Since Ben won't be joining us, I ask Penny to meet me in the library. It's the only place I could think of. Talking can be overheard, but we won't be talking.
You told me you wanted to know what happened inside that locked room, I write, sliding the note over to Penny.
Her eyes widen and she scribbles a reply. You haven't gone in already, have you?!
No. I came to ask you to join us, I write.
Penny writes something, pauses thoughtfully, and then writes again. Of course I'll come! I love adventures. So, who else is coming? You, me, Rowan, Ben, and Alana?
Not Ben. He's going to the Quidditch match to cover for us. You do understand that there's still a very good chance that we'll get caught, right? I can't let her do this unless she understands the consequences.
Penny's response is instant. Of course I do. I'm still coming. I wouldn't miss this for anything.
Okay. Meet us near the locked door- I assume you know where it is?- right after the Quidditch match starts.
I'll brew another potion to help us, Penny writes. Her forehead is scrunched slightly as she tries to think of her best potion.
The next day, it's time. As everyone else is walking outside to the Quidditch pitch, the four of us slip away. Ben whispers "Good luck" as he passes me.
We walk until we reach the end of the corridor with the locked door. Mrs. Norris is sitting in front of the door, licking one paw.
"How are we going to do this?" I whisper. "I haven't thought about how to give a cat a Sleeping Draught."
Penny pulls the bottle from her robes. The potion is lilac in color, several shades lighter than it should be. I frown as I wonder if Penny has too much confidence in her skills.
"I mixed it with milk," Penny explains. "Cats love milk. She should lap it right up."
Penny tiptoes towards Mrs. Norris. The rest of us hang back for a moment, watching. Mrs. Norris hisses when she sees Penny. It's the only sound in the corridor. We're all holding our breath as Penny kneels and pours a small puddle of Sleeping Draught onto the floor.
For a moment, Mrs. Norris hesitates, torn between her duty and her feline instincts. Then she lowers her head and laps up some of the potion. Within minutes, she's curled up on the floor, sound asleep.
Mrs. Norris won't wake for some time, but we make an effort to walk silently. Alana gives Penny a discreet high-five.
"If magic doesn't work out for you, you should become a burglar," Penny whispers, giggling nervously.
"Alohomora," I whisper. There's a soft clicking sound as the lock opens. I rest my hand on the doorknob, hesitant now that the moment has arrived.
"Flipendo!" Penny is shoved against the door by the spell. I turn, raising my wand, but Merula is already casting the spell again, and I fall next to Penny.
"Flipendo!" Rowan goes down, but like a game of Whack-A-Mole, Penny is back up on her feet. I stand as well.
There's no way Merula's winning this fight, not with four of us. She clenches her fists with a frustrated glare on her face, which soon dissolves into a sly expression. She switches tactics. "Let me in that room, Serantos."
"Why?"
"Because what's in there might be dangerous, and you don't want to risk your friends getting hurt." Merula doesn't really care about my friends, but she knows what to say to convince me. I'm surprised. Brute force is more her style.
I step aside, gesturing for the others to do the same. "Be my guest."
For a moment, Penny looks like she's about to protest, planting herself firmly between Merula and the door, but Rowan tugs her out of the way. Merula opens the door, shoving past them even though they aren't in her way. There's a confident sneer on her face.
The door closes behind her. "Give her a minute," I say. "Let's see what her reaction is."
A minute passes, then another, long and full of tension. It's impossible to know what's happening on the other side of the door.
The silence is broken by Merula yelling, "Help!"
I yank open the door. No matter how awful Merula has been, I'm not leaving her alone when she's in trouble. Besides, maybe the experience will give her another bruise on her ego.
The door closes behind us, but I barely notice, transfixed by the sight in front of me.
The first thing I notice is the cold, the same awful, biting cold as in my dream of the ghost house. The entire room is coated in ice, and I can feel the burning of the floor through my shoes. It's barely been a moment, but already my fingers are numb.
Merula is standing in the center of the room, encased from the waist down in a block of ice.
"The ice st-stuck m-me to the floor," she manages to say through chattering teeth. "H-help!"
"Celena!" Rowan's voice is panicked. I look over to see that the same ice now holds my friends prisoner, reaching up to their knees before I can do a thing.
I look down to see that the ice is creeping up my legs, though it seems to be moving slower for me. "Flipendo!" The ice shatters, and I start pacing, an attempt to both get a bit warmer and prevent the ice from trapping me again.
I look at my friends, now encased in ice from the waist down. The room is full of stalactites and stalagmites of ice. If I don't act soon, there will be three more. I want to help them, but at least they're in better shape than Merula. The ice has risen quickly, covering her mouth and silencing her terrified pleas for help. Only her eyes look out, still begging.
"Flipendo!" The jinx shatters the ice surrounding Merula, knocking her backwards.
"Owww..." Merula complains as she gets up.
I bite back a sharp remark. There's no time for that. "Now help me free them."
The ice has reached Rowan's chest, but a simple Knockback Jinx is enough to shatter it. I free Alana as Merula helps Penny.
"We've got to get out of here," I mutter, the sound barely escaping my frozen lips. If we stay here much longer, we might get frostbite.
"Umm, Celena..." I turn to see Rowan pointing at the door. The ice has now spread across it, covering it completely and trapping us inside.
"F-f-flipendo." We can barely say the incantation, and we're shivering too hard to manage the wand movement. The ice is barely impacted by our weak spells. A scattering of ice crystals fall to the ground, but at this rate, we'll have to cast the spell twenty times, and we don't have time for that. I wish more than ever that Ben had come. His Flipendo is better than any of ours.
"Wait," Penny says, pulling another bottle from her robes. "Let's s-see if I r-really am g-good at b-brewing p-potions."
Her fingers are clumsy from the cold, dropping the cork, but she manages to avoid spilling whatever potion is contained inside the bottle. She takes a swig and passes it around. "D-drink some. It's S-s-strengthening S-solution."
We all take a sip, with the exception of Merula, who stares at in disgust. "I'm not drinking from anything you've put your mouth on."
Penny displays impressive control and simply ignores Merula, telling the rest of us to line up near the door. I squeeze in between Rowan and Alana.
"Now everyone punch the door as hard as you can," Penny instructs. I ball my hand into a fist and pull it back. I can feel my friends tensing against me, the movement of their arms as they do the same.
We hit the ice at the same time. The force of our punches is incredibly strong, shattering the ice and making it fall to the ground in pieces.
"Did anyone get ice in their hand?" Penny asks. Alana and I shake our heads, but Rowan holds up her hand, which has a large splinter of ice sticking out of it.
"Can we just leave already?" Merula whines, pushing past us through the open door.
I start to follow her, but Rowan elbows me. "Look. There's something on the wall."
Carved next to the door is a series of strange symbols, glowing faintly with a silver light. "It's some kind of code. I wish I had something to write it down."
"I already have it memorized. I have a really good memory," Rowan says. "I'll write it down as soon as we get back to the common room."
"I know we wanted to keep this is a secret, but you need to go to the hospital wing," I tell her. It's not like it will be a secret with Sleeping Draught on the floor anyway. "We don't know enough about that ice."
"All right, but you two aren't coming," Rowan says, pointing to Penny and Alana. "Celena, you can come because I know you'll insist on it."
"Of course I will." I take Rowan's uninjured hand and lead her to the hospital wing while Penny and Alana return to their common rooms.
I tell Madam Pomfrey a series of half-truths, explaining that Rowan and I were the only ones who entered the room. I tell her that Ben was too hesitant and Alana was too responsible, and fortunately, I convince her easily enough.
"I'm going to have to tell the headmaster about this," Madam Pomfrey says as she bandages Rowan's hand. "You should not have gone inside that room, no matter what your reasons may have been. It was off-limits."
"I understand." And I do. Even though I still believe that I did the right thing when I entered that room, I still broke the rules, so I have to be punished. It isn't Professor Dumbledore's fault. He's just doing his job.
When I leave the hospital wing, I hear Jacob's voice in my head. Good job, but that was only the beginning. You still have a long way to go.
I will find you, I promise silently. I don't know if Jacob can hear me, but I want to believe he can. It gives me hope.