycouldn't help think that something was wrong. He inhaled deeply as he realised what it was, he tried to warn George and Ron but it was too late. The drums had already stopped.

'Watch out!' Harry's shouted warning fell on deaf ears as it was smothered by the cries of his two friends.

While Harry had managed to grab on tightly to his pegs, therefore being able to steady his body against the wall as one of the ones in his hands disappeared, neither Ron nor George had braced themselves for the pegs to retract so their reactions were far too slow. The peg George was hanging from slid back into the wall and he swore loudly as he started to fall, frantically trying to catch hold of another peg as he descended.

'GEORGE!' shouted Ron as his brother fell past him into the darkness below.

His hands grips now gone Ron flailed desperately against the wall trying to achieve some sort of balance. Harry could see that his friend was in trouble, he looked desperately around for a way down to Ron but there just weren't enough pegs left to reach him. Harry couldn't get down to Ron who in turn couldn't move from his precarious position, and all the while the drums got louder. They both looked at each other in quiet desperation, anxiously trying to work out anyway for Harry to reach Ron.

Then an idea stuck Harry; it was so obvious he was amazed that he hadn't thought of it sooner; levitation. His hand dashed into he pocket and he pulled out his wand. As he raised his wand to perform the spell, the drums fell silent once more.

'Wingardium Levi…'

The two pegs Harry was standing on glided back into the wall cutting short his incantation. His body dropped quickly. His hand instinctively tightened around the peg holding him in place. Although his reactions were quick they didn't take into account that he would suddenly have to bear his entire weight with just one hand. Pain seared through his shoulder as he dropped down causing him to cry out and loosen his grip. His hand, moist from sweat, slipped from the peg.

Harry desperately tried to grab the peg again but his hand closed around thin air. He fell away from the wall, away from the pegs, away from Ron, who was shouting his name, and into the darkness beyond.

SPLASH

Harry landed heavily in the water flat on his back, knocking the wind out of him. As he struggled to break through the surface of the water something wrapped itself around his outstretched arm and pulled him up. He breathed deeply as his mouth cleared the water and turned to look at what had dragged him up.

'Hiya Harry,' smiled George, 'I thought you'd be dropping in on me.'

'Thanks George,' Harry said as he was helped up out of the water.

'Here, this came down just before you did.'

George handed Harry back his wand who, in all the confusion, hadn't even realised that he had dropped it.

'I guess we just wait for Ron now and then we'll head on,' George said looking back up at the black ceiling.

'How do you know Ron will fall and how come we can't see up into the other room?' Harry asked putting his wand away, 'it didn't feel like I fell that far.'

'It's probably a portal of some sort, can't see through those.' George reasoned, 'as for Ron falling, it's a bit inevitable. I mean if the likes of you and I ended up in here then Ron doesn't stand a chance.'

Sure enough as George predicted, about a minute later they were rewarded with the sight of Ron plummeting through the ceiling and into the murky water. Ron erupted from the water and he spat out a large mouthful of liquid before looking wildly around the room. His panicked look subsided when his eyes rested on the other two.

'Thanks,' Ron spluttered as Harry and George helped him out of the water.

While Ron got his breath back Harry looked around. They were in a large room; there were four exits in the centre of each wall with a few squares of flagstone around each door, these bits of stone were the only solid ground as the remainder of the room was full of water. Looking up Harry saw that there wasn't just one portal exit but several, spread out across the ceiling.

'So which door do we take?' Harry asked his eyes flitting from one exit to another.

'Well I sort of decided on this one,' George jerk his thumb over his shoulder. 'I don't particularly want to go for another swim in that water.'

'Good idea,' Harry agreed as he helped Ron back to his feet.

George opened the door behind him and stepped into the dark room beyond with Harry and Ron in tow. As the closed the door, torches on the wall once again came alive and bathed the new room in light. Either side of them was a low wall, as Harry's gaze moved to look around the rest of the room he was suddenly being propelled towards the wall to his left.

'GET DOWN!' George shouted shoving Harry and Ron to one side before diving the other way.

The flagstone that they had been standing on shattered as something hit it leaving deep dark scorch marks. Harry stared over at George from behind the wall and saw that he had his wand out ready and was glancing tentatively over the top. George looked back at Harry with a worried expression on his face.

'This is really not good,' he said simply.