Disclaimer: I own all the adventures, actions, etc. in this story. The characters belong mostly to Jo.
Author: zimagesto
Author's Note: People are not born stupid. They are made that way by education – Mark Twain.
Author's Note 2: Sorry for the very, very long wait, guys. I'm kinda busy lately, there's this horrible, spiteful thing called school and it's been very keen on killing me with preparing for my exams.
Author's Note 3: Before I forget. I've re-read some of my older chapters and decided that, well, you can see English isn't my native language. Is there anybody out there who wants to be my beta?…
Chapter FiveHarry stared. And stared. And stared some more.
The place was creepy, in a dark, end-of-the-world sort of way. The sky was red, the sun obviously setting. In front of them, there was a large field with brown grass that ended a mile or so away to leave place to bushes… and then to a creepy forest.
And then, he turned. And realized that the staring before had been for nothing, as the dark-reddish color of everything was no match to the surprise of seeing the outer part of the maze.
The walls were so large they could hardly be called walls at all. The Great Chinese Wall could hardly compare with the endless dark gray monsters of architecture that were in front of them. Perhaps twenty stories high, extending from one horizon to the other and as far as a mile away from them. To say that they were impressive was an understatement. And right in front of the four, half open, were the gates of the maze, two black things that were as tall as the walls and as wide as they were tall.
"Who built this, again?" Harry asked, slowly, staring.
"The dwarves. But it is said that the dark elves aided them," Tonks replied, just as startled.
"Remind me again, how big are the dwarves and elves?"
"Not that big."
They stared some more, before Harry sighed.
"We should be going in, shouldn't we?…"
"Yeah," Tonks agreed.
"What!" Hermione said in such a desperate voice that the other three stared at her. "How are we going to find Lily and James, never mind getting them back?"
"We'll think about that later. If you can, figure it out," the metamorphmagus replied.
They approached the gates carefully. Harry wondered how they'd be able to find safe havens from place to place to rest. They probably wouldn't.
When they got to the gates, they were surprised to see that the gates were not smooth metal, as they'd appeared to be, but they were sculpted with scenes in real-life images.
"Look!" Hermione said, pointing towards an image. "The dwarves, breaking up boulders… It appears the elves were levitating them to place. It's the history of the Maze! And look, here! Oh, gods, look!"
She was in complete admiration over a sculpture and Harry had to admit she had a reason to be that way: it showed a man of otherworldly beauty, an elf, with a hand on a dragon's head and the other producing flames. It wasn't so much as the theme of the sculpture that amazed, it was the terrible look of the elf, who seemed very much alive. He seemed to watch the four humans with a strange look in his eyes, to gaze into their very souls. And he was frightening.
"I think he's a dark elf," Tonks said slowly. "I can't be sure, though. They look very much like the other elves."
It seemed that the entire gates, up and sides, were carved with sculptures that seemed to half-come out of the background. They were beautiful and Hermione remembered that it had been the elves who had created them. (God knew where she found those things or how she managed to remember them. Walking encyclopedia, she was).
The gates were very thick, but that was to be expected. The walls, were thicker. Let's just say that unless you had quite a few canons and a great determination, it would've seemed near-impossible to break through them even if they'd been made of normal stone. But this stone seemed of the stronger, harder type and you could only see hair-thin lines where two blocks were brought together. It seemed amazing that somebody believed that nature would reclaim the territory. Well, maybe in a few thousand years.
The Maze begun simply, like a huge corridor. Only small, dark grass covered the floor. And then, the vegetation gradually increased, becoming a forest far away in the distance. As the four entered, they somehow expected the large gates to shut behind them with a huge bang, trapping them inside. But they never did, remaining there silently, somehow more threatening than if they'd snapped closed.
Harry noticed it was very quiet. No birds, no bees, no animals. Nothing. It was odd, considering that the vegetation was there and on earth where you find plants you usually find animals. But then again, that wasn't earth. Perhaps everything had different rules there.
"I wonder what it would've been like to come here with the original group," Tonks mused in a quiet voice. "I feel as if my back would be uncovered."
"I know what you mean," Harry whispered, almost afraid to break the silence. "It would be great to have Sev here."
"Wouldn't it be horrible if there were spiders here?" Ron asked, shivering.
There was a moment of quietness and then Harry burst out laughing.
"Spiders! I think we'll meet things worse than spiders here!"
"I hate spiders," Ron said, not paying attention. "I really, really hate spiders."
They entered the quiet in-maze forest. Apparently, there was a pattern in this world, for everything seemed dark and gloomy. And silent. Very, very silent.
"What is so frightening about the dark elves?" Harry ventured after awhile of walking through the place. "Nobody told me clearly."
"I've never met one personally," Tonks replied. "But I heard that they deal with forces that make no man comfortable around them. Such as death and sexuality."
"I can hardly see why the sexual part would be such a problem," Ron muttered.
"Can't say I can either," Tonks answered. "I wonder if they still come around here. There are some who say they do, there are others who say they don't. Do you think it would be a good thing for them to be here or not?"
"Yes, it would. Out of what I heard, they aren't likely to attack humans, but they rather side with us," Hermione said. "And I think-AAAAH!"
The other three jumped to sides as Hermione was lifted into the air by one long vine that had circled itself around her leg. The girl started screaming and Harry and Tonks quickly jumped into action, shooting at the plant with whatever they could. The vine seemed injured by both a fire spell and a cutting spell and dropped Hermione down. Luckily, Tonks reacted in time and levitated her softly to earth.
"Oh my God, oh my God, it could've killed me!" the girl sobbed, terrified. "Oh God, oh God…"
"That's what you get for messing with my friend, yeah!" Ron cried after the retreating injured vine. "Are you ok?" he asked her.
"I'm... I'm… it could've killed me!" Hermione stuttered.
"Pick yourself together," Harry told her gently and put an arm around her. "Hush. Good, let's start moving again. We can't stop, you know that."
"Right, right…" she nodded and they started walking again.
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A few hours later, nothing else had happened. Well, nothing life-threatening. They just reached a fork in the corridors and decided on a direction, praying that it would be good.
"Wish we had a map of this place," Ron muttered. "And I wish I knew why this Maze is so bad-famed. I mean, besides its creepiness and that vine…"
"Are you sure you'd like to know exactly what's so threatening about it?" Harry asked, smiling humorlessly.
"Second thought – no, I don't," the redhead decided. "Hey, Potter, listen. Truce for now?"
"I thought it was already a truce?"
"Well, let's make it official."
"Fine, official truce it is," Harry said, shaking his head inwardly. It seemed somehow dumb to be asking for a truce then. Childish fights meant nothing compared to the situation at hand.
"What's that?" Hermione asked.
"What's what?"
"That… the black thing?"
The others looked very carefully at where she was pointing and saw something black moving amidst the shadows of the forest. Tonks reached for her wand and the others followed suit – it seemed like a wise thing to do. The thing in the shadows moved a bit more, and then seemed to stop.
"Maybe it's just an illusion?" Ron suggested, lowering his wand.
"Better prepared for nothing than killed for not being attentive," Tonks said slowly. "Although it seems still. Maybe it's one of those thestrals… the dark elf horses."
The thing moved again, ever so slowly… They watched it make a step now and again, slowly, stopping for some time, then moving again.
"Should we go forward?" Harry wondered.
"Maybe…" Tonks said. "Just getting away from it would be a good idea."
"Ok, everybody, slowly forward," Harry said.
They carefully took a few steps and saw that the black thing took no notice of them.
"It's ok," Harry said, relieved. "Ok, let's go!"
And then there was a scream. A loud, frightened, high-pitched scream. Harry jumped in fear in surprise and looked at the one who was screaming. It was Ron. He was as white as a sheet and seemed frozen in spot. His hair was standing on its ends and he screamed like no tomorrow. And then, Hermione's scream joined his:
"SPIDERS!"
Harry turned to see spiders as large as cars, and larger, rushing their way at an incredible speed, crawling over trees and bushes as if nothing could stand in their way.
"RUN!"
Harry grabbed Ron's arm and started running. Luckily, the other remembered quickly enough how to use his legs and they sprinted at a speed that they'd never reached before back towards where they'd come.
The deafening roar of the spiders running behind them, combined with their pounding hearts and the clanks of the spiders' jaws seemed to be the worst thing they'd ever heard. And they just ran, and ran, and ran, ignoring the exhaustion that was slowly and surely coming over them. The trees around them seemed to be a blur… but a clearer and clearer blur. And the horrible roar was closer and closer to them.
After what seemed like forever, Tonks stopped and, panting, started shooting spells. The others stopped also and Harry paled.
"There's hundreds of them…" he whispered, but he also readied his wand.
It was desperate. The spiders seemed like a sea, crawling over everything, tireless, clanking their jaws and rushing towards them with a lethal speed. Nevertheless, they all shot spells. Fire spells, exploding spells, killing spells… And the spiders fell one by one. But alas, there were hundreds of them and they didn't stop to mourn the fallen, instead rushing over the dead to reach the humans.
And when they were impossibly close, they suddenly slowed down, stopped, then turned and ran the other way.
"What the-?" Harry said, and then turned.
A huge snake was coming from the other side, maybe as long as sixty meters, as thick as he was tall. It slithered towards them slowly, taking its time and Harry felt the exhaustion creeping on him. What a dumb place. Get yourself chased by spiders, then by snakes… He felt himself starting to shake and then he burst into laughter, the maniacal type. He noticed the others looking at him with horrified expressions, but he just couldn't stop. He fell on his knees, laughing.
"A basilisk!" he cried out. "A basilisk! Somebody shoot me! Why am I not dead yet?"
Indeed, the basilisk stared him in the eyes and he felt himself become dizzier and dizzier, and then he lost all consciousness.
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"Maybe they're ok," Sirius said hopefully towards the gathered people. "Maybe they'll be ok."
"The place is deadly, Black, as you well know," Severus said in a dark, sarcastic manner. He was very much concerned about the teens, but showed it by being even more of a bastard than usual.
"Perhaps…" Remus said and eyes turned towards him. "Perhaps… We should ask for help. Ask the elves to get us to the entrance of the Maze. And then we could go after them. A rescue party."
"And who will rescue the rescue party?" Minerva sighed, holding her head in her hands. "The rescue team would have to survive, find them, and then they'd have to get Lily and James, survive again and then come out."
The sound of a bell attracted all attention.
"The elves," Albus said, raising his head hopefully.
A female elf entered the room. She was tall, beautiful, serene, as most of her kind were. She had a certain softness and peace around her that also seemed to belong to her kind.
"Good day," she said with a soft bow. "I am here on behalf of the elves, to question upon the matter of your expedition in the Maze. How has it begun?"
"Badly," Sirius said and her eyes snapped on him.
"Oh? Were you not supposed to go with them?"
"I was," Sirius admitted. "But things went wrong and apparently three teenagers and Tonks are now in the Maze – if they made it there indeed. But we believe they have. Could you help them?… We're willing to pay and…"
"We cannot," the female elf said sternly. "We told you that. But… I am sorry. Perhaps all will be well. All things happen with a purpose, even accidents of the direst kind. However, I came with good news."
"Which is that?" Sirius asked, darkly.
"There are dark elves in the Maze. They do not know of what has occurred, of course, as the ones of the neledhrin – I am sorry, the ones of the dark elves that were told of this did not see it important to announce the ones in the Maze about this since you requested no help. But there are dark elves in the Maze, as well as a few others who could help your friends on their quest. That was what I came to tell you and now I shall go, if there is nothing more to be said."
"No, nothing more," Albus sighed. "Thank you."
The female elf left.
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Thanks to: donstu82, Adnexus, the Red Dragons Order:::blows kisses: