"FRED?"
"Of course it's me, who else do you know who looks like me? Actually forget that. Here you go."
Fred's face swam into view as he placed the glasses on Harry's face. His hair was matted to his face, his clothes were soaked and torn slightly on one sleeve, but apart from that he looked fine. Fred grimaced as he eased his hand into the green sludge freeing one of Harry's hands.
"Ugh, you couldn't have gotten stuck to the wall by marshmallow could you?" he complained as he wrinkled his nose at the pungent smell.
"Well I didn't have time to ask it if it did it in any other flavours. Thanks," Harry added as Fred finally pulled him free. He landed heavily on the stone floor next to the body of the beast, "so what did you do to it?"
"A simple sleeping charm," Fred said with a big wide grin on his face.
"So how long do we have until it wears off?"
"Dunno," Fred replied with a frown on his face, "we'd better get a move on," his frown continued as he looked around the room, "where are the other two?"
"Oh they are over there," Harry pointed, "they got knocked out."
"Tsk, George got knocked out by that thing?" Fred scolded shaking his head, " he must be getting slow in his old age."
"Er… actually only Ron got knocked out by it," Harry grinned, "George knocked himself out."
"Brilliant," said Fred, looking as though all his Christmas's had come at once, "well lets revive them quickly them."
"Yeah we'd better get out of here before that thing wakes up," nodded Harry.
"To be honest I meant so I could poke fun at George, but your point is valid too."
They crossed over to the other two who were beginning to stir; Fred helped Ron to his feet as Harry went to George's side.
"Thanks George," Ron said woozily as he steadied himself against his brother and the wall.
"Guess again little bruv," Fred beamed.
"What?" Ron's face contorted into a frown, partly to do with confusion and partly to do with the fact he was still a little shaky on his feet. Slowly a smile spread across his face, "Fred?"
"Well it's Sir Fred if you want to get technical but I'll let it go this time."
Ron wrapped his arms around his brother and looked as though he was about to squeeze the life out of him.
"Er…Ron?" Fred wheezed, "I'd like to breathe now if that's ok."
"Oh sorry," Ron said letting go, and then quickly punched his brother in the arm.
"Ow! What was that for?" Fred winced rubbing his arm
"That was for making us worry about you," explained Ron.
Harry put George's arm over his shoulder and helped leaver him onto his feet. There was a large bump on his head where he had hit the wall.
"Thanks Harry," George said groggily, and then looking across at his twin, he began dusting his clothes off, "God I look a right state."
"Er… George," interrupted Harry, "that's not a mirror, that's Fred."
"Fred?" responded George trying to smooth down his hair, "FRED!"
All thoughts of the painful ache coursing through George's head were forgotten as he grabbed hold of his twin and had started to jump up and down with him. Harry watched the twins bouncing away together, he caught Ron's eye and could see a huge smile of relief on his friends face, which was soon replaced by a look of uncomfortable panic as his brothers had now enveloped him and, despite his protests of being too dizzy, were whipping him around with them in a circle.
"Where the hell have you been?" George asked his twin when he had calmed down enough to think, as Ron steadied himself against the wall looking as though he was about to be sick.
"Well after I went for a nice ride down some tunnels I got dumped into a room full of water which had four doors leading out of it."
"Hey I think we were in there," Harry pointed out.
"So I went through one of those doors and ended up in a big room where I had to dodge…er… I think they were wasps."
"Great," complained Ron, "we get the Wall of Death and a two headed monster and Fred gets to mess around with bugs."
"They weren't normal wasps Ron, they were gigantic. One of them nearly ripped my arm off," Fred lifted up his sleeve to show them the tear in the cloth.
"Er… guys do you think we should leave this room before that thing wakes up?" asked Harry, nodding his head over to the slumbering beast. A loud snort emanated from the body of the beast as if to emphasise Harry's observation.
Walking slowly through the room, they carefully stepped around the body that was lying prone on the floor. One of the heads groaned softly, causing Ron to jump back and the others to pause in anticipation with their wands at the ready. When it was clear that they weren't about to be attacked the foursome hurried quickly through the far door.
As Harry gratefully closed the door behind him he turned to see that the other three had stopped just ahead of him. They were standing on a large ledge that spread the entire width of the room, looking around Harry could see that there were three other doors that had lead into this room and they were all located on their side of the ledge. On the opposite side of the room there was another identical ledge but with only a single large door with small statutes either side, which were too far away to make out just exactly what they were. Between these two ledges there was a bridge that hung over a dark abyss. Hanging from the ceiling was a huge hourglass with all the sand currently in the bottom half.
Fred wandered over to one of the other doors on their side of the room and gave it an experimental tug; nothing happened. He even tried using the unlocking spell but this didn't have any effect either.
"I guess that's the only way," he said turning back to the others.
"I knew you'd say that," Ron sighed depressingly, plodding over to the edge of the bridge, looking down he frowned, "what's that suppose to mean?"
The other three came over to him to see what he was looking at.
The bridge was made up of a series of large slabs, which were lined up in four columns running the length of walkway. On each row of four slabs there were some markings, with each of the four slabs having a different one, apart from the very first slab which ran the width of the bridge and had the four animal symbols for the Houses of Hogwarts on it.
"That looks like a wizard's hat," Harry said pointing to one of the markings.
"Yeah," agreed George, as he pointed to another one "and that kinda looks like a dragon."
"Oh you're right," said Ron turning his head slightly to the side, "and that one looks like… er… well a leaf."
"Don't be daft Ron," scolded Fred, "that looks nothing like a leaf it looks more like a wand."
"I meant that one," Ron said impatiently motioning to the one he meant.
"Oh, yes well obviously that one looks like a leaf," Fred said recovering quickly.
"So what do you think they mean?" Harry asked George before the other two started bickering.
"Absolutely no idea Harry, but I guess we might as well try and cross. I mean what's…"
"If you say what's the worst that could happen, I will… I will," stammered Ron, "well I don't know what I'll do but it won't be pleasant."
"Er… right," George said, contemplating saying it anyway just to see what Ron could come up with, "ok lets go."
They moved in unison and stepped onto the first slab, as soon as they did the large hourglass that was suspended from the ceiling in the middle of the room swung around and the sand slowly started to filter through from the top to the bottom.
"What do you think happens when the sand runs out?" asked Ron nervously.
"I think it'll mean one of two things little brother," George answered sagely, "either something unexpected and bad will happen or…"
"Or what?" Ron asked desperately.
"Or it'll mean that our eggs have been boiled for the correct amount of time, now as much as I really hope it's the eggs going on what the past rooms were like I think it is pretty safe to say it's probably going to be the first of the two option."
"So either way it's bad," mused Fred, the others turned and gave him a funny look, "oh you see I don't like eggs."
"How come you always have them for breakfast?" inquired George.
"Oh I like fried eggs, I've just never been a fan of boiled ones," explained Fred.
"So how do you feel about poached?"
"To be honest I can take them or leave…"
"Sorry to interrupt," Ron said impatiently, "but we are in room that is quite clearly counting down to something bad, and the last thing we need to know is how Fred likes his eggs."
"You're right Ron, we're sorry," apologised George just as Fred whispered, 'scrambled' to Harry, "so let's start move…hey what's that?"
George pointed up to a silver light that had appeared on the side of one of the walls. It was fizzing brightly and reminded Harry of the sparklers that Dudley use to play with at Halloween, except he doubted this light would be used to chase him around the room threatening to set fire to his hair, at least he hoped it wouldn't.
The light began to move in the air, it left a bright trail in its wake. Slowly as they watched it's progression through the air they saw that it was in fact creating a line of letters, soon it had finished and had stopped expectantly in the air.
"Wenlock?" Ron voice broke the silence, "what the Hell's a Wenlock?"
"No idea," Harry said equally confused.
"It sounds familiar," George pondered, gently rubbing his chin in thought.
"Really?" Fred responded.
"Actually no," George admitted, "but I thought I'd give you guys some glimmer of hope. Look," he continued as they gave him a look of annoyance, "whatever this Wenlock thing is, it's obviously one of those four things."
"So it's either a dragon, a leaf, a wand or a wizard's hat?" Fred said sceptically, "it really doesn't sound like any of those."
"Well maybe those marking just represent certain things?" Harry pointed out, "like the dragon might mean all magical animals."
"Good thinking there Harry," congratulated George, "and the wizard's hat might mean an actual wizard."
"Yeah and the leaf might mean….er… types of tree," Fred hazard a guess.
"Seriously, if you weren't as good looking as me I'd have to question if we were brothers," scolded George.
"I think he might be on the right track," Ron said, he carried on after receiving a bemused look from the other three, "ok maybe not a type of tree, but I mean it could be types of herbs used in magic, or even ingredients in general."
"Nice one bruv," Fred said to his beaming younger brother, "and the last one I guess could just mean spells."
"Well that's great," smiled Harry, which was soon replaced by a frown "so… which one would be a Wenlock?"
"It doesn't really sound like a spell, or a magical animal," Fred said sharing his thoughts.
"Well that leaves a fifty-fifty chance," George pointed out, "I'd go with wizard."
"How did you decide that?" asked Harry.
"I don't think it would sound right saying 'could you pass me the Wenlock, I'm all out,'" explained George.
"I guess that logic is better then anything else we have at the moment," Fred said stepping onto the slab with the wizard's hat. The others held their collective breath. After what seemed an age Fred turned around and smiled, "well are you coming or not?"
The remaining three all piled onto the large stone slab and they waited expectantly. The fizzing light moved back to it's start point and began to spiral once again. The four boys watched and waited for the light to finish it's journey.
"Oh my god," exclaimed Harry, "I know that word, Asphodel, it's an ingredient."
"How do you know that?" Ron asked.
"Remember that first day in Potions, when Snape was his usual pleasant self," explained Harry, "well that was one of the ingredients he mentioned when he was proving how little I knew in front of the class."
"Good memory Harry," Fred said, "so what's it used in?"
"I have no idea," Harry said looking sheepish.
"That's ok," George said, before treading onto the leaf-marked slab, "we never pay attention in Snape's class either."
Once again they waited for the sparkling light to write a new word onto the wall.
"Elphick? Sounds like a disease," said Harry.
"Sadly we don't have that option," George responded, before turning to the other two, "any ideas?"
"Well I had this great idea for making our own Butterbeer," Fred said with a faraway look in his eye, "but as for Elphick I haven't got a clue."
"So far we have had a wizard and an ingredient," Ron spoke slowly, "so I think that this one might be a spell or a creature… but it doesn't really sound like either."
"Lets try one," Fred said daringly before playing a foot onto the slab with the dragon marking on it.
There was a moment's pause in which Fred turned and smiled at the other three. Then his triumphant looked turned to one of panic as the slab crumbled away beneath his foot. Fred flailed his arms desperately has he nearly fell into the hole in the bridge created by the slab disappearing down, if it hadn't been for Harry grabbing one of Fred's arms he probably would have joined the slab careering down into the blackness.
"Thanks," Fred gasped, as the other three pulled him back onto their slab, "at least we know what happens when we guess wrong. I reckon that means it has to be this one." Fred pushed the heel of his foot down cautiously down onto the slab with the wand marking on it, this time he gingerly held his foot there. After a moment this slab also fell away into the darkness.
"Ok," Harry concluded when Fred was safely back on the slab with the rest, "at least if we don't know the answer we can step on them and find out which one is safe."
"Good plan Harry," agreed Ron.
The progress across the room was slow and steady each time they paused as they tried to work out which slab was the safe one. Sometimes they knew the answers, but most of the time they would take it in turns to stretch their feet over onto a slab as the remaining three held on tight in case they needed to pull the volunteer back.
They had made their way almost half way across the ravine, before Ron noticed something was wrong. The other three looked up to where he was pointing, and they too realised the problem. The sand in the hourglass had almost run out.
The foursome waited expectantly as the last few drops of stand felling into the bottom container of the hourglass. They each pulled their wands out, preparing themselves for whatever was about to happen. The silence enveloped the whole room; the only sound was the low rasps of their breathing. Suddenly there was a rumbling sound from the far end of the bridge where they had started out. They watched as the first large slab crumbled into the abyss below. This was quickly followed by the first row of four slabs, each one disappearing from view.
"Ok time for Fred and Georges all purpose back up plan," Fred said urgently.
"Which is?" asked Ron.
"Run," explained George before breaking into a sprint along one of the columns of slabs.
The other three didn't need to be told twice and followed suit. Each of them ran as hard as they could down the column of slabs, luckily when they trod on the wrong ones it took a few moments for it to fall away into the darkness beyond, this meant that as long as they were quick enough they could keep going without falling down with the stone. Harry pushed himself as much as he could, the three Weasley brothers were further ahead then him, their long legs allowing them to move faster then he could. His heart was pounding hard in his chest as his feet slapped against the stone bridge. Harry chanced a look over his shoulder. The collapsing sections were gaining on him. Harry stumbled slightly as the slab underneath his foot gave way. Luckily he managed to regain his footing in time just catching himself as he slipped.
He could see the other side just ahead of him, but he could also hear the crumbling of the stone slabs gaining on him. The three Weasley brothers had made it safely to the opposite ledge and had turned around to shout encouragement to Harry as he closed the final gap.
"Harry! It's right behind you," shouted Ron in a panicked voice.
"JUMP!" Fred and George screamed in unison.
With every ounce of energy that Harry had he flung himself forward as far as he could, clearing the last few slabs of stone as they fell away into the abyss. Fred, George and Ron's shouts of triumph were cut short as Harry, unable to stop himself, barrelled into them. All four of them, carried by Harry's momentum, fell backwards into the door, which swung open as they hit against it. They all landed in a pile on the floor, groaning with pain.
"I've got to admit," said a voice in the room, "you gentlemen certainly know how to make an entrance."
Harry, being on top of the pile, was the first to look around for the voice and could see someone standing just outside the light of the torches on the wall. The mysterious figure stepped forward revealing himself. Harry broke into a grin as relief flooded his body.
"Oh, hi Headmaster," said George from the bottom of the heap.