Chapter 2 – The White Rose

AN:

Oni: I do not own Ib nor do I own Harry Potter. Most of the story still comes from the amazing mind of Lindsey6500 until I was given the story after chapter 10.

Harry fell through the water (or at least what seemed like water) for what felt like minutes before his feet touched solid ground. Looking around, he discovered that he was standing on a staircase, clothes and body completely dry. Harry walked down the long staircase until he reached the bottom and glanced around at his surroundings.

Everywhere around him was blue; blue ceiling, floor, and walls. There were two paths he could take, left or right, and on both sides of the staircase were paintings of the exact same landscape with the only difference being the coloring. The right picture had blue water it seemed, while the left one had red lava. Harry decided to go to the right-hand side first.

The walls had light blue wording across it, repeating the same word, COME, over and over again all the way down the hallway. At the end of the hallway was a small table with a vase on top of it. The table was in front of a door and the vase held a single flower; a delicate white rose. Harry walked up to the vase and felt like he should take the rose. He felt that the rose was important. Just as his fingers wrapped around the rose, a strange sensation filled him, a familiar feeling of warmth that he only ever felt when he had his wand or was with Hedwig.

Harry stared at the beautiful rose and subconsciously began to count the number of petals: there were six of them. Harry put the delicate rose safely into the large pocket of Dudley's old jeans. Harry turned to the table and reached out, pushing it away from the door. The table slid smoothly across the stone, opening the doorway for Harry.

Pushing the unlocked door open, Harry looked inside. A small room with a single painting, a blue key, and a note of some kind was what greeted him. Harry entered the room and stared at the strange painting. It was a painting of a woman with teal colored hair that was seemingly hanging out of the picture frame. Her eyes were contentedly shut. Harry stepped forward and went up to read the notice. "When the rose wilts, so too will you rot away." Questions whirled around his head: What did this mean? If the rose wilts than would he really rot away as well? Harry shook his head in confusion. To fix his troubled mind, Harry took the large blue key into his hand. Lifting his head up, Harry was just about to leave the room, only to come face to face with the painting that now showed a teal haired woman with a crazed expression on her face, eyes opened wide.

Harry, not wanting to stay in that room with the painting woman any longer, turned and ran from the room, slamming the door shut behind him. The hallway now no longer had the light blue letters, instead the walls were written upon with crimson red paint, the word 'THIEF' written over and over all across the walls. Harry turned around and noticed another note on one of the walls. Walking up cautiously, Harry read the note.

"You and the rose are? Know the weight of your own life."

Harry took out the white rose and looked down at it.

Harry didn't know what one of the words on the note meant, but he had a good idea of what it was. If what the notes said were true, and his assumption was right, than the rose and him were connected in some way. Honestly, Harry didn't want to test his theory.

Harry turned around and, ignoring the wording across the walls, walked down the hallway. Halfway down, more red wording appeared on the floor right in front of him, THIEF it screamed at him.

Running, Harry took off down the next hallway indicated by the painting of a landscape with what seemed like red lava flowing around a gathering of rocks. Harry came to the end of the hall that only had three objects; a painting of a fish titled "The ? Fish", a light blue door, and a table. Seeing nothing useful to do with the table, Harry took the key into his hand and inserted it into the lock. 'Click'. Harry took a deep breath, reached out with his right hand, and turned the doorknob.

The next room had a green layout, like a forest. There were several paintings on the wall, each painting showing of a different type of insect. There was a ladybug, a bee, a butterfly, and a spider. Harry, due to his innate seeker skills of spotting small things, easily noticed a tiny speck on the floor moving. The speck turned out to be a tiny black ant. All of a sudden, the ant turned its tiny head to him and began to speak.

"i'm an ant," it declared. "i love paintings, my painting is especially cool. i'd like to see it again, but it's kind of far away..."

Harry immediately made it his mission to help the poor ant, even if the entire situation was a bit odd and crazy. Harry sometimes had to curse his people-saving-thing as Hermione called it.

Harry walked over to a pillar and read the notice posted on its front: Beware the Edges. Harry didn't really understand what it meant but looking behind the pillar, there was a long, narrow hallway. Harry proceeded to go down it.

Suddenly, a black arm shot out of the right side of the wall and hit him in his side. Harry let out a scream and jumped away from the hand. On the ground where he got hit laid a single pure white rose petal.

Harry took out his rose and looked down at it. There was only five petals were left. On his body was a large bruise blooming against his pale skin as well as multiple cuts where the hand had hit and scratched him. He now somewhat understood the rose's significance. It seemed that when he was hurt, a rose petal would fall. Harry wondered if his body would get hurt if the rose was damaged, he wasn't going to try it however.

This time, Harry heeded the instructions on the notice and walked down the center of the hallway, just out of the reach of the black arm. All the way down, more hands shot out of the walls. Fortunately, the hands were unable to touch him.

Harry came to the end of the hall and found himself standing in a narrow corridor, a painting of an ant on the wall. Harry easily removed the painting from the wall and cautiously made his way down the hall with the reaching arms, back to his ant friend.

When he reached the ant, he held out the painting to it. The little ant seemed entranced with the painting.

"oh. that's my painting. it's just as cool as I remember it," the ant said, staring at it intensely.

Guessing the ant didn't want it back, he kept the painting and continued on.

The next four paintings appeared to be the life cycle of a caterpillar. The first painting was of an egg titled "Prologue". The painting next to it was a caterpillar in a larva state, this painting called: "Chapter 1", following it was the chrysalis: "Chapter 2". The final painting, "Last Chapter", was a painting of a beautiful butterfly. Harry stared at the painting and wondered: "Will I ever get out of here to live to my last chapter?"

Honestly, even if he was able to get out of the gallery, he doubted that he would last long even in the outside world. Harry thought that he would most likely die either being killed by his relatives or by Voldemort. Harry hoped though that he would live long enough to have at least a few things to be proud of.

Walking along he came to a door that was thankfully unlocked.

In the room there was a fissure across the floor, too big for him to jump over because of the low ceiling. A sudden idea popped into his head. Harry laid down the painting over the fissure, creating a type of bridge for him. Hoping that the ant painting was sturdy enough to support his weight, he gingerly walked across, the painting tearing and cracking a little under the weight. Harry, with a little stroke of luck, made it to the other side of the fissure. Looking back to see if he would be able to cross back, he realized that not only was the painting cracked, but the ant in the painting looked squashed and bloody as if someone had stepped on it. Suppressing a shudder, he turned around and continued to the door on his side of the fissure.

Opening the door and stepping into the next room, he saw another yet another painting. "Epilogue" pictured a butterfly being eaten by a spider.

"What a sad ending..." Harry murmured softly to himself. Turning over to the right, Harry saw one of Guertena's sculptures, a headless mannequin wearing a red dress. In front of it was a green key lying on the floor. Walking over, he picked the key up.

Without warning, the statue suddenly came to life. As it approached him, he backed up away from it. Letting out a loud roar, it began to chase him. So many things flashed before his eyes, so many questions raced through his mind: What was happening? Why was it chasing him? How could it even see him without any eyes?

"Nonononono," Harry muttered hurriedly under his breath as he ran from the strange mannequin and over the painting. Just as he stepped off the painting, the rest of the canvas broke and ripped, the mannequin trapped on the other side.

As he went into the next room, Harry heard the sound of glass breaking and shattering. He continued running until he was far enough away.

"what happened to my painting?" A small voice asked.

Harry, unable to tell the poor ant what happened, ignored the question and ran past the poor ant. He ran past all the black arms reaching out at him and only stopped running when he came to a door. He stopped in front of the door to catch his breath, panting heavily. When his racing heart finally slowed down to a normal pace, he unlocked the door and stepped inside.

Harry came to a fork in the path, gigantic eyes and ears that resembled those of a cat greeting him. In the far wall, there was a fish-shaped indentation. After studying the strange room, he decided to go to the right side first.

He came to a room that looked like a storage closet. Inside were multiple boxes, mannequins, and clay heads. Unnerved by the room, Harry moved past all the mannequins and clay heads and looked at a painting that held a red rose. Harry wondered why the roses seemed to be somewhat of a theme in the weird and whimsical world he was now trapped in.

Harry's thoughts of the room he was in being a storage closet were quickly confirmed when he read a letter on the floor that read "Materials Storehouse". All of a sudden, one of the clay busts began to shake violently. It then came to life and started after him. Frozen in fear, Harry couldn't move. The bust was only three feet away when it slipped on the letter that was lying on the floor; the bust began to fall. Harry came back to his senses and quickly jumped out of the way. The clay head shattered against the ground, revealing a wooden fish tail from its shattered head. Grabbing the tail, he was about to leave when a dripping sound came from behind him. Turning around he saw a yellow substance start to drip from the ceiling.

Harry just got out of the room in time when the lights flicked off. Harry shut the door behind him and sighed. Why did this have to happen to him?

Harry walked away from the door to the horrid storage closet and into the next room.

Inside the new room, Harry saw the same yellow substance from before splashed onto a column underneath a picture of a stick man with red eyes. The yellow paint formed a message under the stick man that read: "Play hide and seek?" Just as he finished reading the message, the stick man disappeared and yellow buttons appeared on the other columns in the room, each button underneath a set of red curtains. His only choice was to go down the two rows and find which one the stick man was under.

Before beginning his search for the stick man, Harry decided to look around the room. At the top of the room, he found a painting of a large cleaver chopping a fish, "A Chef's Talent" it was called. He figured that this would be where he would get the head of the fish.

Harry went to the first row and began exploring his options, which weren't many. Harry began his search by pushing the first button. The curtains moved aside to reveal a crescent moon, the room suddenly became slightly darker.

Pushing the next button, the next curtain above moved to reveal a naked woman's body. The woman screamed and slapped him. Hard. His rose was put down to just four petals.

The next curtain revealed a very... sinister painting. The painting showed him, hanging upside down by a red rope that was tied around his ankle from the top of the painting. The painting did not harm him however, so he moved on.

Harry, out of options, decided to try the next row.

Harry pushed a new button, the next curtain moving back to show a music note. The music note did nothing what-so-ever so he moved on.

Sighing, Harry pressed the next button. This time the curtains pulled back to reveal the stick man from before. The same yellow substance splashed onto the column underneath it. "Found me, you get prize." It said. Just as he finished reading the new message, a faint 'thump' came from someplace not far from him. Walking to where the chef painting was, Harry saw a wooden fish head lying on the ground in front of it. Apparently the chef did his work.

Combining the fish head and tail, both fit perfectly together like a puzzle piece, Harry got his wooden fish.

Returning to the main room with the cat-thing, he slid the fish into the indentation. The cat's eyes suddenly turned red and sinister. The thing suddenly let out a low meow and several other meows rang in the air. A path way then opened up in the wall and Harry, reluctantly, began to walk down it.