The Manticore's damage had been done permanently. It crashed around the chamber so hard the five of them could feel the ground quaking, and in the next few minutes, the passage behind them was filling up with rocks. They fled down the tunnel: Harry and Ginny holding hands, Ron pulling Hermione along, Malfoy staggering in the rear. The mountain of dust and debri building behind was brushing their heels when Harry came to an abrupt dead end.
The tunnel ended in a precipice jutting out over a boiling lake of fire. The ground ahead was a sheer drop. Harry put his arm out to stop the others as the heat of the lake hit his face, but it was too late. The rest of them thundered forward, and they all went crashing down the rocky slope, only stopping when Harry's hand was an inch from the lava.
"I think I broke something," muttered Ron on his stomach and lifted Malfoy's snapped wand.
Malfoy glared at him.
"Where do we go from here?" Ginny wondered as Harry helped her up.
"Don't you think it's obvious?" sneered Malfoy. He was standing apart from the others, his finger pointing at the lake.
Harry followed his gaze. Standing in the middle of the lake of lava on a platform of rock was a glass case with a cup revolving inside.
"Whoa," whispered Ron, standing with his mouth open. "That old lady loved her heirlooms alot. Talk about needing a hobby."
"No, you moron, she didn't build this," snapped Malfoy.
Ron flushed red and started at Malfoy, but Hermione stopped him.
Harry looked at Malfoy in surprise, "What do you know about it?"
Malfoy narrowed his gray eyes with disgusted impatience on Harry, "Haven't you ever seen his work before? This is You-Know-who's signature." He waved a hand at the lake of lava. "Manticores, sheer drops, obstacles -- this is how he works. Where are your brains, Potter? And they say you're the One to stop him."
Harry was slightly annoyed but said nothing. He knew Malfoy was right. He should have recognized Voldemort's work. He remembered the poison at the center of the lake in the cave and the invisible chain that had held Voldemort's boat to the bank. It all seemed a little redundant to him suddenly, but he began looking for clues nonetheless.
As Dumbledore had told Harry before, Voldemort enjoyed hiding his relics at the scene of his crimes. The locket had been hidden in the cave where he'd tortured the orphan children. The Hufflepuff mansion was where he'd killed Hezipah. It only made sense to Harry that the cup was there. But surely this was too simple -- even for Voldemort.
Malfoy folded his arms, watching the lake of lava. "There are probably salamanders in there, too."
"There are," whispered Hermione. Her voice was trembling.
Ron laughed. "Hermione," He said incredulously, "Salamanders are harmless. We handled them in Hagrid's class."
"Not those salamanders," said Ginny.
Harry looked up. There were gigantic, blue lizards in the lava. They swam as if in water. Some of them revolved around the platform like sharks around a boat of castaways while others lifted their heads toward land. Some had already began swimming in their direction.
"Don't like the look of that," Ron said tensely.
Malfoy, meanwhile, had already scrambled back up the rocky slope.
Harry began feeling the ground again.
"What are you doing?" Ginny asked.
"Feel around for an invisible chain or a switch or something," Harry told her.
The others followed suit. After a moment's frantic searching, Hermione gave a shout and held something up. A golden rope magically manifested itself in her hand. It led across the lava all the way back to the glass case which held the revolving cup. It was latched to a hook on the case's door.
"What are we supposed to do with that?" asked Ron, perplexed. "Rope it in? Across that?" He pointed incredulously at the lake of lava.
"No," said Ginny feverishly. "Look!" She took the rope in her hand and dipped her foot briefly into the lava.
"Ginny!" shouted Harry and Ron in alarm as Hermione gasped.
But when Ginny took her foot out again, it was completely unharmed.
"He means for you to swim," said Harry, as it dawned on him.
"Oh, no, Harry, you can't," cried Hermione, her pupils shrinking with fear as she gazed across the expanse of lava.
The salamanders were snarling now that the rope had been found.
"I have to," Harry told her. "I have to get that cup -- or at least see if it's the real thing."
"You idiots," Malfoy sneered, "Don't disturb the cup!"
Harry ignored him. Instead, he tied the rope around his waist and waded into the lava. It was like wading into a warm pool of mud. He glanced back and smiled encouragingly at Hermione.
"Harry! Watch out!" Ginny screamed.
One of the salamanders had swam up as he was turning and snapped at him. Harry aimed a confunding curse at it, but as soon as he'd taken care of one, another sprang up.
"Come on, he needs our help!" yelled Ron, running along the bank.
"You'll never get across that way, Potter!" yelled Malfoy from the safety of a high rock as he watched the others cursing the salamanders.
Unfortunately, Malfoy was right. The salamanders were closing in left and right on Harry, and despite his friends' best efforts, the boy-wizard had been burned twice. Not only were the salamanders hard to surpass, the lava was rising up to Harry's chin so that it was very difficult to swim. He wondered, as he sank, why apparation would not have worked just as well. But surely, Voldemort had spells against its usage in the cave, just the same as Hogwarts.
As Harry was sinking, he thought of Ginny and Ron and Hermione and all of the people he'd let down. The lava rose higher and higher . . . Then a voice broke through Harry's thoughts. The voice belonged to Malfoy.
"Aquarto!" Malfoy was shouting. "Aquarto! Aquarto!"
And to Harry's surprise, the salamanders were hissing and drawing back. Harry grabbed the golden rope and pulled himself hand over hand toward the platform. He could hear Malfoy still shouting as he managed to pull himself onto the stone stair. Up he went, the glass case slowly appearing over the top step. The cup revolved inside, glowing a bright blue light.
Harry stepped closer to the case and looked for a way to open it. It didn't seem to have a latch or door of any kind. There was only the hook to which the golden rope was tied. He scowled in frustration and began to pry at the corners of the case with his fingers. He tapped it with his wand and shouted, "Alohomora!" Nothing happened.
"Potter!"
Harry looked up to see Malfoy standing on the rocky shore, his hands cupped around his mouth and the others watching him with a mixture of amazement and suspicion.
"The hook!" Malfoy called, clawing at the air. "Twist the hook!"
Harry hesitated. Experience had taught him to be wary of anything Malfoy said. But he couldn't see how else he was supposed to open the case, and if push came to shove, he had his wand at hand.
Harry reached out, and with a determined expression, closed his hand over the hook. It twisted easily, as if it had been oiled and polished for this very purpose. The front of the glass case swung open silently.
Harry extended his hand --
"Wait!" shouted Hermione, "What if it's a portkey?"
But Harry couldn't see how he could avoid touching the cup now that he was finally here.
"That's a chance I'll take," he called back.
"What if it's cursed, like the necklace?" Hermione called.
This hadn't occured to Harry.
"It's not cursed," said Malfoy. He was smirking and leaning against a pillar of rock, his arms folded.
"Why do I get the feeling you're not telling us something, Malfoy?" Ron demanded, marching over to Malfoy.
"It's not cursed," Malfoy said again, "Because that's not the cup of Hufflepuff!" He laughed as Harry's face went pale.
Harry looked at the cup quickly and snatched it. It had been revolving in a cool, blue current of air, but was very hot to the touch once he held it. He was able to see how unextraordinary the cup was in the instant it took him to drop it from his hand. The cup left an angry red color on his palm, as if he'd stuck it in a hot bath.
"Malfoy!" Harry called angrily. "You knew about this! You knew all along!"
Ron was standing with his face an inch from Malfoy's, glaring.
"Back off, Weasley," Malfoy sneered. "If I had told you it wasn't the real thing before, would you have believed me?"
The salamanders didn't bother Harry when he swam back to shore. They seemed to realize the cup was a fake as well.
"Where's the real thing, Malfoy?" Harry demanded, shaking the cup under Malfoy's nose.
EVeryone had their wands aimed at Malfoy.
"And you better tell us everything you know," added Ron grimly.
Malfoy looked bored, "Think about it, Potter. Where was the other one? The one that opened the Chamber?"
"Your father," Harry said slowly. "He had Voldemort's things!"
"Not anymore," Ginny reminded him. "Our dad raided the Malfoys, remember?" She glared at Draco.
"What does the ministery do with that stuff when they raid it?" Harry asked Ron.
"It's confiscated," Ron answered. Then he rounded on Malfoy, "How do you know about the horcruxs?"
"Is that what they're called?" Malfoy said, smiling nastily. "Only after Potter here destroyed the one that opened the Chamber did my father realize there had been something significant about the diary. It had once possessed a piece of You-know-Who's soul."
"Did your father ever keep any of the four founders' possessions?" Hermione demanded. "Anything of Ravenclaw's? What happened to the locket?"
"Don't know what happened to the locket, Granger!" Malfoy snapped. His gray eyes were pale flames as he watched Hermione with a look of purest loathing. "It was cursed. I tried to send it to Dumbledore." He smirked at Harry, "To precious Potter's wouldbe father."
None of them looked the least bit surprised. Malfoy's eyes flickered a mixture of irritation and disappointment before he continued.
"This much is clear: when Dumbledore realized what the locket was, he sought to have it destroyed. But it was too late. The locket was stolen and put back on the market. Some say it was an inside job . . ." Malfoy's voice trailed off and a nasty smile lingered on his lips.
"Who did you give it to?" Harry asked in a low voice.
But Malfoy merely let the silence drag on, glaring steadily into Harry's violent, green eyes.
"Mundungus," breathed Hermione suddenly. She looked at the others. "Remember that day he was in Hogsmeade?"
"Don't you realize we're trapped down here? We're going to die, Potter!" Malfoy erupted suddenly. "You're not going to find any more horcruxes! This is it! I told you not to disturb the cup!"
Even as Malfoy was speaking, the cavernous room began to tremble. The ground quaked so hard that they were sent staggering into each other and Ron fell right toward the lake of lava.
"Ron!"
Ginny and Hermione grabbed him by the hair, and he roared in pain as they dragged him back.
Large, gargantuin rocks were crashing down from the ceiling and exploding in tinier pieces. The salamanders began to wail with fright and sink away beneath the lava.
"We have to get out of here!" Harry yelled, leading the others he knew not where.
"No kidding, Potter!" spat Malfoy, staggering after them. "I thought we'd stick around for afternoon tea!"
"Shut up, Malfoy!" yelled Ginny.
"I suppose you're going to make me, Weasley?" Malfoy retorted. "Take your time! We've got no where to go!"
"Shut up, Malfoy, or I'll give you somewhere to go!" snarled Ron.
But Draco was right.
There seemed to be no way out whatsoever. The lava was steadily rising, overspilling the lip of its black pit, and swollowing the cavernous room like an unstoppable blob. Harry and the others were soon at the very highest point they could reach, watching hopelessly from the top of a jagged rock as the lava surged closer and closer to their toes. The glass case and its phony cup had been consumed long ago.
"Here's what we're going to do," panted Harry, untying the rope from his waist. "Here. Each of you tie yourselves to the rope."
"Then what?" snapped Malfoy. "We go for a swim?"
"Just do it!" Hermione snapped, smacking Draco in the face with the rope as she tossed it over her shoulder.
Malfoy was the last to fasten the golden rope around his waist when the lava overcame their gettaway and they were sent swirling into its midst. It was like trying to stomach a roller coaster. The rope was swung this way and that so wildly they were sometimes smacked into the walls.
They were like an odd sort of snake slithering through fire.
Then a strange hope filled Harry's stomach, and he felt as if a thousand happy memories had been placed in his brain. He grinned at Ginny over his shoulder, letting the soft musical cord flow through his being.
Ginny frowned at him in confusion, her face black and smudged and bleeding. But a smile overtook her features as it hit her as well.
"Phoenix song!" yelled Ron.