Harry followed the whirring sound of Besel's chair down the corridor with Little Friend wrapped around his wrist.
"How did Hedwig carry you?"
"She let me hold onto her legs. I've never been so high in my life. It was even higher than when you put the water on the house."
"Oh, when we climbed the ladder to wash the windows?"
"Yes. First, I was as high as your neck… that was new. Then the ladder."
"You are brave."
"Well, other snakes could have talked to you, but I wanted it to be me. I missed you, Sthei cherio kisa."
"I missed you, too, Nio hus cherio kisa." Harry brought the snake up to his cheek to rub his silky skin. "How long can you stay?"
"Until the end of my life?"
"Oh, wow. Really?"
"Yes. I bade farewell to my family."
"That's a big step."
"Well, I wasn't sure I'd survive the flight."
"True. I'm glad you did."
"Me, too."
"Harry," Besel said as her chair came to a stop in front of him. "I think this is as far as we can go. I think beyond this, we'll be in the null zone."
"How can you tell?" Harry asked, wondering if there were visual cues.
"I can feel it."
Harry reached out with his hand holding his staff and shivered, realizing that he could feel it, too.
"Oi! That's creepy."
"I'll let Healer Jordan know that we're here," Besel said as she sent her Patronus off to deliver a message.
"Should we go around to the other kitchen entrance?" Harry asked.
"No, she wanted to meet us here."
"What about everyone else?"
"Most everyone is locked in their rooms and have communicated with us that they are safe… our security measures worked. Those who were in corridors at the time are helping us figure this out, like you are."
"Huh? I wasn't late to class, though. There should have been more people in the corridor. And why wasn't the kitchen locked when all the other rooms were locked?"
"It's just the classrooms and dormitories that lock… oh and the toilets. I'll explain later… here comes Healer Jordan now."
Harry turned toward the sounds of the approaching footsteps, but it sounded like more than one person, and Nio tightened his coils around Harry's wrist, his head bobbing up and down as his tongue wisped out of his mouth.
"Ah. One of these leg walkers smells like a burrow," Nio hus cherio kisa confided. Harry responded quietly in Parseltongue that it was likely Figora and that she was part Goblin. Little Friend made appreciative hisses and Harry gathered that the little snake liked goblins.
"Harry, is this your little snake friend that you told me about?" Healer Jordan asked as she drew closer.
"Yes, Healer, this is Little Friend," Harry said and translated the exchange for Nio. Harry heard someone draw in a quick breath and mutter, "Parselmouth!"
He turned toward the voice he didn't recognize, his brows knitted together.
"Oh, Harry, Auror Gawain Robards is here from the Ministry of Magic to investigate," Healer Jordan said.
Harry switched his staff to his other hand and held his hand out for a handshake. The hand that grasped his was gloved, large, and strong. "Pleasure to meet you, sir."
Harry winced as the splinter from his staff was driven into his hand a bit deeper.
"So, wait. Are you telling me that the information you have for me is from this little snake?" Auror Robards asked.
"Little Friend came here to warn us about the danger underneath the school," Harry said.
"This is ridiculous. I thought you had a viable source," Auror Robards scoffed. "You and your snake should go somewhere safe while we take a look around."
He turned back to Healer Jordan saying, "Let's continue our investigation of the grounds."
Harry took a step back and pulled Little Friend closer to his torso as he felt embarrassment thread up his neck and into his cheeks.
"Wait, Auror Robards. I believe that Harry has valuable information. Harry, please tell us what you know," Healer Jordan said as she stepped forward and put a warm hand on Harry's shoulder. He flinched with surprise.
"Sorry," she uttered.
"Er, yesterday when we were traveling in the underground passages, we met a nest of snakes… and I talked to them so that we could pass through. Apparently, later that evening they noticed some other wixen in the passage and were alarmed by their behavior. Some of the snakes can understand English, but they can't speak it. They sent a message to Little Friend who traveled here to warn me and ask for my help communicating."
"I don't know. This seems highly suspect. But did he say if it was Sirius Black and his Death Eaters?" Harry flinched when the Auror said the name.
"I'm telling the truth. Besel was there and Godric, too. And we saw a large dog in the alley… that Professor Lupin said was Sirius Black in his animagus form. So, he might have seen us using the passage, even though Besel scared him off before we went in."
"I thought you were blind. How did you see the dog?"
"Well, I didn't see it, but others did."
"Please, Auror," Besel admonished.
"So, these wizards in the tunnel that the snakes saw… could they have been Sirius Black and a follower?"
"Let me ask," Harry said and spoke to Little Friend.
Harry turned his face toward the Auror again. "I'm having a hard time describing Sirius Black to Little Friend. He knows that there were two men dressed in dark robes, wielding wands in the tunnels performing dark magic. One had hair like sand and skin like a mushroom, the other had skin the color of clay and hair the color of dark mold. Does that sound like Sirius Black? I don't know what he looks like."
"What is 'skin the color of clay'? What does that mean?" Auror Robards asked, taking a step closer to Harry and Little Friend. Harry stepped back again and into Besel's chair. She put a hand on his back to steady him before he sat in her lap.
"Oh, sorry, Besel."
"No problem, Harry. Auror Robards, I believe you're making Harry uncomfortable."
"Ah, right. I apologize." The Auror took a step back and Harry stepped away from Besel's chair.
"Maybe we could find the snakes who saw the men and show them a photo of Sirius Black?" Harry suggested.
"Good idea, but first, we need to seal the Center from the breach so that no one else is sapped of their magic as Dobby was," Healer Jordan said.
"The house-elf?" Auror Robards asked.
"Yes, Dobby, the house-elf!" Figora said with an edge of challenge in her voice.
"No need to get testy," Auror Robards said, his voice turned away from Harry toward Figora.
Healer Jordan and Auror Robards fell into a discussion about how to pinpoint the breach and close it off. Besel's chair whirred as she was drawn into the conversation.
Little Friend's coils tightened on Harry's wrist… he, too, was feeling impatient at this delay.
"Nio, how do we get down to the tunnels? Do you know?" Harry asked the snake in Parseltongue.
"This way," Little Friend seemed to be pointing with his head, toward the null zone that Besel had stopped them from crossing into.
"Don't we need to go into the tunnels to heal the Center? To find whatever it is that is taking the magic from the corridor?" Harry urged, sweeping the area in front of him with his staff and stepping forward.
"Harry, please stay here. It's not safe down there. It could be a trap for you," Healer Jordan said as she hurried to his side and put an arm around his shoulders to steer him back to the group.
"But how are we going to find out what's going on? I'm the only one who can talk to the snakes."
"We'll figure out a way that also keeps you safe. Give us a moment."
Healer Jordan left Harry standing in the corridor and rejoined the huddle of adults.
Someone walked over to Harry and he turned his face toward them, expectantly.
"If we were to go into the breach to find the entrance to the tunnels, how can we ensure that we're not going to succumb as Dobby did?" Figora asked.
"Well, I'm not sure. Dobby is a purely magical being, right? And as wixen, magic is a part of us, but not in the same way. I mean, I didn't faint out there and I was out there a lot longer than Dobby was. Maybe the same is true for you?"
"Could be, I suppose," Figora said with a shudder in her voice. "I'm half goblin, half wixen."
Harry stood fidgeting with his staff while Healer Jordan and Auror Robards spoke in urgent tones about how to go about making the Center safe again.
The corridor seemed colder in this area than it had before as if someone had left a door open to a frigid winter landscape at the end of a long hall. Little Friend worked his way up Harry's arm, under his sleeve, and around his neck, where he coiled himself like a necklace, muttering about the chill in Harry's ear.
"Your staff is a menace like that," Figora observed.
"Yeah, I have a splinter in my palm," Harry said, holding his hand out.
Figora grasped it with frigid hands and turned it, "Ah yes. Do you want me to remove it?"
"Would you?"
Harry felt a warmth and a tingling sensation on his palm and then the dull ache of the splinter disappeared and Figora released his hand.
"Thanks!" Harry ran his hand over his smooth palm.
"We need to get you one of the muggle canes until I can repair this one. Here, I'll summon one." Figora said and then there was a pregnant pause. Harry waited for the familiar whooshing noise of an object speeding through space, but didn't hear it.
"Huh. I guess they are all within locked rooms that are shut off from the Center right now until we get it fixed. Listen. I'll take one of the splinters and transform it into a cane… No, wait. That won't work. It'll revert to a splinter when you pass into the null area. Shoot. I guess you'll just have to use your broken staff until we get this figured out."
"No worries. It's not so bad. Just a bit short is… "
Harry's words were drowned out by Healer Jordan and Auror Robard's heated discussion and both he and Figora fell silent as the other two continued to try to talk over each other.
Harry felt his ears grow hot as he realized that they were arguing about him and whether or not he should travel into the tunnels to translate for the snakes. He swung out his cane and stomped over to them.
"Listen. I think I deserve to be included in this conversation!" Harry seethed as Nio's coils tightened slightly around his neck.
They both stopped abruptly and he could hear their labored breaths. He couldn't hear Besel's chair and wondered if she'd left. Figora stepped up to stand next to him.
"All right, Harry. That's fair," Healer Jordan said with a forced calmness in her voice.
"No, that's not all right," Auror Robards said.
"No, give him a chance," Healer Jordan said.
"I want to help. We're wasting time arguing. What if those people are using this as a distraction to get inside? What if they can get beyond the protections on the classrooms and my friends are in danger? If this Sirius Black bloke is after me… and he hurts my friends… that would be way worse than getting captured by him."
"You're speaking rashly, boy. We don't even know if it is Sirius Black! We don't know what the threat is and who they are targeting!"
"Well, then let's go find out!" Harry stated a bit more forcibly than he intended.
"Our magic doesn't work in the null zone. How can we protect you?"
"Their magic won't work, either, right? And what choice do we have?"
"We can wait for more Aurors to arrive," Auror Robards suggested.
"But how will they get through? The Center was in the process of sealing when you arrived. You barely made it across the threshold," Healer Jordan said. "I sent Besel to relieve Septima from watching Dobby and asked her to join us. She is immune to the null zone and won't be weakened by exposure. Harry has already proven that he can travel through it with very little impact. I think we need to act quickly and figure out what is going on before more of the Center is damaged and more of our residents are threatened. Harry, though he is young, has already proven that he's very capable of handling himself. I don't like sending him in… but with me, Figora, Septima, and you, I think we can all protect him… and waiting here is likely just as dangerous. I feel that we can't wait for back up from the Ministry. Why haven't they responded? What's the hold-up? Perhaps we're not the only place affected by this null zone?"
Auror Robards sighed, "I really don't like it that our best lead is a snake that only a blind boy can talk to. This is not going to end well."
"Oi!" Harry protested.
"Harry's blindness isn't an issue here!"
"Sure it is! He's a liability!"
"Cor!"
"Just as much as any of us are as we travel into the null zone and lose our magic ability, but he's already navigated it safely. I'm not sure how, but he got out of it, and not only that, he saved Dobby!"
Harry ran his hand through his hair. "Can we just get going?" Nio was grumbling about the delay, his tongue flickering against Harry's ear.
"Yes, here comes Septima. Thank you for agreeing to help us, Septima!"
"No problem. This is one of those few times that being a squib is an asset!"
"Great. A squib, a snake, and a blind kid," Auror Robards spoke under his breath, but loud enough for Harry to pick up.
Harry gritted his teeth.
"I'd leave anything that has an undetectable, extended magical space in it here," Figora recommended. It sounded like she was unbuckling a belt and setting it down on a nearby bench. Healer Jordan and Auror Robards also shed articles and left them in the same spot as Figora.
Harry couldn't help but grimace thinking about his busted staff and his pile of stuff in the corridor ahead of them. Likely, Figora could see it from where they stood. They'd be passing by it soon… unceremoniously piled like rubbish on a street waiting to be picked up. He hoped he'd tucked all his pants out of sight. At least he'd been able to toss all the hand-me-down pants from Dudley in the bin after Mr. Granger took him shopping for new pants.
Harry spoke softly to Little Friend, "Okay, Nio, can you guide me to the entrance?"
"I hope so, Sthei," he said with a whisper of a laugh. "Move straight ahead, down the corridor, past the things that smell like you."
Harry swept his staff ahead of him and led the group into the chill air of the void.
As they passed Harry's pile of things, Auror Robards stopped and picked up something. Harry stopped, too.
"Oi, that's my stuff!" he seethed.
"This cloak is yours?"
"Yes, that's mine." Harry guessed that it was his invisibility cloak that the Auror had scooped up and Harry held his hand out for it. "My father left it for me."
Healer Jordan gasped, "It still works! Even in the void!"
"Remarkable," Auror Robards said, ignoring Harry's outstretched hand and walking slowly down the corridor. "What kind of magic can work in a void?"
"It must come from a similar source if it is powerful enough to withstand the null," Figora said, her breath already labored.
"So it's not woven from the hair of a Demiguise, then?"
"A what?"
"It's a creature that can disappear in plain sight, but it should be susceptible to the void."
"Put the cloak over Figora," Healer Jordan ordered.
"Wait, what?"
"Just do it. She's already suffering the effects of the void. Perhaps the cloak will shield her."
Harry heard the fabric whispering through the air and then a sharp intake of breath. He walked over to Figora and found her arm, covered in the silky cloth of the cloak.
"Is that helping?" he wondered.
"Yes, it is. It is a cocoon of protection. What a marvelous object, and not even Goblin-made."
"Oh, how can you tell?"
"Goblin-made objects sing to us… even pathetic half-breeds like me."
"Hush don't call yourself that," Healer Jordan admonished. "With the cloak, do you think you can continue with us or would you rather go back to the safe zone?"
"I can continue… and I'd like to," Figora said.
"All right. Harry and Little Friend, please continue leading us."
"This way," Harry said.
Pretty soon they had passed the point that Harry had explored in his effort to find a door that would open. He noticed his companions were walking more slowly.
"What is it?" Harry asked.
"It's getting very dark, the lights from the safe area aren't penetrating down here and all the magical lights are out," Septima explained.
"Huh. Well, if you need me to be your unsighted guide, let me know," Harry laughed.
Maybe he wasn't such a liability after all.
Pretty soon, the group was walking along with one hand on the wall and another on the shoulder of the person ahead of them, with Harry in the lead. Little Friend was relying on his sense of smell to find the entrance to the tunnels and it wasn't long before he told Harry to stop and to kneel on the floor and let him down. Harry explained what he needed to do.
"Please don't walk around, just stay where you are. I don't want you to step on Little Friend."
Harry carefully peeled the shivering snake from his neck and held him close to the ground, right next to the wall they had been following. He hadn't detected any difference in the corridor, except that it was glacial and he couldn't detect any light ahead of them. But when he set the snake on the floor, his hands found that the floor right by the wall was covered by a fine sand.
Harry reached with his hand and found a small opening… big enough for a snake… and then he felt Nio's lithe body slipping through the opening as he called back to Harry that he'd be right back.