The trio walked down the hallway on the seventh floor towards the room of requirement. The tension was audible. Ron and Hermione had hardly said a word to each other. 'At least they're not tearing each other's throats out,' Harry thought. They finally came upon the area they were looking for, marked by the tapestry of the dancing troll. They all began to pace up and down, thinking the same thing.

'I need somewhere to hide something…'

After a few paces back and forth, a door appeared. They all looked at each other and steeled themselves to go inside. They walked inside and Ron gasped.

"This place is huge! Look at all the junk everywhere! Look at this! Who do you reckon got whacked with this then, eh?" said Ron excitedly, indicating towards the blood stained axe Harry had seen last year. Hermione smiled at Ron's eagerness and Ron abruptly stopped.

"Well, uh, back to work then." he said stiffly 'Where is this thing?" They walked towards one of the many alleyways and began making their way towards the Horcrux. Harry could feel a ball of nerves in the pit of his stomach. They walked for some time before finding the old blistered cupboard, with the ugly bust on top. Ron looked from Harry to Hermione, seemingly speechless.

"Well," said Harry "It's now or never I suppose." He reached up and took the bust down from the cupboard. He looked at Hermione and Ron and then tried to steady his breathing. He reached his hand towards the tiara…and noticed that the lights seemed to flicker a little. After they steadied Harry began moving his hand forward again. He felt something akin to pin and needles begin to travel from the base of his spine to his shoulder blades. His hand was four inches away, and Ron thought he heard something peculiar moving around the room. A look a fright passed across his face, but Hermione and Harry seemed not to notice. Harry's hand was three inches away…two inches away. The lights began to flicker wildly once more and cast hideous shapes upon the wall. One inch…his fingers brushed against it…

THUD

They stopped and looked around wildly, the room seemed to be much dimmer and the floor was groaning beneath them.

"I, uh, think we should get out of here," said Ron nervously. Harry shook his head in vigorous agreement. He looked around quickly and then grabbed the tiara with one quick swoop. He hadn't even stood up before a sickly cracking sound began to come towards them. Ron and Hermione were frozen to the spot, not wanting to see what was making the noise but unable to look away.

"RUN!" shouted Harry. That seemed to be enough for Ron and Hermione and they spun around quickly and began to follow Harry's lead. Harry shoved the tiara hurriedly into his robes and ran faster. He determined that the cracking sound was coming from the floor…something was breaking through the floorboards. It sounded like the wood was being tortured, screaming until the point of release. A deafening bang filled the room and Harry knew at once that whatever had been trying to get up from under them had done so successfully.

They took a left by a shelf of old sherry bottles and began running wildly down the alley.

"WHAT DO WE DO NOW HARRY?" shouted Ron in panic.

"WE NEED TO FIND THE EXIT! THE DOOR FACES NORTH, SO WE CAN USE OUR WANDS TO HELP!" Harry shouted back.

"SHUT UP!" Hermione shouted. They both shut up quickly, which would have made Mrs Weasley proud.

"I don't think shouting out where we are is really going to help us at the moment." she said crossly. They jogged further up the alley when they heard a strange whooshing sound…and turned in time to see the lights at the far end of the room powering down… They watched with fear and the lights went out alley after alley.

"This is definitely not a good sign," squeaked Ron, clutching onto Hermione.

"We have to run as far as we can while the lights at this end hold out, I have a feeling we're in some serious trouble after that…" said Harry quickly. So they continued to run through the alleys. Before taking turns one of them would murmur 'point me' so that they were going in the right direction. Finally Harry could see the door in the distance and felt relief spread through him…then the lights went out.

'Lumos,' muttered Hermione. Harry turned around to thank her and stopped suddenly as he saw their pale and scared faces. Harry could feel something cold tickling his neck. Without thinking he spun around and thought 'stupefy!' A large crash echoed around the room and whatever had been about to attack them fell into the piles of junk surrounding them. All three of them ran quickly to the end of the alley. Harry could hear nothing but the beating of his heart in his ears. Ron stopped a quickly grabbed the bloody axe with a grim smile, then continued following. As they rounded the corner they stopped as they looked on in horror…

The floor was cracking right in front of them, and deathly white hands began to grab the splintered wood. The crack was getting wider and wider with every second that passed, and arms began to reach out. Harry and Ron leapt over the crack quickly. Hermione held her breath and jumped over the crack too… but no sooner had she become airborne when she felt something grip at her foot. She screamed in fear as she looked down and saw the things in the crack moving excitedly in her direction. Harry spun around quickly and slid along the floor. His legs were hanging over the crack and he could feel a painful pull at them. He grabbed Hermione roughly by the legs and threw her over his shoulder. She landed with a thud on the other side and looked up, horrified to see Harry half submerged in the crack. She rushed over and grabbed his hand quickly, trying to heave with all of her might.

"Ron!" she shouted desperately "Help me!" Ron turned around and his eyes widened at the sight before him. He rushed over to Hermione's side and grabbed Harry's arms. Together they pulled and pulled, trying hard to ignore the yells of pain that were coming from Harry from being pulled to both directions very violently. With a huge yell Ron yanked as hard as he could, and Harry was free.

Harry quickly thrust his wand into the crack. He could feel something grab at his arm and try to pull him in. Breathing quickly he thought 'incendio' and the white hands and arms began to turn a sickly orange colour…the fire spread quickly and as Harry looked back he could see a trail of fire around the room. He stood up frantically and gestured for them to continue running. He could see the door… it was only a couple of metres away! Ron was shouting something but Harry could only think of getting to the door. A metre away and a dull thus pierced Harry's consciousness. He looked around and saw that Ron had swung his axe into a grotesque creature towering over him. Harry looked up with a look amazement and terror. The creatures' face looked like it had been smashed to pieces and stuck back together in an odd way. Its mouth looked like a bloody gash and as it opened its mouth he thought he could hear people screaming within it. Harry ran towards Ron and shoved him out of the way. He grabbed Hermione by the hand and yanked open the door. He thrust Hermione through and Ron followed shortly after. Harry was about to jump out when he felt an icy cold vice grip his leg. He looked down and saw the creatures' hand on his ankle. The hand seemed like it was pulsating, almost like worms crawling under the skin. Harry let out a soundless scream as he rose his wand 'Impedimenta!' he thought wildly. The beasts' hand released from Harry's leg and Harry kicked the disgusting face as hard as he could. It went flying towards the crack in the floor and with an unearthly scream, was consumed by the fire.