As Dean gets to his feet, he looks at the three teachers, whose faces are all filled with deep concern. He is still clutching his temple with one hand, a fierce ringing still deeply imbedded in his mind even after the drums had stopped. He still has trouble hearing them speak. Looking around, the other three appear to be in more or less the same state, Seamus clenching his teeth and Parvati's face all scrunched up. As the ringing finally begins to dissipate, sound returns to his ears.
Dumbledore slowly approaches the four students, his long, flowing midnight blue cloak trailing on the floor behind him. The twinkle in his soft blue eyes is diminished behind his half-moon spectacles as he looks down at them. "Are you alright?" he asks them in a quiet voice.
"Bit of a headache," Dean says, finally able to take his hand from his head. "But alright." The other three all make sounds and gestures of agreement.
"Then I'm afraid to say that we have little time to waste," Dumbledore says. "As much as we would like to take greater precautions, the game appears to demand that you play it now."
"Oh no!" Lavender says, putting her hands over her mouth.
Dumbledore holds up a hand to comfort her. "Please, try not to worry, my dear. The other teachers and I will do our best to protect you from any dangers this game may conjure."
"Professor," Professor McGonagall says, "What should we do about the other students?"
Dumbledore says, "For the moment, nothing at all. At least, not until we can get a better idea of the kinds of hazards this game will produce. For now, I think it would be best if the three of us proceeded to one of the lower dungeons. That way, if something truly unmanageable does happen to appear, then we will be able to alert the rest of the school before things get out of hand."
Professor McGonagall crosses her arms. "I can't say I like this," she says tartly.
"Oh I dare say none us do," Dumbledore says calmly, "Least of all our four young Gryffindors here. But we will do what we must, and we must do what we can." Dumbledore's words are final, as are his tone. "Now quickly, we must begin this game as quickly as possible if we are to end this curse."
Dumbledore leads the four students and two teachers out of Professor McGonagall's office at a surprisingly brisk pace for someone so old. Passing through the Entrance Hall, they descend a series of stairs to the dungeons, at first going in the direction of Snape's potions classroom before taking a right and heading further downstairs. They finally reach one of the roomier dungeon rooms, far beneath the castle. The ceiling is high over them, with old, rusty chains dangling far up the wall. A small trickle of water drips down to the floor in one of the corners, which makes Dean wonder if they're somewhere underneath the lake.
"Right," Dumbledore says, pulling out his wand, "let's make ourselves a little more comfortable, shall we?" With a few casual waves of his wand, Dumbledore lights a series of torches lining the stone walls, which flicker to life with orange flames. Once the dungeon room is filled with light, Dumbledore conjures a table big enough to hold the game board, and four chairs for Dean, Seamus, Lavender, and Parvati to sit down and play. After which, Dumbledore conjures three more chairs for Professor McGonagall, Professor Lupin, and himself, though neither of the other teachers feels much like sitting.
Seamus sets the board on the table, opening the flaps to reveal the game frozen in place, same as it had been since last night. For a brief moment, none of the students can bring themselves to sit down as it dawns on all of them that the time has truly come to resume. Taking a short breath, Dean manages to pull out the chair in front of him and take a seat, the wooden chair groaning far-too loudly in the spacious dungeon around them. This prompts the others to take their seats as well. Dean pulls out the dice from the compartment on the right flap. "Right," he says, offering the dice, "Who's going next?"
None of them are particularly eager to take the dice. Several seconds pass, with Seamus, Lavender, and Parvati all exchanging looks, pleading with their eyes for someone else to take it. Finally, it seems as though Parvati and Lavender decide to join forces and turn both of their eyes at Seamus. With a small grimace, Seamus says, "Fine," as he reaches forward and grabs the dice from Dean's hand.
Seamus jiggles the dice in his hand far more than seems necessary before finally working up the nerve to let them go, rolling on the game board until they land on a four and a six. The monkey figurine glides smoothly over the tiles on the game board ten spaces. They all lean forward to see the words forming in the center. Seamus reads them.
They grow much
faster than bamboo.
Take care,
or they'll come after you.
An odd sound fills the dungeon, lie the slithering of several long snakes along the dusty floor. Everyone in the room looks around and sees the same thing: vines. Hundreds of long, thick, vines winding their way all along the walls and floor like gigantic veins filled with green blood. Professors McGonagall, Lupin, and Dumbledore all point their wands in front of them, forming a protective circle around the students. All four of them are on their feet as well, watching as the vines keep growing before them, filling the entire dungeon and beyond.
As the vines begin to take over, more plants sprout from the floor. Mosses and lichens begin to carpet the stones on the ground at their feet, and numerous ferns begin to pop up, looking as if they'd been growing down in the dungeons for years. Large flowers open their petals to reveal brilliant shades of violet. These odd blossoms also sport tufts of while hair behind their petals, and fat green growths on their stems.
"We could certainly do with Professor Sprout right now," Dean remarks upon seeing the tropical foliage filling the room.
Professor Lupin looks up. "It looks like they're growing up in between the cracks in the stones," he says.
"Oh dear," Professor McGonagall says. "How much farther do you think they will grow?"
"I think we may have to go and find out," Professor Lupin says, turning to look at Dumbledore.
"Yes, I think that would probably be for the best," Dumbledore says, nodding. "I'll stay here with our four students."
Professor Lupin and Professor McGonagall move to leave the dungeon, stepping very carefully over the still-growing plant life.. As they reach the doorway, one of the strange purple flowers growing nearby hisses sharply, and Professor Lupin stumbles. "What the-?" he says, reaching down and feeling through his shabby, patch-work robes. With two fingers, he pulls out something imbedded in the fabric; a small, barbed needle-like object oozing some kind of thick, white fluid on one side. "Oh dear… I do believe this flower just shot this at me," Lupin says in a remarkably calm voice.
"What is it?" Seamus asks.
Professor Lupin examines the small projectile carefully. "Unless, I'm very much mistaken, this is some kind of venomous needle. I'm very fortunate that it only grazed my robes, otherwise I might be in a very bad way."
Dean looks around the room and spots two more of the flowers growing along the walls. Seeing his concerned expression, Dumbledore says, "Not to worry Dean: a good shield charm should prevent us falling victim to these most peculiarly perilous plants." Waving his wand out in front of them, he wordlessly casts the charm. The shield – if any is truly present – is invisible, but none of the four students are interested in testing it.
As Professor Lupin and Professor McGonagall make their up toward the Entrance Hall, they nearly collide head first with Professor Snape, who leads a group of seventh year students. "Minerva?" he asks in a confused yet curious tone. Though he notices Lupin as well, he only manages a cold look at him for a greeting.
"Severus," she says in response. "Is everything alright?"
"Decidedly not," Snape says. "I was just in the middle of teaching my N.E.W.T. potions class when a collection of unusual plants began to spontaneously grow over the entire classroom at an alarming pace. An enormous yellow pod attempted to eat Marcus Flint," he says, looking at the clearly-traumatized Flint. "I take it Pomona has been doing more… experimenting."
"No, Severus," Professor McGonagall says. "This is something else. I will tell you all that I know once we get an idea of just how far this plant growth has spread." Snape does not argue, and the three teachers begin to shepherd the students up the stairs and into the Entrance Hall.
Only now does it become apparent just how extensive the growth is. At first, everybody thinks they've somehow found their way outside. Vines have entangled the entire Entrance Hall, climbing all the way up to the ceiling. The floor, once covered in ornately carved tiles is now indistinguishable from the forest floor of a dense, tropical jungle. Dead, dried leaves cover the ground, and expansive groves of ferns, shrubs, and flowers make the original floor impossible to make out. Along the walls, tall tree trunks grow all the way up to the ceiling, where their branches spread outward to obscure the arched ceiling. The air itself feels heavy with humidity, causing many of the students to take off their robes and roll up their sleeves. They can even hear a low jungle chorus of frogs, insects, and birds all around them.
"Minerva," Snape says in a low voice, turning slowly toward her. "Explain."
"Time is short, Severus," she says simply. "So all I will say right now is that some of my students have accidentally engaged with an extremely powerful dark artifact."
"Is that so?" Snape says, his thin lips curling into a taunting smile. "The students in question wouldn't happen to be Potter and his sycophants, would they?"
"No, as a matter of fact, they aren't" Professor McGonagall says, resenting both the question and his tone. "And we have far more pressing things to concern ourselves with at the moment. For now, I suggest you take your students and escort them on to the grounds."
Frowning, Snape nods. "Stay close," he orders his students as he leads them to the front doors. But as they get closer, it soon becomes apparent that the thick layers of tangled overgrowth have blocked their path out of the castle. Snape pulls out his wand and casts a non-verbal curse that slashes at the vines like a saber. Though the curse cuts through the plants with ease, a new set of vines grows instantly in the place of their fallen brethren.
Scrunching his nose as if smelling something foul, Snape attempts the curse again, casting it several times in a row, trying to hack through the undergrowth with his wand like a machete. But determined though he is, the tenacious vines regrow every time, sealing off their exit from the castle. He tries several other methods, such as burning the vines, freezing them, transfiguring them, but none of these does anything to unblock their path.
Growing more frustrated, he turns to Professor McGonagall and says in a sour voice, "Well? What do you suggest, Minerva?"
Professor McGonagall is unsure of how to respond at first, an uncomfortable feeling growing deep in her gut. Finally, she decides the next course of action. "Take your students and check all of the other ways out of the castle, including the secret passage ways. Try to find a way out. Professor Lupin and I will check on the rest of the school to make sure the other students and staff are all safe."
Snape nods again before addressing his students. "All of you, stay close to me, and do not wander off. If I catch anyone trying to sneak off, you will be in detention for the rest of your days in this school."
"Watch out for the purple flowers," Lupin calls out to Snape. "They shoot venomous barbs."
Snape does not look back at Lupin as he says, "Thanks," in a decidedly ungrateful tone.
As Snape leads the seventh years up the marble staircase, Lupin turns to Professor McGonagall. "What if it turns out that the plants have blocked off every way out of the castle?"
"We'll have to worry about that later," Professor McGonagall says. "For now, our biggest concern is making sure everyone else is safe. Come, we should check the Hufflepuff common room first."