Harry smacked his head with the heel of his palm, "Of course! Why didn't I think of that? They need the cloak so they can use magic."
But as he pulled the cloak from out of his pocket the emptiness felt cold and cavernous. Holding the barely perceptible, silky cloth in his hands, he puzzled over how to send it through the little hole with the little snake while fighting the desire to hide it away.
"This skin you're holding is ancient," Nio commented.
"Skin?"
"A shed skin… of a powerful being."
A shiver snaked over Harry's spine. The cloak had always provided a safe place to hide… safer than his cupboard. It was a warm hug, a shield from prying eyes, and a way to slip by unnoticed.
"I need you to take it to Healer Jordan and Septima. But I don't know how you can do that. It is so large and you are tiny."
"I'm not so tiny. I'm bigger than my brothers. I am smaller than you. But you are so big that you cannot fit through the hole."
Harry couldn't help but smile at the little snake who was coiling around his hands, examining the cloak that Harry held with his wisping tongue. Harry felt the Nio tugging on the fabric, and felt it moving sluggishly in his hands. It was finer and lighter than the silkiest of Aunt Petunia's fancy blouses, but much longer.
"How long is the tunnel to travel to where Healer Jordan is?"
"It is about five snakes long."
"You-sized snakes or Basilisk-sized?"
"Ah, no. Not that long. The Basilisk… he was legendary in his length. Over twenty snakes long, I heard."
"How many snakes are you?"
"Like I said, I'm not so tiny. I'm a little more than a snake long." There was a smile in Nio's hisses.
"So, how long do you think this cloak is?"
"Hmmm. You'd better lay it down so we can figure that out."
Harry found a corner of the cloak and shook it out so that it floated over the surface of the tunnel stirring up dust and settled into a ribbon of cloth in front of him. As he crawled along the side of it, pinching in the sides to make it snake-shaped, his foot hit his cane. He reached for it and placed it alongside the cloak.
Maybe I could use my cane to help Nio with the cloak… kind of hold it up while he carries it. He ran his hands over the sleek material which almost felt like a snake when it was bunched together. Nio's comment about it being a skin made sense even if it made his skin crawl.
Whose skin? he wondered.
Then Little Friend slid along the length of the cloak while Harry placed his hands at the snake's tail and head to count how many snakes long the cloak was. They determined that the cloak was about three and a half snakes long. Harry's cane was nearly a snake-length less than the cloak.
"Okay, so if you hold the cloak in your mouth, and I hold the cloak up with the cane, maybe you can get it through the tunnel?" Harry asked.
"The tunnel turns, though."
"Oi, I didn't think of that. Does it turn a lot?"
"Not like a snake, but I don't think you can push your stick all the way through."
"Well, I guess we'll hope that it helps enough to keep it from getting snagged on things. I wish I knew a charm that made things float. Oh! Wait a second! Wingardium Leviosa!" Harry had flicked out his wand and held against the cloak. With his other hand, he held a section of the cloak down on the tunnel floor while the cloak floated up.
The snake came shooting down a tunnel of the parachuting cloak and curled around Harry's hand with a loud hiss of outrage. The cane clattered away, the sound echoing through the tunnel.
"Oh, I'm so sorry Little Friend! I should have warned you." Harry flicked his wand back into its holster.
"You leg-walkers and your blasted chaos sticks!" Nio hissed.
"I didn't think." Harry hung his head, the cloak still billowing around him.
Nio tightened around Harry's wrist. "Shush. I was startled. I'm okay now. Your regret fills the tunnel with sadness. Let's get those other leg-walkers out of there. One is getting very weak."
Nio slid off Harry's wrist and started moving toward the hole that whistled very slightly with the cold wind from the null zone.
Harry held onto the corner cloak and found his cane that had rolled to the side of the tunnel. He followed Nio and knelt by the snake, taking care not to squish him as the cloak swirled around like a sail filled with wind.
Harry held the corner of the cloak out to Nio who grabbed it in his mouth, muttering about the foul flavor, and started going through the hole. Crouched by the hole, Harry fed the cloak in after him. He tried to use the cane, too, but because the cloak was floating, it was ineffective, so he set it down. When the last bit of cloak fluttered as it disappeared through the small hole, Harry shifted so that he was sitting more comfortably and waited.
It seemed like he'd been waiting forever, but when he cast the Tempus charm on his wand, he discovered that only ten minutes had passed. His belly rumbled and he remembered the biscuits he'd stuck in his pockets for Hedwig. His fingers encountered mostly crumbs in his pocket, but even the small pieces helped settle his churning stomach and distract him from the feeling of the oppressive earth above him and the fear of having to find his way out alone. The damp cold was seeping through his trousers and into his bones.
As he was dusting the last crumbs off his fingers, he paused thinking he'd heard something. He knelt, putting his ear to the hole and holding his breath. Harry jumped about a foot when Nio's tongue whispered in his ear.
"Ew. You taste like beetles."
Harry rubbed his ear where the snake had licked him. "Nio! You're back. Did it work?"
"What? You didn't think it would work?"
"I was worried, is all."
"Yes, the dark one is starting to revive under the cloak. The light one is helping her."
"Healer Jordan? She fainted?"
"Is that like sleeping?"
"Yes, except not on purpose."
"Yes. She fainted. Odd how you know these archaic words in our tongue."
"But she's the one who can get them out of there."
"Yes, that's what I gathered. The light one is sweating fear and worry. And she doesn't like me."
"Septima. Yes, I got that, too. But Healer Jordan? Is she okay?"
"She was starting to awaken… but I had to return to you. The light one didn't like my presence and the cold was unbearable—I could hardly move."
"Do you think they'll be able to get out now that Healer Jordan has the cloak?"
"I hope so. I don't want to go down there again without you. You keep me warm and safe."
"Thank you for helping me, Nio. I'm so glad you are here," Harry shivered as he said it. Just the feeling of Little Friend around his wrist kept the dampness of the tunnels at bay. "How long do you think we'll have to wait? I wonder how Healer Jordan's going to get out of there."
They sat in silence for a while feeling the grinding and groaning of the city above them as it vibrated through the tunnel floor, then there was the pop of apparition. Nio coiled tightly around Harry's wrist, retreating up his arm a bit.
"Unnatural leg-walkers!" exclaimed the little snake.
"Harry, are you here? I need your help! Ugh, I can't hold her!" Septima gasped as she struggled in the tunnel not far from Harry. "And could you turn on a light? Its pitch black in here, I can't see a thing."
Harry scrambled to his feet and made his way toward Septima's voice, the hand with Nio stretched out ahead of him, the other hand trailing the tunnel wall.
He screwed his eyes shut, flicked out his wand, and muttered, "Lumos minima."
"That's better… Eep! Get that snake away from me!" Septima shouted, swatting his hand away. Harry pulled Nio to his chest as the snake hissed in alarm.
"Watch it," Harry exclaimed.
"Just don't do that. Don't touch me with the snake!" Septima squawked.
Harry transferred Little Friend to his neck with a hiss of apology to the snake and continued toward Septima. Nio gave him a reassuring squeeze with his coils and licked behind his ear.
"Can't you put it down—or let it go?" Septima pleaded.
"No, he's my friend. And remember, he's helping us find whatever it is… the null zone. He's gentle. He's not going to hurt you. What's wrong with Healer Jordan?"
"It's like what happened to that Auror… the null zone. She was really starting to fade while we waited for the cursed serpent to come back with the cloak… the cloak helped, but then she apparated us when she was so weak… I think it was too much."
Septima grasped Harry's outstretched hand and pulled it toward Healer Jordan, placing it on the healer's shoulder that was covered with the invisibility cloak. Harry ran his hands up to her neck where he felt her pulse thrumming weakly under clammy skin.
"Help me lay her down on the ground, would you? She's heavy for such a small person," Septima grunted. "Careful, pull her this way. I don't want to get sucked back in there again."
"What do you mean?"
"We got pulled into that cavern. That's how we got stuck. I'm not sure how come you didn't get pulled in, too, though. We thought that the tunnel went that direction, but we walked right into a wall, except it felt like a sponge, and then it just sucked us through."
"I bet it was a mirage or something that I couldn't see."
"Oh, that's probably right. But wasn't your snake guiding you?"
"He was helping me avoid the hanging rocks and stuff. Nio, did you see a mirage?" Harry switched to Parseltongue to ask the snake.
"What's a mirage?"
"Er, I dunno. Like a trick of the light?"
"Yeah, that wall that they were stuck behind had weird lights on it, but it didn't fool me."
"Nio says that he saw it, but avoided it." Harry found Healer Jordan's ankles so that he could help carry her farther down the tunnel. He grunted under her weight. She was heavy even though she was very thin.
"Okay, and I think we need to cover her up with the cloak," Harry suggested as he pulled the cloak over her form and wished again that he had his staff with him. He could have made a pillow out of his school cloak at the very least.
"So, what do we do now?" Septima asked as she plopped to the ground next to Healer Jordan.
Harry turned his face toward her in surprise. He had been straightening Healer Jordan's legs.
"Er, I don't know. Wait for Healer Jordan to recover? Go get help? But who can help? Besel and Figora are taking care of Dobby and the Auror and there isn't anyone else, right? Everyone else is trapped in rooms. And we can't get out of here, can we? I mean, I guess we could try to go out the other entrance…"
"Isn't that where all the snakes were?"
"Yeah, hey good idea. Maybe we can get them to help us," Harry said, starting to stand up.
"No!" Septima said with force.
"Er, okay. No more snakes," he said as he sank back down.
"Gah! We can't leave Healer Jordan here by herself… and I don't want to go through the tunnels by myself," she shuddered as she said it. "And I don't think you should, either. I mean, aren't they worried that that escaped prisoner is after you? Can you send a message to Besel or Figora?"
"You mean that talking messenger thing that Healer Jordan does? No, I haven't learned how to do that yet. And I don't have my staff."
"You could send your snake with a message to Besel like you did to us. That was pretty brilliant, by the way. Healer Jordan was impressed."
Harry shrugged off the compliment. "Yeah, but it's not like they can really do much and I think we need him here so that we can find the bones."
Healer Jordan groaned and shifted.
"Medea, are you okay?" Septima asked, scrambling on tunnel floor to get nearer Healer Jordan. "Harry, hold your wand up higher so I can see her."
"Is that good?"
"Yeah, thanks."
"Ahh. I've been better. You three are okay?"
"Three?"
"You, Harry, and Little Friend?"
"Ah, the snake. Yes. We're fine. Even the snake. Don't sit up yet. Just rest. We were trying to decide what to do. I'm glad you've come to."
"Indeed. Hmmm. I think we need to continue down the corridor… but Harry, how did you manage to avoid the trap? Ah, it was visual, wasn't it? Hmmm. Okay, we've got to do a better job of sticking together. No, really, Septima, I'm fine. We've got to get rid of this thing before it takes all of us out." Healer Jordan sat up and was brushing off her robes.
"Here's your cloak Harry. I'm glad you had it with you. That was very clever to levitate it—so that Little Friend could carrying it through the crevice. Please tell Little Friend how grateful we are for his assistance."
Septima grumbled a grudging agreement while Harry translated for Nio but it seemed the little snake had dozed off. Harry stood up slowly and pulled the collar of his T-shirt over the snake and tucked in his shirt in case he slipped off his neck and then felt along the tunnel path with his foot until he found the cane. He crouched down carefully to pick it up, not wanting to disturb Nio.
"Careful, there, Harry—you're awfully close to that wall that sucked us in."
"How do you suppose it did that," Septima asked.
"It felt a bit like a portkey, I thought, but didn't transport us very far. It was a pretty devious trick to make it look like that." Healer Jordan grunted as she stood up and was walking a bit more sluggishly than her usual clipped pace. She tapped Harry's hand for sighted guide to help steer him past the illusion. "You can Nox your light, Harry. I'll light mine."
"I think we're supposed to go this way, but it gets really narrow," Harry tugged on Healer Jordan's arm to direct her down the tunnel that Nio had taken him down originally. The snake slumped and started to slide down his neck, so Harry stopped for a second to get him settled inside his shirt. He noticed that once Nio was safely tucked away in his shirt, Septima closed the distance between them.
When they reached the section of the tunnel where Harry had turned back, Harry worked on waking up Little Friend while Healer Jordan made the passage wider.
It took her a lot longer than the day before when they met the snakes and she sagged against the wall while Harry and Septima made their way past her, then slowly climbed through the enlarged opening.
"You awake Little Friend?" Harry poked at the snake resting by his belly.
"Now I am."
"We need you to tell us which passage to take. I guess there are two choices up here."
Harry stuck his hand under his shirt so that the snake could coil around his wrist.
"Are there any juicy worms?"
"I think we're too deep for worms."
"Likely."
"Verge toward the core."
"What does that mean?"
"Take the tunnel closest to your other limb."
"My right hand?"
"Yes."
Harry passed the message on to Healer Jordan and Septima. Septima trailed behind a bit farther now that Nio had emerged again. Harry didn't like being caught between their foul moods and took shallow breaths trying to avoid sucking in their miasma. After a while of walking through a narrow tunnel that forced them to walk in single-file and crouch down in spots (Healer Jordan and Septima had to stoop the whole time, while Harry just had to avoid low hanging rocks).
Harry realized that he was starting to hear the obstructions as he approached them… with the help of Healer Jordan's noises in front of him and his own feet making sounds that echoed off the enclosed space, he could almost feel when a stalactite was in front of his face. It was a good thing because Nio was too grumpy from being awoken to guide him.
They turned a corner and Healer Jordan stopped suddenly. Harry and Septima piled up behind her.
"What is it?" Harry whispered.
"Hush. I think we found it."