6

Harry shot spell after spell at the demogorgon. Jets of colour flew from his wand. It shrieked as it fell back. Harry smiled with victory, letting his wand lower slightly.

Then it barreled towards him. Harry yelled with shock and shot another Stunning spell at it but it missed by miles, mainly because some other force had knocked him over.

`Potter, if you value your continued existence you will run!' Snape hollered.

Harry's mouth hung open disbelievingly as Snape screamed spell after spell at the demogorgon, before fleeing to find Ron and Hermione. He didn't know which direction they'd gone in; so he simply picked the nearest door.

0

Mike stabbed the demogorgon. Ron roared a spell, and Mike ducked as it struck the demogorgon squarely in the chest. He ripped the chair leg out of the demogorgon.

`Eleven, help us!'

Then he saw her still body, unmoving and pale. No- no, she couldn't be dead- he could see her chest moving up and down.

It was moving at the same pace Hermione's had been when she was an inch from death.

Then the demogorgon swiped at him, and Mike swung the chair leg against it's arm so hard it shattered. Hermione stood up, legs shaking and muttered a spell.

The demogorgon flew backwards through the door and slammed into the wall.

`Go, go, go!' Dustin shouted, and they all ran. Mike carried Eleven. They were defenceless, apart from Ron and Hermione.

`Harry?' Hermione asked weakly. Ron shook his head.

`Don't know where he is.'

Mike looked down at Eleven, and saw her eyes were drooping.

`What do we do to stop this thing?' Yelled Mike, gripping Eleven tighter.

`Open- gate,' she wheezed. `Wants me. Wants- to go- home.'

And then she passed out.

0

Harry ran through Hogwarts, looking for Ron and Hermione and shouting himself hoarse when he tripped over a horrifyingly tiny body.

A tiny body with flaming red hair.

Ginny.

`Ginny, can you hear me?' Harry asked, lifting her into a sitting position. Her eyes snapped open.

`Tom Riddle monster muggle turtle gone-'

`What?'

Ginny's eyes seemed completely white for a minute. Then her irises returned to the warm hazel shade.

`The Chamber of Secrets, I know where it is. The turtle told me- the Maturin- no time to explain, come on!'

Harry hadn't seen this side of her before; he obeyed, and ran after her. `We need your friends,' added Ginny, before hurdling over the unconcious demogorgon. Harry stared after her for a second, then the demogorgon twitched. He hastily jumped over it too.

Five students sprinted ahead of them.

`Hermione! Ron!' Harry yelled, and Ginny added her voice. They turned around.

`Ginny,' said Ron, and he crushed his younger sister in a hug. She pushed him off.

`Not now! Is that Eleven?' She pointed to Eleven, who, Harry saw with a start, was unconcious in Mike's arms.

`Yeah- how did you-?'

`Come with me!'

Ron looked startled. `Blimey, Harry,' he muttered.

They followed after her.

0

Tom weakly let go of the monster. It was too much; the monster could do whatever it wanted.
Tom Riddle, beaten, slid through the floor, down to the Chamber of Secrets.

0

Moaning Myrtle's bathroom?' Ron asked incredulously. `Seriously?'

Harry examined the sinks. A small, copper snake was on a tap.

`Parseltongue,' Ginny said, pointing at it. `The turtle says we need to do it in the Chamber of Secrets.'

On the word `turtle', Eleven stirred. There was something else she'd seen in the dark place… something other than the demogorgon. It had told her something important-

`Is Lucas down there?' Asked Dustin anxiously.

`No,' replied Ginny. `He's in the Upside Down.'

Harry didn't understand the sentence and didn't try to- he concentrated hard on the copper snake.

`Open,' he said firmly. There was a grind of concrete. The sinks drew back, showing a large pipe. Ginny went first, dropping out of sight.

`Now or never,' said Dustin, and slid down.

Eleven had started to move, so Mike carefully put her down. She rubbed her eyes, and walked to the pipe. She looked nervously down at the enclosed space. Her breath hitched in her throat, the beginnings of a panic attack.

Then she suddenly let go of the edges and dissapeared down the tube with a scream.

Mike felt his chest swell with pride for her.

One after the other, the seven of them slid down, Mike going last.

He shot out of the pipe and immediately winced as several crunches penetrated the air. Then he looked down and realised that it was rat skulls, and not his own bones, that were breaking.

`Through here,' Ginny said.

Then a sticky, black substance shot out from the shadows and covered her face.

0

I know you Weasley girl I know you I know you and you're weak and pathetic and scared, so give in, give in NOW

NO! Ginny screamed into her head.

GIVE UP GIVE UP GIVE UP GIVE UP GIVE UP GIVE UP GIVE UP
I, SAID, NO! Ginny forced the Tom Riddle in her head away, far, far away, and suddenly the turtle was back inside her mind.

`I'll take him for you,' the turtle said mildly.

Tom Riddle dissapeared.

0

And Ginny took in a heaving breath.

`Go,' she panted. `Eleven will know what to do. Harry can open the doors.'

`Ginny, are you-' Ron asked, white as a sheet.

`I'm fine, now go.'

They did. Eleven went first. She was surprisingly speedy, for someone who looked so malnourished. The remaining six sprinted through the chamber, Hermione at the back in case the demogorgon came through the pipe and Eleven at the front in case it was already there.

`Harry, last door,' Hermione panted, clutching her chest. Harry didn't need to try this time.

`Open!'

It swung forward. The six clambered into the heart of the Chamber of Secrets.

Where the demogorgon waited, in front of the torn corpse of an enormous snake.

It let out a shriek and bounded towards them.

`How is it down here?' Yelled Ron, whipping out his wand and going white so fast even his freckles drained colour.

`It can teleport!' Mike shouted back, as Eleven ran towards the statue at the end. Mike and Dustin picked up stones and hurled them at the demogorgon as Harry, Ron and Hermione all shot spells. The demogorgon didn't want to kill Eleven, as she was it's ticket home. Of course, that didn't mean it felt the same way about the others.

Eleven stretched out her arms, focusing all her energy on the statue. This would be the best place. It felt weaker here, somehow.

`Eleven, hurry!' Called Mike, his voice echoing off the stone walls. Eleven imagined the demogorgon killing him, ripping him apart like the students and teachers in the dungeons.

Power surged into her hands.

A slight tear opened up around Slytherin's mouth.

She thought of the cat. Of herself screaming in that tiny room.

The tear shredded upwards, and pain ripped through Eleven's chest. Okay. Okay. She swallowed; this was going to hurt.

She braced her legs in the shallow water, tensing all her muscles.

The tear got bigger, and bigger but still wasn't a gate. The demogorgon stopped it's attack on the others, and looked at it's way home.

Eleven's shoulder blades locked up, her hands shook, and suddenly the tear got deeper and orange light shone through, not big enough, still not big enough.

Eleven sobbed with pain and the final effort nearly tore her in half. A horrible scream burst from her chest.

`Eleven! Stop! You'll kill yourself!' Screamed Mike.

The demogorgon tilted back it's head, and joined in with it's own shriek. The shriek was filled with victory; the demogorgon leapt through the gate, dissappearing.

`El, it's through! You can stop now! Please!'

Eleven felt her body breaking apart, atom by atom. She would shut the gate- she would send Mike and Dustin back. She would find Lucas and Will, trapped together in the Upside Down. She'd make sure the demogorgon stayed in it's own world.

I'm sorry, Mike.

`ELEVEN!'

Goodbye.

Eleven's body broke apart into the ether.

And the gate closed with a deafening clap, as Dustin and Mike were ripped out of 1993.

Harry, Ron and Hermione panted like dogs, standing in the Chamber of Secrets. Ron looked about for them.

`Gone,' he said simply, touching the packet of sweets in his pocket; the only reminder they had existed at all.

0

Mike and Dustin thumped into the dust of Hawkins, Indiana, just in front of the bus.

`Eleven?'

Mike's throat ached. No. She couldn't be- she wasn't-

`Mike! Quick, come over!' Dustin shouted, taking off his Hogwarts robe and wrapping it around something under the bus.

Will lay there, looking sick and pale but very much alive. And staggering around from behind the bus was Lucas, massaging his head and coughing.

`What happened?' He groaned. Dustin started to excitedly explain, as Mike sat down heavily on a tire.

`You did it, El,' he whispered, hoping it somehow reached her.

0

Eleven took a heaving breath.

Her body ached. It took a minute for her eyes to adjust to the sudden sunlight. And when they did, she saw a dark silouette above her. A girl, with auburn hair cropped short.

`Where am I?' Whispered Eleven, rivulets of blood snaking their way down her cheeks.

`You're in Derry, Maine,' the girl said. `And if that's you, Pennywise, I'm more than happy to ram a railing down your throat again.'

End of Part One.