Chapter Four
After a nap of undetermined length, she made it back into the cellar on a quest to find the stolen bracelet.
She took the path leading to the reservoir. Upon arrival, she was surprised to see it had been drained, probably a result of her opening the gates. In the mud that was once the bottom of the lake, she found a trunk full of jewels. It quickly disappeared into her bag.
Hermione continued walking along the stream that was once a wide reservoir. She eventually found herself at a slimy stairway leading up. There was a hand-held air pump on the first step. "This may prove useful," she thought as she put it into her purse.
Halfway up the stairs, she found the entrance to an ancient-looking room that had been long underwater. An ornate trident that looked worthy of Poseidon was lying in the corner. She tried to put it into her purse, but it would not fit.
After some thought, she dropped the torch on the ground. The lamp seemed adequate for her travels. This time the trident fit neatly inside her purse. She started walking onward wondering what else she might find.
She eventually made it to the base of the dam. There was a pile of plastic there with an air valve that fit the pump. Moments later she had inflated a raft and moved it into the stream.
The raft carried her down the frigid river for some time. The impassable white cliffs loom on one side. The rock bank on the other looked difficult to land on. After a while, the current started speeding up. She saw a red buoy. It was probably a warning.
She grabbed the buoy, trying to stop herself, but it was not tied. It came into the raft with her. She paddled hard with her hands and made it to a small, sandy beach on the eastern shore.
There was a small shovel on the ground. "I wonder if someone buried something here," she thought as she tossed the buoy and garlic, which was starting to smell more spoiled than garlicky, on the ground.
She took the shovel and started poking around. Suddenly she unearthed a jeweled scarab. "Jackpot!"
Several holes later she decided there was nothing else to find. She walked back to the raft and tossed away the shovel. It hit the buoy. The buoy split open to reveal a large emerald. She stashed it and the scarab in her purse.
She began walking along the river bank towards the roaring sound. Before long she found herself at the top of a waterfall off at least four or five hundred feet in height.
She was pretty sure this was the same rainbow where she had found the pot of gold. She walked across it and onto the semi-familiar canyon view spot from early in her adventure. A few minutes later she was in the field within view of the house.
As she walked up the path she suddenly saw some movement in the knee-high grass. "What is it?" she thought as whatever it was came closer and closer. Suddenly, a huge, grayish snake raised up hissing in front of her. With its head more than three-foot in the air, the snake had to be over ten-feet long. She recognized it as a cobra from her muggle animals school book.
"Ohhhhhhhhmigod!" she gasped, frozen to the ground.
It moved forward with its mouth open and yellow eyes blazing at her as she backed up. She could see its fangs on both sides of its flicking tongue. Her first instinct was to run, but she started looking for more snakes. After the incident with the spiders, she needed to get a look at her surroundings before setting to flight.
There was a flash of brown beside her right foot as she jumped fearing another snake. But as he eyes focused on it, she saw it was brown, and ferret-like. Her heart was beating about a million beats and minute. "Pavarti would have died on the spot," she thought, remembering the giant cobra that menaced her during the boggart lesson. Unfortunately, there was no chance a Ridikulus spell would affect this snake, even if her wand was working.
"I know what that is," her mind suddenly flashed, remembering more of the animals in her muggle school book. "That's a mongoose."
The mongoose had its eyes fixed on the snake as it started easing forward, making quick darts to the left and right. The snake focused in on its enemy, losing interest in Hermione. It was the beginning of a lethal dance that would only end when one of them was dead.
The snake struck as the mongoose charged in, almost taunting it. The mongoose moved left. The snake recoiled and hissed menacingly. It struck at least five more times in rapid succession. The mongoose ran behind it, causing the snake to turn around to stay eye-to-eye with it.
The mongoose made several more probing moves causing the snake to strike at it dozens of times. Was it trying to fatigue the snakes? What was its strategy?
Despite her fear, Hermione was transfixed by the battle. She had never witnessed anything so deadly and fascinating. It was way beyond wizard's chess.
The dance continued as the mongoose seemed to be measuring his foe. The snake hissed and struck. There was no retreat in this battle. The mongoose was not going anywhere. It was there until the end. The snake's only chance was a lucky strike.
Then, in a flash, the mongoose dodged a strike and had the cobra by the back of the head. The snake twisted and coiled as the mongoose viciously shook its victim, breaking its back and killing it.
The snake lay on the ground with its mouth agape. Something inside its mouth was glistening. As the mongoose bit down on the snake behind its head and started to drag it off, a dazzling, blood red ruby the size of a hen's egg fell out on the ground. Hermione quickly grabbed it and put it in her bag.
A few minutes later she had crawled through the window and was in the kitchen. The bag on the table had a fresh lunch in it. She ate it and drank the bottle of water.
Hermione walked into the living room and placed the trident, emerald, scarab and jewels in the trophy case. It dinged several times. She smiled with a sense of accomplishment. "I must be on the right track," she thought. "Maybe I will get out of here, yet."
She decided to continue looking for treasures. The skull and bracelet she the stranger had stolen surely needed to be found and retrieved. She sat down in the old chair for a moment of rest before heading back on her search. When she woke up, she had no idea how much time had passed.
"Best get moving," she thought as she walked into the kitchen. She paused to eat another of the spicy sandwiches that seemed to magically appear in the bag. The bottle of water tasted good as it washed down the taste of the sandwich.
Hermione climbed out the window, opting to go back into the underground from where she had exited it, instead of going through the trapdoor into the dampness of the troll room.
She walked into the dimly lit forest on the leafy path. If not for her situation, she would probably find this a very pleasant stroll. As she passed under a tree, a very neat nest just out of her reach caught her eye. For some unknown reason, she decided to climb up and look at it.
As she climbed up she snagged her pant leg, ripping a sizable hole it. "Damn it!" she cursed in an uncustomary outburst as she reconsidered why she wanted to climb the tree in the first place. Reaching the branch with the nest, she was rewarded by finding a large, delicate-looking egg encrusted with precious jewels. It quickly made its way into her bag.
She climbed down carefully, trying not to do any further damage to her ruined pants. Having second thoughts, she returned to the house and proceeded to descend into the cellar using the light from the brass lantern.
She passed through the troll room and into the maze, which was becoming fairly familiar to her by now. When she came to the skeleton that had startled her the first time she saw it she was more observant. On the ground were a leather bag and a skeleton key.
She picked up the bag. It turned out to be filled with coins. "This key may prove useful," she thought as she picked it up.
Hermione continued through the passages with the hope she was going the right way. The lantern was getting dimmer. She did not want to run out of light.
Finally, she came to the open of a room. She hoped it was a familiar one. Walking inside, she found herself confronted with a cyclops who was preparing to eat some sheep.
"Holy Odysseus!" she blurted out as the cyclops turned his attention to her. It proved fortunate that she had read the muggle tale of the Odyssey and the Illiad, and that she could not stop herself from a relevant exclamation. The cyclops, hearing the name of the person who had blinded his father, fled the room, knocking down the far wall on the way out. The sheep, being sheep, ran frantically into an adjacent corridor and disappear amid the clattering of their hooves and frightened bleats.
Once she was satisfied that the cyclops was gone, Hermione walked across the room to inspect the hole in the wall made by the cyclop's hasty exit. It seemed to lead into another room. She cautiously stepped through the hole, looking for hidden danger.
The floor of the room was littered with discarded bags. "A couple of these could be useful," she thought as she bent down to pick one up. It disintegrated into a puff of smoke as soon as she touched. She reached for another, but it also disintegrated. "Well, that sucks."
As she straighten back up, she noticed an intricately designed, silver chalice on the floor in the middle of the room. "I certainly need that for my collection," she thought, starting toward it. Just then, she noticed a shadowy figure leaning against the far wall. It looked like the thief who had robbed her earlier.
As she bent down to pick up the chalices, the thief came at her armed with to large, shiny stiletto. Frightened and not armed with any weapons, she closed her eyes and held out the egg. "Oh God! I'm going to die," she thought.
The sound of the thief's boots on the rocky floor abruptly stopped. She felt him take the egg from her hand. Carefully opening one eye, she saw him admiring it. She used that opportunity to dash off into the corridor the cyclops had fled earlier fled down.
Before long, she came to a large, old, wooden door with a hole through it about the same size as the cyclops. Passing through it, she found herself back in the living room of the house. "This place keeps getting stranger and stranger," she thought. "You never know where you're going to pop out at."
She opened the trophy case and places the bag of coins inside." There is a loud ding as the door closed. Looking at the floor, she noticed the large, nasty knife she had dropped there. It was twice the size of the thief's stiletto. "I wish this was the sword, the Sword of Gryffindor," she thought as she picked it up. "I guess it will have to do. I have got to get the things back he stole. I am sure I need them."
Hermione re-entered the underground through the hole in the door. She tried backtracking her flight from the room with the thief. She was determined to confront him.
Before long, she found herself back in the thief's lair. The things he had stolen from her and more were on the ground next to him. Brandishing her knife, she said in her sternest voice, "Give me back my property! Now!"
The thief raised his hand and snapped his figure. All of the treasure disappeared in a cloud of smoke.
"Give it back!" she demanded. The thief came at her with his stiletto ready to fight. Hermione took a step back and then got herself into a dueling position.
The thief lunged at her, taking a sweeping slash at her with his blade. She ducked as his knife passed a fraction of an inch over her head and struck a counterblow that nicked the side of his body.
He took another frantic swipe at her, but she eluded it, as well. Her return swing caught him in the neck and nearly removed his head. He fell to the ground, defeated.
A thick cloud of black smoke enveloped him as Hermione's mind tried to grasp the fact she had taken a life. His body disappeared. "I don't think he was real," she thought. "I think he was just part of this horrible game."
As she stepped back, she looked at the ground. All of the treasures had rematerialized. She quickly stuffed the chalice, jewel-encrusted egg, crystal skull, sapphire-encrusted bracelet into her bag. She left the stiletto, since she had the knife. The torch would not fit, so she left it, as well.
"I need to put this away before something else happens to it," she thought. Heading back into the passageways, she apparently took a wrong turn. In front of her was a dead end. But over her head, a little light was peeking through a grating. Reaching up, she found it to be locked by a huge padlock with a skeleton on it. "Dammit," she thought. "Locked? And by a lock with a skeleton? Really? Can't have enough skeletons and drama around this stinking place."
Then she remembered the skeleton key in her bag. The trophy case refused it. She pulled it out and tried it in the lock. It opened with a snap like the breaking of a bone. Pushing up, the grate opened, dumping a large quantity of leaves on her head. "Perfect," she thought.
Once up and out of the ground, she found herself in a sunny field that seemed familiar. Walking to the south on the path, she heard a songbird sings a beautiful, but slightly off-key song.
"I know this place," she thought as she looked at her surroundings. "That's the tree where I found the egg. The house is that way."
The songbird continued singing as she passed under the tree. Suddenly there was a flash of yellow and the singing bird flew up and landed over her head.
As she observed the songbird, enjoying it, even though it was a little off-key, she noticed something strange. It had a wind-up key on its side. Apparently, it was mechanical.
The bird's song wound down until it stopped. "Awwww," she thought. Then it fell off the branch and dropped at her feet.
She picked it up, both because she liked it and because it might belong in the trophy case. "What the heck," she thought, giving the key a few turns. "I like its song. It can't hurt to listen to it a little more."
The bird flapped its wings a couple times and started singing as it perched on her finger. She walked back toward the house as she listened. She wanted to put it away before continuing. She could almost count on something strange happening around this place. The sooner it was safe, the better.
Just as she reached the rear of the house where she could climb back inside the bird's song slowed and then stopped. Its beak popped open and a pretty, brass bauble fell out of it and landed at her feet.
"Cool," she thought, picking it up. "It's a good thing I wound it up and played it. I might never have found this otherwise."
She went in through the window and walked to the trophy case. She opened it and placed the bird, the bauble inside and her other recently recovered items inside. The chimes dinged several times as it closed. She smiled a rare of late smile.
She had hoped this might complete her quest, but nothing else out of the ordinary happened. "How many more things does this bloody case want before it is satisfied?" Then she remembered the bar of platinum she had seen up near the dam what seemed like an eternity ago. "At least one more," she thought.
All of the excitement of recovering her stolen items and fighting had worn her out. "I'll go get it after I take a nap. I hate this place," her mind growled.
Hermione curled up in the dilapidated chair in the corner of the room. It was the best she had for trying to rest. She felt better when she awoke. Walking into the kitchen, she ate yet another nasty sandwich and drank a bottle of water. The sandwiches all by themselves were enough to make her wish she could escape this place. They were far from her liking. However, she felt strangely rejuvenated by it and the water.
Walking back to the living room, she opened the cellar door. "Once more into my damn, dirty, damp, dark dungeon," she moaned out loud.
She passed through the troll room, passed the sword and bloody axe, passed the skeleton of what she presumed were earlier victims of the troll, and into another corridor.
The corridor led her to the edge of the canyon along where the black lake had been before it was drained. As she neared the dam she could hear a roaring noise. She was certain it was the room where she had seen the bar of platinum.
The noise grew louder and louder as she made her way to the entrance of the room. As soon as she stepped inside of the room the noise became so unbearable she had to clamp her hands over her ears.
The bar of platinum was in front of her on the ground. But she could not stand to remove her hands from her ears to take it. She tried kicking it, but it would not budge. Remembering her schooling, she remembered platinum was considerably heavier than gold, which is pretty heavy on its own.
"GRRRRRRRRRR!" she screamed in frustration. "This place is a freaking ECHO CHAMBER!"
The acoustics in the room changed a little, reducing the noise a slight amount.
"I said freaking echo chamber," she hollered. Again the noise level dropped a little.
"ECHO CHAMBER!" she screamed. The noise dropped to a level where she could uncover her ears.
She picked up the bar of platinum, which was quite heavy. The noise in the room started to increase. She quickly got out of it. She did not want to have to endure more of its painful noise.
The bar slide into her bag, which not only held it safely, it compensated for its weight. What would have been a difficult walk back to the room carry the heavy bar was now much easier.
She eventually emerged from the underground in the bright sunlight. The walk back to the house was pleasant. Of course, anything not involving being in the underground was bound to be pretty good.
She crawled into the kitchen and made it to the living room. "Well, here's something else for this damn dinging trophy case. I wonder how many more things are left to find?" her attitude getting the best of her.
Instead of the customary ding, there was an arpeggio of eerie chimes. Then, four other people, three girls and a boy, materialized beside her as a set of strange runes pulsed in front of her. Two of the girls appeared to be twins. The runes mutated into the Latin-looking word Gratulationes. Then they mutated further into the word Congratulations as a voice filled the room.
"Congratulations brave adventurers," it said. "You have won the game. Speak its name and return to your home."
Hermione looked at the others. They appeared to be students, but their dress was old, bordering on ancient.
"Thymus!" shouted the twins. "We saw thee slain by the troll. How is it ye yet live?
"I know not," he replied. "I has't no memory of the event."
They then hugged the other girl. "Peresila, you were murdered by the thief, yet you, too, are also alive."
"I recall the thief attacking me. I doth not recall anymore."
"We wast attacked by a troll," said one of the twins. "Methinks it killed us, too. But we art hither."
Hermione got the instant notion they were not of this time. To look at them and to hear them talk, they may have been trapped in this game for a long time, perhaps centuries. They could well account for the skeletons she found.
"I am Hermione Granger," she said. "Who might you be?"
"Mine own name is Peresila Chandler," said a tall girl in robes resembling those Hermione had seen in History of Magic books about the Middle Ages.
"I am Thymus Fletcher," said the boy. He appeared to be the eldest of the group. Hermione smiled at him, finding an instant appeal in his tall, athletic build and topping of blonde hair and blue eyes. He was wearing a fine cambric shirt of Gryffindor scarlet with gold trimming.
"Rosemary Smith" said one of the twins. They were both of average height with long, brown braids and shiny, dark eyes. It might be harder to tell them apart than Fred and George.
"Artemisia Smith," said the second twin.
They all appeared confused and apprehensive about the situation. How did they come to suddenly be here? How were they alive?
"Your dress is most strange, Hermione Granger. On which day is this that we find you?" asked Peresila. She seemed to be the leader of the group.
"I believe I've been here four or five days. But it could be longer. I am not certain," answered Hermione.
"And the date? "Uh, I can't be sure, but I am certain it is still June."
"A gross amount of time hath passed. We came hither in November."
There dress and language had Hermione puzzled. No one dresses or speaks this way. "November—uh—November of what—year—may I ask?" asked Hermione with a bit of hesitation.
"Fifteen-Thirteen of course. So this wouldst then be Fifteen-Fourteen.
"Uh, no," she replied. "This is the year Two-Thousand-Two. I think you have been here nearly five-hundred years."
"What doth thee mean? Are you playing us the fools?" asked Peresila. "How can it be near five-hundred years passed? What trickery are you playing?"
"I speak the truth," asserted Hermione. "I don't understand this place or what has happened. "How did you come to be here?"
The four of them stared at Hermione trying to decide whether or not to believe her. This was difficult to believe.
"We hath found a strange book on our way to the fair in Scarborough. It tooketh two days to unriddle the title. We finally solved the title and spoke it. We hast been hither ever since," said Peresila.
"That's curious," said Hermione. "What is curious?" asked Rosemary. "My parents, they often play a song called Scarborough Fair. The lyric go 'Are you going to Scarborough Fair…Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme.' Your names. Peresila is the herbology name for the plant muggles call parsley. Artemisia is sage. Thymus can be thyme. And Rosemary is, well… It is curious."
"That is curious," agreed Peresila. "What might it mean?" "I don't know," said Hermione with a puzzled look. "Maybe nothing. But it is curious. Surely your disappearances caused concern at the time. Maybe they resulted in a tale or at least a song."
"Congratulations brave adventurers," said the voice, once again. "You have won the game. Speak its name and return to your home."
"What doest that voice mean?" asked Rosemary, looking upward toward the voice.
"I think it means we have to say the name of the game," said Hermione. "Then we will go home."
"Wilt we return home to fifteen-fourteen?" asked Artemisia.
"I don't know the answer to that," replied Hermione. "I guess we must say it and hope for the best."
"We wilt then desire f'r the best," said Peresila.
Hermione looked in the direction of the trophy case and said, "Zaman Othala Raidho Kenaz." There was a clarion call. She felt dizzy, then shook her head as she looked around.
She was sitting at the table in the bookstore like she had never left. It was like she had just awoken from a nap. Perhaps she had dozed off. None of the others were there. If all of that adventure actually occurred, then they must have returned to their own time. Now she had to figure out how long she had been gone. It was quite unsettling.
Getting up from the table, she looked at her watch. She noticed the remains of the still healing cut from when she had fought the troll. It caused her stomach to clench and her mind to flash. Looking down, she saw the tear in her pant leg from the tree climbing incident. It was clear that the adventure had genuinely taken place. She glanced back at her watch. It was 3:45 pm, but on what day? Her best guess was that she had been in the game for four or five days, no more than a week.
She wondered what Ginny's reaction had been when she failed to meet her for dinner? Had she searched for her? Had she contacted Ron and Harry? Were they desperately searching for her at this very moment? She gathered her things and the book and hurried to the counter near the front of the store. An elderly man with wispy white hair, an oversize mustache and wire-rimmed glasses was sitting, reading a book as she approached.
"May I help you, miss?" he said looking up and adjusting his glasses, presumably to get a better look at Hermione.
"Yessir," she replied. "What's the date, sir?"
"It's the fourth, miss," he said. "Of June?" "Yes, of course, June fourth, two-thousand-two," he said in a voice that gave her the impression he was thinking she might be a bit daft.
"No time has passed at all," shouted a voice in her head. "Wonderful!" She still had forty-five minutes before she was to meet Ginny.
"What do you know about this book," she asked, holding up the ancient-looking volume. He reached out and took the book from her.
"Curious," he said. "I have personally put every book on every shelf in the store. But I do not recall ever seeing this particular book. Where did you find it?"
"It was back there," she said as she pointed toward the back of the store, "in the magic books, up on the top shelf."
"That's strange," he said opening it and leafing through the pages. "I wonder how it got there? It doesn't have any identifying information. I doubt I put it there. Maybe someone else left it there. But why?"
"Why, indeed?" she replied, thinking it needed to be taken back to the Ministry or Hogwarts for a thorough examination. "How much is it?"
"I don't know. I didn't buy it. It's not mine to sell. I guess I can just let you take it," he said as he handed it back to her.
"Are you certain? That is very kind."
"Yes, please take it. It seems to be of value to you, and I have no recollection of it. Consider it a gift," he said with a smile.
"Thank you, sir," she said as she turned toward the door.
"You are welcome. Please come again." Hermione put the book into her Burberry purse as she walked back toward the quidditch pitch.
"Should I take this book to The Ministry? Or should I take it up to Hogwarts? Should I tell Ginny about this? I don't know, but I do need to find a new pair of pants." These were the only thoughts on her mind as a feeling of relief filled her up and this unexpected adventure was over.