"It doesn't matter," George insisted for the third time, while Bruce and Miles copied from the notes he'd taken on Felgarth the Terrible. "A blowout would be bad for both teams. It'd be better to lose a long game than win a short one after the last match went so long."
Miles didn't even look up from his notes to rebut, "That's only if every match goes long, but if the spring matches are shorter - " Bruce tuned out the rest and focused on the failed 1356 rebellion. The conversation had been going in circles almost since they sat down for their History of Magic "study session" over the possible outcomes of Saturday's game.
With four house teams, there were six games in the Hogwarts Quidditch season. Christmas break made scheduling difficult in December and January, so the last game of the fall term was in November and Quidditch wouldn't resume until February. Which meant there was a great deal of excitement for the Ravenclaw - Gryffindor game for the whole week leading up to it.
Bruce wanted to keep the rivalry friendly with George and Miles but, since speaking with all the members of the Ravenclaw team, he felt a small personal stake in how they did. He finished the last line of notes regarding the dread goblin's defeat and set his quill down, "You're both forgetting that Ravenclaw could actually win this game."
Miles, at least, had the decency to look sheepish at the callout. George, however pushed on, "Well, yeah, I guess. It doesn't matter, though, what matters is the points at the end. That's what I'm saying, it's better to lose but still get ahead of Slytherin - "
"That is quite enough!" Hissed the voice of Madam Pince from somewhere behind Bruce's shoulder. She continued in the harsh whisper that all librarians seemed to master, "This is a library. It is a place of study, not a place for you three to debate Quidditch! Pack up and go somewhere you aren't disturbing anyone." Nobody else was around for them to disturb, but by now they knew the librarian better than to argue. So, a few minutes later the Folio and their notes were packed away and they were standing in the corridor outside the library doors.
"What should we do now?" Miles asked.
With the weather outside too cold for hanging around the grounds and no classes left for the day, there wasn't much to do. Bruce decided to head up to the owlery and see how Robin was getting along with the other birds. It was a little odd that so many birds of so many different sizes, some natural predators of the others, seemed to get on just fine. Then again, wizard owls did seem much smarter and better behaved than the average bird. Robin was the cleverest of the bunch, of course.
Since they didn't have anything better to do, George and Miles agreed to come along. Both of them found the irrepressible little bird and his antics entertaining, and for his part Robin seemed to get along with almost everyone. Except Manny Black's gang, of course, and as George had said, they didn't get along with anyone so they didn't really count.
They made their way across the Entrance Hall towards the tower that held the owlery, still arguing over the possible outcomes of Saturday's game. As they were heading past the Potions corridor, Miles paused and raised his hand, "Do you guys hear that?"
All three stopped and listened. Someone in the Potions corridor was shouting. It sounded like Professor Desmond. Bruce strained his ears to pick out what was being said or who he was yelling at. He was always cruel to his classes but never raised his voice like this. The boys looked from one to another, the unspoken question passing between them: Should they go find out what was going on? Desmond was not one to be trifled with, they'd sooner face Professor McGonagall's wrath than his.
Before they could move closer or move away, another voice joined the first. George and Miles might not know it, but Bruce recognized the voice of Julian Desmond. He motioned the other two to wait and moved towards the source of the shouting. It was coming from behind a half-closed door just down the hall. Bruce edged along that side of the hall, trying his best to stay out of sight. Eventually he got close enough to clearly make out Julian's raspy shouting.
" - couldn't be bothered to come home for your own daughter, Potions Master!"
"You dare - " Professor Desmond suddenly bit off the end of his retort. His shout dropped immediately to a venomous growl, "What do you think you're doing here?"
His heart leapt into his throat as Bruce thought he'd been discovered, but partially settled again when another familiar voice smoothly replied, "Oh, I do beg your pardon Professor and young Mister Desmond. I was simply borrowing some supplies from the Potions storage. Far be it for me to interrupt your family squabbles. I'll just be on my way."
Bruce scrambled back down the corridor to rejoin George and Miles and pulled them around the corner and out of sight, just in time for Professor Nygma to exit the classroom with the now silent Desmonds and turn down the hall. As they peered around the corner and watched, Nygma opened a small door between two bronze statues further down. Nygma glanced up and down the hall, but didn't appear to notice the three boys, then casually entered and pulled the door closed behind him.
"What do you figure he's up to?" Miles whispered, and George immediately replied, "Dunno. Let's go find out."
At that moment, however, a furious Julian Desmond stormed out of the Potions classroom coming up the hall towards them. Bruce tried to pull the other two back around the corner again, but this time they were spotted. Julian took one look at Bruce and his eyes widened in shock, then his gaze slowly took in George and Miles. His jaw dropped and tried, without success, to form words. A second later he bolted off towards Ravenclaw Tower.
Bruce watched for a moment and then turned back to George and Miles, "I should go talk to him. You guys want to check out that door another time?"
Both hastily agreed, conspicuously without volunteering to join him in following after Julian. A moment later the door he'd been listening at slammed open against the wall and all three boys scrambled to be anywhere else before Professor Desmond assumed, fairly, that they'd been eavesdropping.
Julian wasn't in the Ravenclaw common room but Elaine had seen him come in and head straight to stairwell with the boys' bedrooms without speaking to anyone. Bruce found him in the room they shared with the other first years, sitting on his bed and watching the door, waiting for him. None of the other boys who shared the room was around, so there was no one to interrupt their conversation. Bruce realized that he hadn't figured out what he wanted to say to the other boy, but Julian saved him from having to by immediately asking, "How much did you hear?"
"Not much," Bruce replied, "I got there right before Nygma did." He sat down on his own bed and paused briefly to consider before he asked, "What was all that about?"
For a moment Julian looked like he wouldn't answer, but then he suddenly lowered his gaze to his lap. "My sister, Emma, she - she's sick. Nobody knows what's wrong. My father hasn't been home or gone to St. Mungo's to visit her at all since he started at Hogwarts." Tears started to fall down his cheeks and the words poured out, "It isn't right. It isn't fair! He's supposed to be there for us - for her! She's supposed to get better! Healers are supposed to make people better!" He choked, and cut off.
Bruce remembered saying similar things just a few years before, and tried to recall what Dr. Thompkins had said to him. He hadn't wanted to see the psychologist at the time, but now he thought he understood what she'd been trying to say and why Alfred had insisted on it. But try as he might, none of her words came to him. All Bruce could remember was crying at the police station and what the officer sitting with him had said when he asked why it had happened,n "Sometimes bad things just happen and there isn't a reason and there's nothing anyone can do to stop it."
"Yes they can! I'm supposed - " Julian broke off and mumbled, "I mean, someone has to."
Bruce didn't try to answer. For a while the two sat in silence, until they heard the sounds of everyone in the common room getting ready to head down to dinner. Julian wiped his face on his sleeve, "Are you going to tell anyone?"
"I wouldn't have told anyone about my parents if Nygma hadn't brought it up. I wouldn't do that to someone else."
So they joined the crowed heading to the Great Hall and neither of them discussed the matter again, despite some prying from Louisa Ferret during dinner and again during breakfast. She and Julian were paired together during Herbology that morning, but Bruce was working on the other side of the greenhouse and couldn't hear their conversation. He didn't know whether Julian told her about his sister or told her that what he and Bruce talked about was none of her business.
Either way, she didn't bring it up again. Instead, she encouraged both of them to return to that week's most popular topic of discussion, the upcoming Quidditch game.
The game was, it turned out, very much the blowout George had feared. It ended when the Gryffindor Seeker managed to catch the Snitch after only fifteen minutes of play with neither team managing to score a single goal. This, if Bruce understood the rules correctly, put Ravenclaw solidly in last place after the first round of games. It also meant that most of the school had very little to do that Saturday afternoon, yet much of the staff were still busy with their normal weekend tasks or with the post-game cleanup.
In short, it was the perfect opportunity to try that door where they'd spied Nygma.
The three boys easily broke off from the mass of students making their way to various common rooms, and other meeting points around the castle, and headed down towards the abandoned Potions corridor. They crowded between the bronze forms of the enchanter siblings. Bruce kept watch on either end of the hallway, while George carefully opened the door inwards a crack and Miles peered through the crack near the bottom. It wasn't likely that Filch or his wretched cat were just hanging around with the door closed, but you could never be too careful.
After a moment Miles whispered, "Looks clear down here."
"Here, too. Let's see what he's after!" George pushed the door fully open and then paused in puzzled disappointment, "What was he doing in a broom cupboard?"
There was no sign of Filch, or anyone else, in the hallway, so Bruce turned around so have a look. The mysterious door was just a broom closet. He abandoned his lookout and joined joined the other two boys in their examination. The drain cover didn't move when he prodded it, and the pipe below was too small for someone to slid through anyway. There was no sign of any sort of switch or hidden entrance. It was perfectly ordinary storage for perfectly ordinary cleaning supplies. What on Earth had Nygma wanted here, and why close the door behind him?
As the other boys began prodding random bricks in the closet's back wall, Bruce thought back and tried to imagine what he'd seen Nygma do and compare it to what George had just done. In his mind, he watched Nygma pull the door closed behind him - but George opened the door in, so from inside we'd have to push the door closed!
"I've got it!"
Bruce ushered the other two boys out of the closet and pulled the door closed, carefully resetting the latch. After a moment he pulled the door open outwards to reveal a long, dark staircase leading underground.
"Lumos," he whispered, lighting his wand and led the way down. Miles followed suit behind him, with George bringing up the rear. Once all were in, George pulled the door shut behind them, cutting off all light from the castle above.
Only their wands illuminated the staircase. As they made their way deeper the smooth, tan stone of the castle proper gave way to rough cut grey stone, much like that of the dungeon where they had Potions class. Still the stairs continued down, certainly deeper than any room they'd yet been in. Was this part of the original foundations of Hogwarts castle? Or older even?
Finally, the staircase ended, immediately branching off in a T shape. After a moment of discussion, they went left. "If we get lost we just need to make all right turns to get back out," Bruce insisted, vaguely remembering advice from an old book about mazes and puzzles.
So they proceeded side by side, with George running his hand along the left wall, and taking each left turn that presented itself. The first turned out to be empty storage room, or possibly an ancient dungeon cell. There was nothing in it except for an old wardrobe mirror covered in a dust sheet, which they didn't disturb. The next left opened into a shallow, sloping passage that led further down and curved slightly.
Their wands continued to provide the only light. As they continued deeper, Bruce began to notice a strange, almost sweet, yet unpleasant smell. It smells like a burnt flower. The smell grew worse the further they went, and he was about to turn to the others and suggest they head back when he realized that passageway around him had changed while they'd been walking.
No longer rough cut stone blocks, the walls were now dirty, grey brick covered in graffiti and the torn remnants of old advertisements. The stone floor was replaced by cracked, grey pavement and a drainage channel down the center. The previously silent corridor was filled with the distant sounds of a bustling city. The burnt smell now had strong notes of sulfur.
And two dead bodies lay on the ground.
"No," Bruce staggered back from the vacant, glazed over eyes of George and Miles. It was impossible. It had to be some kind of a trick.
Footsteps came from deeper in the passage and the familiar shape of a man stepped just barely into the wandlight.
"You can't be here!"
A muffled, mocking laugh echoed between the walls. Bruce froze in terror, one hand uselessly clutching his still lit wand. He couldn't fight, couldn't run, couldn't even think. The shadow raised its right hand and Bruce knew that no miracle misfire would save him this time. Time seemed to freeze as he watched the hammer start to fall.
And Miles screamed.
Suddenly he was back in the corridor looking at a transition from stone blocks to a rough cut tunnel deep below Hogwarts. George was standing, alive and well, to his left and Miles, also very much alive, to his right. Miles was screaming in terror while George was covered in sweat and looked to have just shaken out of the same sort of panic that Bruce just had.
"RUN!" One of them shouted, though later on they would never agree which one. It hardly mattered, they turned and ran.
Bruce followed behind George, Miles quick on his heels. From behind them, he could swear he heard the voice again, "See ya 'round, kid."
They sped back the way they'd come, frantically taking the first right turn as it appeared, and then scrambled up the stairs faster than any of them would have thought possible on the way down.
George fumbled with the handle but the latch held tight. He tried pushing his shoulder into it, but the door didn't budge. Miles and Bruce came up quick behind him and all three pushed against the door, but still it wouldn't give.
"Stand back," Bruce commanded and drew his wand while they complied. He'd found this in the Standard Book of Spells and tried it a few times already, "Alohomorra!"
Nothing happened.
"Now what?" Miles whispered.
"I'm thinking," Bruce hissed back. From the sound of it there was no pursuit on the stairs yet. Of course! "Extinguish your wands, quick!" They did as he said and he instructed them to press themselves as close to the wall as possible. With luck, from the bottom of the stairs it would look like they'd kept running the other way.
Agonizing minutes that felt like hours passed, but no sound followed them up the stairs.
Ever so slowly, George reached out and tried the latch again. This time it clicked and the door opened. They piled out and pushed the door shut behind them, pressing their backs against it to catch their breath and hold it shut.
"Why wouldn't it open?" Miles asked after a moment.
Bruce thought about it, "Maybe because it was already open? I mean, because the broom closet was open?"
Bruce and Miles looked at each other as they realized what that meant, then cautiously peeked their heads around the twin enchanters to check the hallway. "Looks like Filch just took off for the courtyard," Bruce reported at the same moment Miles said, "Madam Pince is heading back to the library."
"Eeesh," George responded. "What d'you figure those two were doing in a broom closet?" All three stood in uncomfortable silence for a second before corrected himself, "Never mind, I don't want to know. Let's just go see if dinner is ready."
