Chapter 4: The Goblet

Hermione led them down the hall until they reached a dead end with nothing but a door on the left, and an end table on the right, with a lantern hanging on the back wall that lit as they approached it.

"Leave it to Voldemort to find the creepiest place in the house, and hide an even creepier piece of his soul in it." Ron said with a shiver from fear.

"So, Hermione, exactly how do we get into this, erm, place?" Harry asked.

"Well, I know for a fact that that isn't a lantern, it's just an illusion, because it disappeared when I cast a certain spell over it, and I don't think that the Horcrux is actually in the house, I think this wall is a portal to somewhere else, but I can't seem to figure out how to open it. It's been driving me to the edge of insanity."

"Here, I found this spell in a book I stole from Sirius' library back when I was suspended from Hogwarts over that one summer. It should tell us what to do. Allecio!" In midair words that looked like they were written in fire appeared. To enter the chamber you seek, you must make a sacrifice. Ron made a funny trembling noise. You must leave your wand on the table to the right in order to see the door that you wish to find.

"Of course, send us in to a place where we could be attacked by dementors or inferi unprotected and hope we live!" Ron yelled.

"He must have thought Dumbledore would find out eventually, so he set up a portal here, and with the worst possible circumstances. I guess we have no choice, we have to do this." Harry commanded.

"Harry! We couldn't possibly survive in there without our wands! What are you going to do, wrestle a dementor? Think about what you're asking us to do!" Hermione pleaded.

"I didn't ask you to come along on this journey! You two decided that, and that was that, but now that there is a challenge, it's just up to Harry to save the day!" Harry roared as he set his wand on the table and looked to the wall for the portal or more instructions. After a few seconds, he could see a faint outline of a stone archway covered with runes. Ron and Hermione still stared at him in shock.

"But Harry, think about this before you act. We could go somewhere else, and find out ways to survive any possible attack without our wands." Hermione tried, bracing herself for another outburst, but it never came. As soon as she had finished with her plea, Harry walked straight through the wall, as if he had never heard her.

"Hermione, what are we going to do! We can't possibly go in there! We'll die!" Ron stated.

"I know that, but we have no choice now. We can't allow him to die either." She answered placing her wand on the table next to Harry's. "RON! I have an idea! The wall said that we can't take our OWN wands in, but it never said that we couldn't bring in someone else's! Put your wand down quickly. I'll take Harry's and yours in, and you bring in mine!" Clearly pleased with herself for finding this loophole in Voldemort's plot, she grabbed Harry's wand, and waited, as Ron reluctantly placed his on the table, and then waited for him to see the passageway too, and grabbed his and entered the portal. Ron, seeing no other choice in the matter, grabbed Hermione's wand, and followed the other two.


Harry stared into a giant hall, even bigger than the Great Hall at Hogwarts. Where am I? he thought. In the center, he saw a huge opening in the ceiling that was letting light through it and illuminating an object placed on the center of a pedestal placed in the middle of the light beam. He began toward the light, when everything in the room went dark, and the light went out. Turning to run back through the door, he noticed it wasn't there. Within seconds, the room went cold, and Harry knew this couldn't be good. He knew of only one creature that could make a room dark and cold, and based upon the temperature he was feeling, Harry knew that there had to be many of them. Dementors. With that thought, six cloaked figures appeared twenty feet from him, and started to get closer.

"EXPECTO PATRONUM!" yelled a familiar voice from behind him, and Harry saw a seal dashing toward the dementors. Hermione had found a way to get their wands through the barrier. Thank god.

"Look who decided to help." Harry said smugly.

"Oh shut it and take this," she replied throwing his wand to him.

Together, they fought off dementors, not really a challenge for the Trio, but that was just the beginning. As soon as they had finished off the dementors, an army of Inferi came through, and by the looks of things, there were twice as many Inferi as there were Dementors.

With a rush of jinxes, hexes, charms, and curses, the Trio started their attack, but nothing was working.

"What do we do!" Ron cried.

"I don't know." Replied Harry.

Obliviate! Reducto! Sectumsempra! Levicorpus! It was a constant array of colors, although the three were only being pushed back. No matter what they did, the Inferi never fell.

"Harry! What do we do!" Screamed Hermione.

"I don't know! Dumbledore drew a ring of fire around them when we were in the cave, but I don't know how, and there are too many of them anyway!"

"Well, we could try destroying the floor, but that's dangerous to us too." She guessed.

"Ok fine just as long as we get out of here!" Ron said before Harry could respond.

The Trio cast the spell simultaneously. TERRA RUDUCTI! As soon as they said that, the floor started to crack, making the Inferi pause for only a moment, before they continued their assault. However, Harry had started moving forward towards the item in the middle of the room. As soon as he reached the pedestal, he knew that he had found a Horcrux. As he picked it up, he felt a strange feeling come over him, and he passed out. The only thing he heard was Hermione screaming for him to move, and then nothing.