Summary: Hermione and Ron find themselves stuck in a Labyrinth. The thing is, as they get deeper and deeper into the labyrinth, they begin to fall deeper and deeper in love.
Rating: PG
Pairing: Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger
Disclaimer: I do not, did not and never will own Harry Potter.
The Labyrinth of Love
Chapter 4: Staircases of Bright Green
They got inside the bright green door. They stared. Everything was green. The walls, the ceiling, the floor; all green. Well, different shades of green. They found themselves in a circular room full of doors. All of the doors were bright green like the one that they went through.
They looked up in awe. Up, there were more doors of bright green. From where they were standing, there was no visible way to get up there. The doors were standing behind silver rails, which stood up among all the green. There seemed to be no end to the doors that went around in some kind of spiral. The ceiling could hardly be seen, but it was clearly as green as the floor. The floor sparkled. It sort of looked glittery, but there were no precious stones. It was just green, probably just hit with the glint of light coming from above.
"We have to leave", Hermione said firmly. They wheeled around to face the door the came through. It was no longer there. It was only a wall, bare except for a piece of thick parchment tacked up on it.
"Hermione..." Ron said, a bit nervous, "We're in deep shit"
"I know"
Hermione stepped closer to the parchment. She read it silently then turned to Ron, who was staring up at the ceiling.
"Ron"
"Yeah?"
"Look at this"
You've found yourself inside a maze
Gone from the world with out a trace
You've lost yourself in time and space
What to do is pass through each place
Try to find your way out of this room
Or hunger and thirst till your doom
To help you find the door you need
Take this level and follow its lead
Until everyone could find the top
Get through each door but don't you stop
Once you're out please don't forget
That this isn't over yet
This maze shall go on and on
Till you reach the door of the very last one
"We're in a Labyrinth", Hermione said breathlessly, "I've read about these"
"What have you read?" asked Ron, thankful that Hermione was a bookworm.
"Doors just pop in different places out of nowhere", Hermione said looking regretful, "How could I forget?"
"How do we get out?"
"The poem", Hermione said, "The poem said that we'll have to find the right doors"
"Hermione", Ron said sarcastically, "haven't you noticed that this place is full of them?"
"Oh no, Ron, you've got it all wrong", Hermione said, sitting down against the green wall, "This is just room one"
"One?"
"There are different rooms we'll have to pass through to get out the way we came in", Hermione said, "This is just room one"
"How many are there, do you reckon?"
"Usually there are ten to fifteen rooms in a labyrinth, maybe more", Hermione said, her face falling.
"Ten?"
Ron almost looked like he was about to faint. He couldn't spend days, even weeks with Hermione in some maze. Little did he know, Hermione was feeling exactly the same about him.
"Or more", Hermione added.
"Isn't there a spell or something?"
"Nope. Magic is banned within the Labyrinth. It has a sort of magic of its own, anyway"
Ron was getting desperate. He bit his lip and turned to Hermione, who was still sitting on the floor.
Hermione touched the floor with her finger. It sparkled green, and it felt unusually cold. Hermione ignored it, and got up. "Let's go", she said and started opening a door. A bright light came from it, and then faded. A solid wall formed in the doorway.
"Ron!" Hermione said frantically, "Help me look!"
"How do I know if it's the door?" Ron said.
"It has to have a way to get up"
Ron sighed. "I knew I shouldn't have opened it", he thought, then held out for a handle and turned it. Several blue birds came out of it, causing Ron alarm, and then they erupted into smoke. Ron turned to another door, then another. Each door caused him frustration. There was nothing behind them usually, sometimes; they had things that were completely useless. The most useful door he'd found was a door full of socks. He took a few pairs for him, and some for Dobby. That crazy house-elf could never have enough socks.
Hermione had found a room with broken crayons in them. She took out two red ones and crossed out all the doors that she had opened and gave the other one to Ron. Finally, they ended up with three doors left.
Ron took the first one, and ended up with wet. Something inside had sprayed him. He felt both refreshed and annoyed. Hermione tried to suppress her giggles as she reached for the second door. She swung it open, and a huge smile crept over her face.
"This is it", she said to Ron. Ron put Hermione's bag (which was a dark blue backpack) over his shoulder, and came over to see. There, through the door, was a plain bright green spiral staircase.
"Hey," he said, motioning to the other door, "let's check out this one, for fun"
"Okay then," Hermione said, "Open it"
Ron opened the door and a smile bigger than that of Hermione crept over his freckled face. "Food!" he exclaimed, and Hermione rushed over beside him. She saw that the room was full of loaves of bread wrapped in plastic-wrap. "Quick," Ron said, "Stuff them in my backpack"
Hermione took Ron's backpack from where she left it and handed it to him. Ron looked at her skeptically and took the bag. He was able to fit about six small loaves into it. Hermione smiled because Ron had thought to open the last door. Who knew how long they were going to be there?
"Not me, that's for sure", Hermione thought.
Ron then suddenly pulled Hermione through the door with a staircase, and with his hand on hers, they ran up the staircase and found themselves in a brightly-lit corridor of green.
"God, I'm sick of all this green", Ron muttered,
After that, nothing but silence happened as they walked along the long corridor. The silence gave Hermione time to think. She didn't want to be stuck here, especially with someone like Ron. But, she thought it over, and she decided that it was her chance to have fun. It was her escape from books, responsibility and boredom. It was her chance to live life the way it was supposed to be.
Beside her, Ron stared nervously at his feet. His mum would kill him if she'd find out that he'd skive off classes just for this thing. He didn't really find it exciting, this labyrinth. For Ron, it was just a waste of time. Now, he had no quidditch or no comfy bed. All he had was the class bookworm and five and a half loaves of bread, since he had started on the first one.
At the end of the corridor, there was a bright green door. Hermione reached for it. Ron watched as Hermione opened it to reveal the second level of doors. Ron looked over the handrail. Nothing had happened. The sign was still tacked on the wall, and the floor stilled sparkled as if it held a secret.
Hermione rolled her eyes at Ron, and then she started opening doors and crossing them out with crayons. "Ron!" she said when she saw Ron still staring at the first level floor.
"What?" Ron said suddenly.
"Help me look!" Hermione said, and crossed out another door.
"Oh...yeah", Ron said, and then he opened a door on his left. When he did, he pulled Hermione in and they went up the spiral stairs of bright green.
When they reached the end of the second corridor, Ron opened the door and they got inside. The five and a half loaves of bread were down to three. Ron had given Hermione some, and she took them. As she opened each door, she took another bite off the piece of bread.
The first door was full of shoes. Most of them were sneakers, but others were high-heeled shoes, combat boots or formal ones. Ron took a pair of black and white sneakers and Hermione took a pink and red one from the nearest shelf.
"Freebies", Ron grinned, and changed into the shoes. He took a few steps to try them out, and found himself bouncing to the ceiling then landing on the floor. Hermione helped him get up, giggling. "Ha-ha", he said, and she quieted down. He was about to toss the shoes back inside, but Hermione stopped him.
"Wait", she said, "We might need them"
"Oh, alright", Ron said, "But they won't fit in my backpack"
"Carry them then", Hermione said, as if this was the most obvious thing in the world. Then she reminded herself, that they were no longer in the real world.
--
Ron grumpily opened a door and found some Muggle things.
"Ooh", Hermione said, getting inside, "A digicam!"
"Digi-what?"
"A digicam, Ron!" Hermione said, "It's a advanced Muggle camera"
"But the pictures don't move, do they?"
"Of course not", Hermione said, "I'll take one"
With that, she took a small digital camera and stuffed it in her robes.
--
They found the right door soon after. The spiral staircases were never-ending. They found themselves in level after level, and they found different things behind each door. They were nearly to the top, when something happened.
Hermione opened up the third door on what seemed like the thirteenth level they had been to. A slight breeze hit her, and suddenly swirls of gray and black appeared before her, creating a cold vortex that led into who-knows-where.
"Ron!"
"Hermione!" Ron said, and immediately ran over to grab her hand. She was being slowly sucked into the swirling lights, and Ron pushed his foot against the wall to help her out.
"Hold on tight!" he said desperately.
Tears came down Hermione's cheeks as Ron slowly pulled her out, and with great effort, they both closed the door. Hermione shakily pulled out the red crayon from her robe and drew an X over the door. She also added the words 'danger: vortex' in her neat handwriting.
--
"Th-thanks, Ron", she said, and gave him a quick hug.
"Sure", Ron said, his ears turning red.
Hermione was blushing furiously as she opened another door. That room was empty, and she hastily closed it up and turned to face Ron. "Have some bread", Ron offered awkwardly.
--
They left the level and got into a few more. They climbed a bright green stairway and found themselves facing only one door and a huge box beside it. The box had a few things in it, and a piece of parchment was tacked up above it.
You have reached the end of this room
At least now you've avoided doom
For now you must take a pack
To keep you alive on the track
Take one each but not more than that
Or else something happens, who knows what?
"Take one, Ron"
"Can't we take more?" Ron argued, "We might need them"
"No, this is the wizarding world—well sort of," Hermione retorted, "who knows what might happen if we take more than one each?"
Ron reluctantly took a bag. Hermione's backpack was already slung over his shoulder, so he had to carry it with his hands. Hermione took one, and she turned to Ron.
"Ready?"
"Yeah, I guess so", Ron said.
Hermione turned the doorknob, but didn't continue.
"Wait," She said, "I just want to..."—she took a deep breath—"...thank you again. I mean, really, Thanks"
"Sure, Hermione, anytime"
Then they pushed open the door together to reveal a whole new room.
---
---
---
Sorry for not updating!
Chuckles, Misao Chan3, SailorHermy, Katy, deep blue quill, thinkingofaname, king Harold, photochick129, anon11, celi, sasami tombo
I love you all!
Please review this one. I've been extremely busy lately, so I might not update till I get motivated by enough reviews! ;)