Chapter 3
Hermione re-entered the house. "I had better stash this stuff in that trophy case with the painting," she thought.
There was some loud dinging as she placed the coffin, scepter and pot of gold inside.
"That dinging means something," she thought. "I wonder if I am stuck in some type of quest?"
She was hungry, so she ate a fairly disgusting sandwich from the bag and drank the water on the table. It had been some time since she had slept. She had no idea of the time or how long she had been there. What she did know was she was tired.
She looked at a dilapidated, old chair in the corner. Walking over to it, she plopped down and closed her eyes. She had no idea of how long she had been asleep when she woke up.
"Has this all been a dream?" was her first thought as she cracked open her eyes.
It was not a dream. She was still here, trapped in the strange place. She got up and started looking around. Greed being what it is, and the fact that the dinging must mean something convinced Hermione to re-open the trapdoor and descend once more into the underground world.
The door resealed itself as she headed off to the north with the lamp lighting the way. She passed through the room where she had killed the troll, stepping over the sword and the troll's bloody axe.
After a few minutes, she made it to the chasm. Walking northeast, she found a crack in the wall that led her to the edge of a vast body of water too deep and wide to cross.
"It is like an underground Black Lake," she thought.
There was the sound of water rushing to the east. She walked in that direction, eventually finding herself on top of a large, abandoned flood control dam. She walked passed a control panel and a large, metal nut with a green, plastic bubble sitting over it.
Passing into the lobby, she picked up a book of matches as a marker of where she was at. A door across the room marked Private caught her attention. She opened it and found herself in a maintenance room. There are several buttons on the wall and some tools and a toolbox on a table.
She picked up the wrench and screwdriver because they look useful. She left the rest.
"I can always come back if I need more," she thought.
On the way out she accidentally bumped the yellow button. It went click, but nothing seemed to happen. As she walked back out onto the dam, she noticed the green plastic bubble is now glowing. Suddenly, the sluice gates open and water starts pouring through them.
"I wonder if that yellow button caused that to happen?" she wondered.
She looked at the big metal bolt and the wrench. "I was going to try to open those gates with this. I guess I'll just leave it here, now," she thought as she dropped the wrench.
Walking south along the canyon she could hear a loud roar, like rushing water, below. She went down the stairway of the trail until she entered a huge room. The sound inside it was deafening at a painful level. Waves of nausea pulsed through her. She had to get out of there. A platinum bar was at her feet, but the need to leave was greater than the desire to take it.
With a great effort, she made it out of the room where she collapsed. It took several minutes for the ringing in her ears to stop and for her to regain her equilibrium. She carefully made it back up the stairs and backtracked through by the dam and through the cave with the engravings.
Entering the domed room, she looked at the torch and decided to take it. She turned off the lamp and used to the torch to light her way. She also took the bell.
"Why not?" she thought.
She made it to the altar. It was lit by two candles. A book on it was turned to page 569.
"This is written in English. It must mean something," she thought as she took it.
She also took the candles just in case. Just beyond the altar was a downward staircase. It looked forbidding, but it might lead out of this nightmare.
"I guess I need to investigate it. Nothing so far has gotten me any closer to escaping this place. I may as well check out this path," she rationalized with herself.
A foul, sulfuric odor came up the stairway as she descended. It reminded her of the smell on the rocks after a dragon had cooked them with fire. It was rather foreboding.
At the bottom of the stairway, she was confronted with an ancient, black metal gate. Above it was a sign reading "Abandon every hope all ye who enter here!" The gate was open, but a pair of demonic spirits barred her from entering. She could hear the wailing and crying of uncounted lost souls coming from inside. A feeling of hopelessness grew in her as she peered through it.
"DEMENTORS!" her mind screamed. "No, they can't be…or are they? Or are they something similar? I hate this place!"
Her hand began to shake involuntarily, causing the little bell to jingle, as the demons taunted her. Suddenly, they froze with a look of terror on their faces. The little bell grew hot as it rang, causing her to drop it.
The light from her torch died. She took the candles and tried to light them with her wand, but her wand would not function. Then she remembered the matches. She struck one and lit a candle. As the flame flickered and danced to life the ground started to shake. Lighting the second candle caused even greater shaking, nearly toppling her as the wraiths were cowering behind the gate.
Hermione instinctively began reading the prayer in the book. "This means something," she thought. When she finished the last sentence, "Return to the shadows from which you were born," a shrill scream echoed through the air as the wraith-like demons disappeared into nothingness.
Hermione gathered all of her courage and walked through the gates. The wailing and crying of the lost souls of Hades tortured her ears as she looked around. Some of the voices sounded vaguely familiar as she walked. Then she saw faces on some of them. She saw Bellatrix, Yaxley, Rowle, Dolohov, Carrow, and others.
"Come join us," sneered Bellatrix with a defiant look.
"Yes," said Barty Crouch Jr. licking his lip. "Come play with us. We promise to be really nice."
"I've got to get out of here," thought Hermione, the ugly evil of the place threatening to drown her.
Just as she started to turn and flee she saw something in a dim recess. It was a spectacular crystal skull. "I am definitely not coming back here," she thought, grabbing it. Seconds later she was out through the gate and ascending the stairs, the howls of the damned following her. She never even took time to pick up the bell, candles and book. She was just glad to be out of there.
Her wand started working as she reached the top of the stairs. She walked north, entering a room with a gigantic mirror on one of the walls. The floor shook as she walked north into a cold, damp corridor. "Brrr," she uttered, pulling her jumper tighter.
The corridor emptied into a room that looked like the entrance to a mine, probably a coal mine from the looks of things. The words Granite Wall were etched on the south wall. A metal slide descended into the depths to the east. She decided to continue north through a small entrance.
She touched the mirror to test its integrity. "It's definitely a mirror," she thought as she felt a rumbling from deep in the earth. She started walking down a damp corridor into the mine.
"This is definitely a coal mine," she thought as she looked at her surroundings. "Seems like a strange place for a mine. But this is a strange place." After a bit more walking she was in a room where she could hear squeaky noises coming from adjacent corridors.
A few steps into the first corridor she found herself entering a room full of fleeing bats. In the corner was a huge bat that was holding its nose. She recognized it as a vampire, then remembered the garlic in her bag. It was apparently keeping him at bay.
An exquisite jade statue was on the floor. She picked it up and tried to put it into her bag, but it wouldn't fit. Her bag, like her wand, was only partially functional. I'll have to get it later," she thought.
The room had a small shaft descending into the depths. A basket on a chain hung over it. She pulled the screwdriver and a couple of other things out of her bag and placed them in the basket in hope of being about to take the jade figurine. It still would not fit. She extinguished the torch, which was now in the basket, and turned on the lamp.
The path led her in and out of a foul-smelling room and into another room stinking of coal gas. She was glad she had opted for the lamp over the torch. She knew the coal gas was dangerous around an open flame.
There was a sapphire encrusted bracelet on the ground. She picked it up, but could not get it into her bag. "I'll leave it here as a landmark," she thought. "I will figure out how to get it later."
Walking onward, she quickly found herself in a maze of mine shafts. After many twists and turn found herself at an end with only the option of turning back or descending a ladder. Not being able to think of a reason to turn back, she climbed downward.
The shaft only went a short distance before coming to an end with a sign reading "End of Mine". There was a small pile of coal there. She picked up some of the coal to examine it. A couple of pieces fell out of her hand and disappeared into her bag. "What the Hell?" she thought.
Figuring the coal must be of value, she put a bunch of it into her bag. She then ascended the stairs to travel back into familiar territory. Once she had found her way back to the room with the bracelet she took the coal out of her purse and put it into the basket in hopes of now being able to take the bracelet. It did not work. In addition, the weight of the coal caused the basket to suddenly descend into the depths. Pulling on it would not raise it.
She climbed back down hoping to find the basket. After considerable searching, she found it in a room full of fallen timbers. She emptied her purse and stashed the contents next to a large timber. She took the torch, coal and screwdriver. Her first inclination was to take it back up to the bracelet room, but she decided to explore the shaft she was in first.
In a short time, she found herself in a room with a strange machine that looked like a muggle clothes dryer. The door was open. There were several pieces of coal on the floor. She wondered if she should put the coal in the machine.
"What the heck?" she thought as she tossed her coal into the machine and closed the door. She could see an on/switch, but her finger was too big to poke into the hole to push it. Then she remembered the screwdriver. It fit perfectly and caused the machine to spring to life.
Brilliant lights were flashing on the console and the machine made strange, eerie noises. This went on for several minutes. Then the machine abruptly stopped and the door popped open. Inside was a very large, perfect diamond.
Hermione was not a fool. She took it and stashed it away with a big smile.
She ascended upward through the mine. Eventually, she found the timber room where she picked up the skull, lamp and garlic. Continuing on, she was almost back to the bracelet room when a stranger whisked through the room and disappeared. Unbeknownst to her, he stole some of her treasure. She called out to him, but it was in vain.
She made it to the bracelet room and picked up the bracelet out of habit. She was surprised it fit into her purse. Continuing on, she passed the vampire and found herself in the slide room where she briefly saw the mysterious strange again. Sliding down it, she suddenly emerged in the living room.
"Oh my God," she thought as she opened the trophy case. "Where's the skull and bracelet?" A burning sensation filling her mind as she placed the jade figurine and diamond in the case. "That stranger must have nicked them." She wanted to go after him but needed to rest.