This room was larger than the last, dimly lit and rectangular and the center of the room was sunken. Isabella was irresistibly reminded of an amphitheater; they were standing on the topmost tier of stone benches that ran all around the room and descended in steep steps.
At the bottom was a dais on which stood a stone archway that was ancient, cracked, and crumbling. A tattered black curtain hung from it and, despite the cold stillness of the air, the veil fluttered very slightly.
"Who's there?" said Harry, jumping down on to the bench below.
"Careful!" whispered Hermione. Harry scrambled down the benches until he reached the bottom. His footsteps echoed loudly as he walked slowly toward the dais. Isabella had thought the archway to be Roman or Grecian at first, but now she looked closer and saw that it was pointed in the Gothic style. She followed Harry, climbing down to get a closer look. When she stood at its base, the arch looked much taller than it had when she'd been looking down on it from above. Isabella extended a hand and gently touched the rough surface of the stone dais.
"Let's go," called Hermione from halfway up the stone steps. "This isn't right, Harry, Bella, come on, let's go." She sounded scared, but Isabella thought the archway had a kind of beauty about it, heightened by its age.
"Harry, Bella, let's go, OK?" said Hermione more forcefully.
"OK," Harry said, but he did not move. He stood still for a moment, watching the veil flutter. Isabella frowned, she did not like the veil; it was as though some unworthy curtain had been drawn over a stain-glass window and she wanted to pull it aside and reveal... what?
"What are you saying?" Harry said, very loudly, so that his words echoed around the stone benches.
"Nobody's talking, Harry!" said Hermione, now moving over to him.
"Someone's whispering behind there," he said, moving out of her reach and continuing to frown at the veil. "Is that you, Bella?"
"No, I'm over here," she said, her voice sounding distant in her own ears. She put her foot on the dais, intent on climbing up and seeing what the curtain was hiding...
"Can't anyone else hear it?" Harry demanded.
"I can hear them too," breathed Luna, joining them around the side of the archway and gazing at the swaying veil. Everyone looked at the veil, Isabella thought crossly, couldn't they see that the arch would be so much more beautiful without that tattered rag?
"There are people in there!" Luna said, her voice rising slightly.
"What do you mean, 'in there'?" demanded Hermione, jumping down from the bottom step and sounding very angry. "There in't any 'in there', it's just an archway, there's no room for anybody to be there. Harry, stop it, come away -" She grabbed his arm and pulled, but he resisted.
"Harry, we are supposed to be here for Sirius!" she said in a high-pitched, strained voice.
"Sirius," Harry repeated, still gazing, mesmerized, at the continuously swaying veil. "Yeah..."
Isabella ignored him, pushing herself onto the dais and moving over to the curtain as though in a daze.
"Bella!" The call came to her from a distance, as though her ears were stuffed with beeswax; she couldn't summon the energy to heed the muffled voice. She walked forward, her arm extended before her to draw back the black cloth and step inside...
Something slammed into her side and tore her gaze away from the archway. Isabella toppled off the dais and landed heavily on the floor. Neville and Ron were on top of her, holding her back.
"What are you doing?" she asked them, throwing them off indignantly.
"You were going to go through the archway!" Neville said, standing and offering her his hand.
"No I wasn't," she growled, taking the hand and pulling herself to her feet. "I was just going to look..." she trailed off, horrified at what might have happened if the boys hadn't stopped her.
"Let's go," Ginny said, giving Isabella a long, odd look. They all marched back up the steps and clambered through the door.
"What do you reckon that arch was?" Harry asked Hermione.
"I don't know, but whatever it was, it was dangerous," she said firmly, again inscribing a fiery cross on the door. Harry turned and confronted Isabella who jumped guiltily, her thoughts back on the archway.
"Did you hear the voices?" Harry asked. Isabella frowned and shook her head.
"There were no voices," she maintained as the walls began to spin and become still again. Harry turned away from her and approached another door and pushed. It did not move.
"What's wrong?" said Hermione.
"It's... locked..." said Harry, throwing his weight at the door, but it didn't budge.
"This is it, then, isn't it?" said Ron excitedly, joining Harry in the attempt to force the door open. "Bound to be!"
"It can't be, Harry could get through all the doors in his dream," said Hermione, marking the door with another fiery cross.
"As long as we have a firm basis for everything we're doing," Isabella grumbled to herself.
"You know what could be in there?" said Luna eagerly.
"Something blibbering, no doubt," said Hermione under her breath and Neville gave a nervous little laugh. Isabella glared at him and he quickly fell silent and adopted a somber expression.
"This is it!" Harry shouted, stopping all further arguments but opening another door. This room was filled with clocks gleaming from every surface, large and small, grandfather and carriage, hanging in spaces between the bookcases or standing on desks ranging the length of the room, so that a busy, relentless ticking filled the place like thousands of minuscule, marching footsteps. A towering crystal bell jar stood at the far end of the room.
"This way!" Harry ordered, leading the way down the narrow space between the lines of desks and past the bell jar to the only door behind it.
"This is it," Harry said again. "It's through here." Isabella clutched her wand tightly as Harry pushed the door open.