Chapter 4 – Labyrinths and Rings

AN:

Oni: As all of this is practically going up at the same time, I'm pretty sure all of you get the gist of – I don't own anything!

Not Harry Potter, not Ib, not the majority of the content until chapter ten. For those who were reading Lindsey6500's version of the story, you could see slight additions if you squint but other than that, this is aaaaaaaall Lindsey6500's work.

Laughing, Harry entered the next room and was followed by Garry. Garry ran up and easily trapped Harry in his arms.

"Got you!" Garry exclaimed, chuckling.

"Yes, you did catch me," Harry said laughing, then his smile turned into a smirk. "Not for long though!"

Harry easily twisted and escaped the hold/hug, turned around and did what any other mature teenager would do; he stuck his tongue out.

Garry rolled his eyes at the gesture but was unable to hide the amusement in his eyes and the fond smile on his lips.

With a grin on his face, Harry laughed and gazed around the room. The room had two sculptures and two paintings. On the left was a portrait of a bride who was holding a bouquet of pink flowers, she looked very sad. She was titled "Grieving Bride". In front of the portrait was a sculpture of a wicked black hand reaching from the floor, "Sorrowful Bride's Left Hand", it was called. To the right were, similarly, a painting of a groom who, like the bride, looked very sad. "Grieving Groom", it was called. In front of it was another sculpture of a reaching black hand, "Sorrowful Bride's Right Hand". The black hands seemed to be desperately searching for something, they clenched and extended, grasping the air above them. Harry guessed that these black hands were the ones trying to attack him earlier.

Both teens headed into the next room. To their right they saw a picture of coffee and cake. Not very important, but both of them were kind of hungry at that moment...

Both of them decided to check the room on the left side first. The room was structured like a maze. The notice on the wall in front of them easily confirmed this. "Labyrinth", it said.

"Why does the ceiling have to be so low," Garry complained. Looking up, Harry realized that what Garry said was true; the ceiling was very low. The ceiling was only a few inches higher than his own head. Garry, on the other hand, did not have that luxury. Garry was too tall for the room so, in order to fit inside, he was forced to crouch slightly, head banging on the wall from his attempts to walk around inside. He muttered something under his breath, but Harry didn't catch any words of what the purple haired teen was saying, barely noticing that Garry was fidgeting with something in his pocket.

Harry forced himself to restrain a laugh from the sight. "You could stay outside the room you know,"

Harry began, eyes focused on Garry. "I could finish the maze myself."

"No. I'll go with you; this place is dangerous so it would be best to not go alone."

Shrugging, Harry spoke. "Alright. Are you sure that..."

"I am."

Harry simply nodded in response. He could just tell that nothing he could say or do would make Garry stay out of the room.

"Let's go then. The faster we go, the faster we'll finish it."

To their dismay, it turned out that they were not alone in the maze. Garry was right; it was dangerous to go alone because there were three headless statues in red dresses wandering around. Luckily, the mannequins were not too fast as the two of them made their way to the back of the room. As they wandered the room, they found a sign that read, "Check directly south from the red paint."

Unfortunately, there were three splotches of red paint within the room so they had to check more than one. As they weaved through the labyrinth, they came across another sign that read, "There's a trick to solving mazes... Hug the right hand side of the wall and you'll reach the end eventually."

"Not a bad trick..." Garry commented. "But that doesn't help the ceiling being too low for comfort. Not to mention those weird things loitering around... gives me the creeps. Be careful not to get trapped between them, okay, Harry?"

"Don't worry about me," Harry responded. "And I told you that you could have waited outside."

"How can I not worry? You're still younger than me, so it is within my duty to protect you," Garry said, arms crossed. "I'm not going to wait for you outside when something could happen to you while you're in here."

Harry sighed, he knew Garry wasn't going to let him go alone. Honestly, it made his heart flutter and soar to know that someone cared for him. It made him feel important. He was glad that Garry was there with him, he never did like being alone even though he should be used to it.

"Alright, I won't argue. We should probably get moving though, I can hear the mannequins not far off..."

Continuing on, there was another message on the wall. "Do you like mazes?" It asked. Obviously, neither boy did. Checking to the south of the red paint splotch, there was a switch on the wall. Immediately, they ran up and pressed it. After that, not wanting to stay in that horrid maze any longer than they had to, they ran out of the room.

They decided to go down the hall on the left side of the labyrinth first. Going over, they noticed some sort of markings on the floor. When they approached, the markings turned into eyes. There were about nine of them in total. All of which were darting back and forth. One of them was pink and swollen.

"Yaaaah! What is THAT?! Gross is what!" exclaimed a disgusted Garry, obviously not well adjusted to their environment. "Why are there EYES on the FLOOR...?!"

Harry shrugged in response. "Who knows? This entire place is strange."

Shuddering, Garry replied. "That is an understatement..."

Walking forward, the two of them observed the swollen eye.

"D... Does this lone eye have a congestion problem?" Garry pondered.

The two of them continued down the hall and came upon some paintings. A painting of a girl, some ice, a white snake, and some sort of scenery. On closer inspection, there was a hole where the snake's eye should be.

They passed the paintings and went through the door that was next to them. Inside was a cluttered mess. Stools and easels were everywhere. On a lone stool, on the far side of the room, was a small blue colored bottle. They didn't know what it was, but it looked important.

From the left side of the room they slowly make their way over to the bottle, pushing stools out of the way as they went. Until, finally, they reached the bottle. Up close, they could now tell that the bottle was actually a bottle of eye-drops.

They exited the room and returned to the congested eye. It turned its gaze to them, pleading. Even though it was an eye, Harry couldn't help but feel sorry for it. He wanted to help it. Taking the bottle in hand, he squeezed a few drops into the eye. The eye's congestion was cured. Suddenly, the eye moved up to a wall and stared intensely at it, in contrast to the other eyes darting back and forth.

Looking more closely, they were able to see that the wall was a different color than the rest of it. Harry walked over and inspected the wall. What he discovered caused him to let out a small gasp, excitement coursing through him.

"Are you alright, Harry? You're shaking..." Garry asked, concern in his eyes.

"Garry! Come here quickly! I found a secret passage!"

Walking over, he found that Harry was right, it was a secret passage. The room was almost entirely empty, the only thing that was in it was a red glass ball. Harry went over and slid it into his pocket.

"Well there's nothing left in this room. Let's go find where this needs to go."

"... Maybe it goes to the painting of the snake...?"

Harry blinked and thought back. The snake painting was indeed missing what would have been its eye.

Harry's eyes widened and he quickly left the room, Garry rushed out to follow. Harry made his way to the snake painting and pulled out the ball.

"Might as well try..."

Harry brought up the ball and slid it into the hole where the eye socket was. It was a perfect fit.

"Garry, you are a genius."

Garry simply laughed.

Something stirred in the back of Harry's mind. He stared at the painting until the memory hit him.

The bright, glowing red eyes that stared at him from a pale white, snakelike face was all too familiar to him now.

"Use the boy…"

A small crash turned their attention to their right, and knocked Harry out of his brief stupor, reminding him once more where he was. The painting of the scenery had fallen down. On the back of its frame was a message, "Behind the big tree..."

"Big tree? I don't remember seeing a tree anywhere." Garry remarked.

"Let's look around; maybe the button we pushed in the labyrinth did something," Harry said.

The two of them went around the hall, looking to see if there was something different. Near the painting of the coffee and cake was a door.

"That definitely wasn't there before," Garry mumbled. Harry nodded in agreement.

"I don't know how we didn't notice it before if it was there the whole time. Might as well check it out though, after all, we got nothing else we can really do."

When they neared the door however, Harry felt fear gripping at him. Just what was behind the big tree...? Well, he did have Garry with him. Sure, Garry wasn't exactly the bravest person out there, but he made Harry feel more confident and safe. Truthfully, Garry reminded him of Hagrid. They both were what you would consider strange, but they both had a kind of aura around them, an aura that made him feel calm and stronger, like he could do anything that he wanted if he put his mind to it. Both of them also made Harry feel more safe and protected; he would trust the both of them with his life.

He also reminded Harry of someone else, but he couldn't for the life of him figure out who that person was.

As he thought this, Harry felt a little braver as he watched Garry open the door.

As they entered the room, the lights began to flicker. It was a bit scary, especially with all of the weird sculptures that littered the room. To the far left was "Wine Sofa", a sofa inside a wine glass.

"That doesn't look like very comfortable sitting..." criticized Garry. Harry had to agree with him.

The next bust he couldn't read, but Garry could. It read, "Melancholy". It was a head with curled hair and sunken eyes.

"Melancholy, huh? Well really, who wouldn't be in this place?" Garry remarked.

The next piece was "Puzzle". It appeared to be a multicolored skeleton. Garry shot him a nervous look. "I assume this is fake?" Harry just shrugged in response.

The last sculpture was "Feeling". It was a tree sculpture that vaguely resembled a person. "You gotta be pretty clever to come up with this stuff..." noted Garry. Harry nodded in response and replied. "I don't know how any artist could come up with these things if they weren't clever." Garry smiled for some reason.

Looking over at the branches his emerald eyes spotted something. It was small and it shined silver. Reaching out, Harry took the object into his hand. Garry leaned over Harry's shoulder and both teens looked at the object held in Harry's opened palm.

"Isn't this... a wedding ring?" Garry said with a surprised look. "Now what would this be doing here?"

"I'm not sure," Harry said, thinking back. Why would a wedding ring be here? What could he do with a wedding ring?

"... The hands... The hands! Of course, how could I have forgotten?" Harry exclaimed, excitement coursing through him. The ring must be what the bride's hands were searching for.

"Hands? Wait... Ah, I understand. The bride must need the ring." Garry said as he looked to Harry with a smile.

"Exactly. Come on, let's get this to the bride!" Harry said, grabbing Garry's jacket sleeve, he began pulling Garry out of the room.

The two of them returned to the marriage room. The hands were still desperately grasping at the air.

Remembering that a wedding ring goes, Harry went over the bride's left hand and placed the ring on its ring finger. Suddenly the hands stopped moving. The bride and the groom smiled at him, their eyes bright with happiness. The inscriptions for the paintings and sculptures had changed from the words "Sorrowful" and "Grieving" to "Blessed". Walking over to the bride, he watched as she flung her bouquet out of the portrait, right to him. Harry easily caught the bouquet in his arms. Harry heard a chuckle from beside him. Looking up, his eyes focused on Garry.

"I guess this means that you're going to get married soon!" Garry joked.

Harry just looked at him confused. "What do you mean?"

"Ah, so it seems you've not heard of the significant meaning of catching a bride's bouquet. Well, usually it deals with a young girl, but when a bride throws a bouquet and a lucky girl catches it, the girl who catches it will get married next!"

Looking at him with a blank look, Harry walked up to him, brought the bouquet up, and whacked Garry on the shoulder. It wasn't a hard hit, but it was enough. "Very funny, Garry." However, no matter how hard he tried, Harry was unable to hide the amusement in his eyes and the grin that trying to make its way onto his lips. He enjoyed small moments such as these where he could joke around and have fun.

Even though he hadn't been with Garry long, he already felt attached to the older teen.

Garry laughed at his reaction and the two them headed down the only area they hadn't gone to yet. At the end of the hall was a ghastly portrait, a blue spirit haunting the painting. It had a jagged smile and wandering eyes.

When they approached it, the painting began to speak. "Ehehehehe, heehehehe... Flowers... flowers're nice... Give me that there flower and I'll let you through... ehehe... ehehe... your flower, pretty please?"

Harry followed the painting's gaze and found that it was staring right at his pure white rose which was currently sticking out of his pocket slightly. Harry knew he couldn't give it his rose; his rose was his life after all. He could give it something else though.

"I can't let you have my rose but here," Harry said, holding the bouquet up to the painting. "You can have this."

"Ehehehe, thanks... It smells niice... eheheh," It said, smelling the flowers. "Well, chowtime!" The painting shouted as it turned red and snatched the flowers out of his hand. Harry stumbled backwards and both teens watched as it violently mashed down its jaws on the bouquet. Harry shuddered. Who knows what would've happened to him if he had given it his rose. Garry, seeing the younger's reaction, reached out and a set his hand on Harry's shoulder. On impulse, Harry flinched at the touch before slowly relaxing. Although curious, Garry didn't say anything, instead, he just squeezed the younger boy's shoulder in reassurance. Harry found himself leaning into the touch.

"Ahhh, that was good... eheheh. Thank you, thanks so much..." It gratefully told Harry after it finished its meal. "As promised, you can go through."

The frame swung open and the painting vanished. "Just take this door in... Well, see ya... eheheheh!" said the painting as it let them in.

Harry turned and looked up at Garry, who turned to look at Harry. Both of them took a deep breath, nodded to each other, and stepped through the door.