"How are we supposed to get in?" said Ron, looking at the wooden door with no handle.
Ginny pushed. The door swung open easily. "That was easy," she said.
They didn't need their wands. The room was brightly lit. They leaned their broomsticks against the wall of the tunnel, and slowly walked inside.
They looked around the room for the source of the light, but they didn't see any. No lights, no candles, just a plain white ceiling, white floor and four white walls, all brightly lit. After standing in the dark tunnel, they needed to squint their eyes when they first walked into the room to let them adjust to the bright light.
As their eyes adjusted to the light, they looked around the room and didn't see anything. Just blank walls. No other doors. No windows. No anything.
"So what do we do now?" asked Ron.
Before anyone could respond, bright red letters appeared on the white wall opposite them.
YOU ANSWER THE QUESTION
"Huh?" said Ron. "What question?"
The words on the wall disappeared, and new words took their place.
THIS QUESTION
"This is getting weird," said Ron. "I'm having a conversation with a wall." Again the words disappeared, and this time what seemed like an invisible hand began writing slowly on the wall in black. When the writing stopped, the four friends stared at the words.
Five hundred begins it, five hundred ends it,
Five in the middle is seen;
The first of all figures, the first of all letters,
Take up their place in between.
Join them together, and then you will bring
Before you the name of an eminent king.
"It's a riddle," said Ginny.
"Okay, let's work it out," said Harry. "Five hundred begins it, five hundred ends it. If it starts with 500 and ends with 500 then that would make 500500."
"Right," said Ron. "But it says 'five in the middle is seen'. If you stick 5 in the middle, then you'll have 5005500."
"We're trying to figure out the name of an eminent king, aren't we?" said Ginny. "How are we going to get the name of a king out of fives and zeros?"
"Well," said Harry, "it says 'the first of all figures, the first of all letters, take up their place in between.' I think that means we need to stick the first of all figures and the first of all letters between those numbers. The first of all letters is 'A'. So does that mean we need to stick the letter A somewhere between the numbers in 5005500? Like 5-0-A-0-5-5-0-0? How are we going to get the name of a king by sticking a letter between all those numbers? And what about 'first of all figures'? I know what 'first of all letters' means, but what does 'first of all figures' mean?"
"Well," said Ginny. "Sometimes people call numbers 'figures'. Maybe it means first of all numbers. That would be '1'."
"So we need to stick the number '1' in there somewhere?" said Ron. "How are we going to get the name of a king by sticking the number 1 and the letter A somewhere in the middle of a bunch of 5s and 0s? And the puzzle doesn't even tell us where to stick them. This puzzle isn't making a lot of sense. It could be 5-0-A-0-5-1-5-0-0. Or 5-1-0-0-A-5-5-0-0. Or any other combination none of which is going to make the name of a king. I think…"
All this time, Hermione had been standing quietly and thinking. Finally, she interrupted Ron. "I think," said Hermione, "that we've been thinking about this wrong. You can't make the name of a king out of a bunch of numbers. We're not supposed to use numbers."
"What do you mean," said Ron. "The puzzle starts with 500 and 500."
"Right," said Hermione. "But we need letters, not numbers, to spell the name of a king. How do you write numbers with letters?"
All three of them stared at Hermione for a second and thought. Then, almost at once, they slapped themselves on their heads. "Good job, Hermione," said Ginny. "I hadn't thought of Roman numerals."
"None of us did," said Harry. "Good one, Hermione."
"Thanks. Now let's figure this thing out," said Hermione.
"Okay," said Harry. "Five hundred begins it, five hundred ends it."
"The Roman numeral for five hundred is 'D,'" said Ron."
"So the name starts with a 'D' and ends with a 'D'", said Ginny.
"Five in the middle is seen," continued Harry.
"The Roman numeral for five is 'V'", said Ron.
"If you put a V between two Ds, you have DVD," said Ginny. "I learned about DVD players in Muggle Studies," said Ginny, laughing. Then she got serious and said, "okay, let's go on."
"First of all figures, the first of all letters, Take up their place in between," said Harry.
"Well," said Ron, "if 'figures' means 'numbers', the first of all numbers is the number 1. And the Roman numeral for 1 is the letter I."
"Okay," said Harry, "and the first of all letters is 'A'".
"Well," said Ginny, "if you put an I and an A in between the letters DVD, you'll have D-I-V-A-D. I've never heard of a king name Divad, much less an eminent one."
All of a sudden, Hermione laughed. "Switch the vowels," she said.
A second later, Ginny screamed. "David. King David. He's the eminent king."
Before Ginny could say anything else, the white wall in front of them dissolved and they were standing in a room twice the size it had been, now extending in front of them as far as it extended behind them. Instead of white, the four walls, floor and ceiling, of the larger room were now a beautiful sparkling shade of purple. They walked forward into the newly opened portion of the room until they reached the far wall. It was purple and blank.
"What do you think we're supposed to do now?" asked Ginny. As soon as she spoke, words appeared on the wall in bright pink letters.
YOU ANSWER THE QUESTION
"Do you think I'm supposed to say 'what question?' again?" asked Ron.
The words on the wall disappeared, and a new word took their place.
NO
Then the word disappeared, and the invisible hand returned writing slowly on the wall in black.
How many whole numbers less than 100 have 7 in them?
"That's easy," said Ron. "Let's just count them. There's 7, 17, 27, 37, 47, 57…all the way up to 97. That's ten numbers."
"Wait a second, Ron," said Ginny. "Those are the numbers that end with a 7. You forgot all the numbers that start with a 7: 70, 71, 72, 73…all the way up to 79. That's another ten numbers."
"Ten and ten is twenty," said Harry. "So the answer is…"
"Wait!" said Hermione. "You guys counted one number twice."
"What number?" asked Ginny.
"77. It's on both lists. 77 starts with a 7 and ends with a 7. But it only counts once. That makes the total 19, not 20."
As Hermione said "19," the purple wall in front of them dissolved and they were now standing in a room that had again doubled in size and extended in front of them as far as it extended behind them. Instead of purple, the four walls, floor and ceiling, of the now enormous room were a shiny gold. They walked forward into the newly opened portion of the room until they reached the far wall. It was gold and blank.
They stared at the wall. "I guess we need to go through this again, or else nothing's going to happen, right?" said Ron.
YES
This time the letters were dark green.
"Okay, what do we do now?"
YOU KNOW
"Okay," said Ron, "give us the question."
The words disappeared, and the invisible hand returned writing slowly on the wall in black.
A hedgehog has two and so does a guinea pig.
Dogs and gerbils each have one.
But rabbits and hamsters don't have any.
"They all have four feet," said Ginny.
"They all have two eyes," said Ron.
"What don't rabbits and hamsters have any of?" said Harry.
They all stood there thinking. All of a sudden, Hermione laughed. "It's not the animals," she said. "It's the words."
They all looked at her.
"What letter doesn't 'rabbits' or 'hamsters' have, but 'dogs', 'gerbils', 'hedgehogs,' and 'guinea pigs' all have it?"
"Oh," said Ginny. "The letter 'g'. And 'hedgehogs' and 'guinea pigs' have two 'g's."
Immediately, the wall dissolved and they were once again standing in a room double in size. This time the walls, floor and ceiling, were bright orange. They walked together to the far wall. Before anyone could speak, words appeared in brown on the wall.
RUB HERE
Harry was the closest to the wall. He reached forward to rub the letters. But before he could touch the wall, the invisible hand returned and started writing very, very slowly on the wall in tiny letters in black just underneath the words "Rub Here." When the hand finished writing the four friends just stared at the wall in disbelief.
With a Phoenix feather
"Oy," groaned Ron. "That's the end of the road for us. What kind of a treasure hunt is this? How could he expect us to find a phoenix feather? Phoenixes don't just go wandering around waiting for people to pluck out their feathers."
"I've never heard of anyone ever seeing an actual Phoenix, except for Fawkes, of course," said Hermione. "From what I've read in the library about Phoenixes, Fawkes was probably the only Phoenix in the world. Dumbledore was lucky. I don't know how he and Fawkes met, but when Dumbledore died and Fawkes went away, that may have been the last time anyone will ever see a Phoenix. I don't think we're going to be able to finish this treasure hunt."
The four of them stood there, looking dejected. They had come so far. There was clearly a secret in the Chamber of Secrets still to be found, but there was no way they would ever be able to discover it.
All of a sudden, Hermione smiled, and cried, "Wait a second! We have a Phoenix feather! Right here!" She looked at Harry.
Harry smiled, and looked down at his right hand where he was holding his wand. He remembered. He was holding one of Fawkes's tail feathers in his right hand. Slowly, Harry reached forward with his right hand, until his wand was almost touching the black words on the orange wall. "Well, here goes," he said. He touched the wand to the wall and slowly rubbed it back and forth. Nothing happened. He rubbed it some more. Still nothing happened.
"I guess, technically, you're not rubbing it with a Phoenix feather, Harry," said Hermione. "The Phoenix feather is inside your wand, but you're really rubbing the wall with the wood."
"Come on," said Harry. "Shouldn't that be close enough?"
Hermione was eyeing Harry's wand. He caught her looking at it.
"Forget it," said Harry. "You're not going to break my wand a second time to get to the feather. Stop looking at it."
"Well," said Hermione, "you know you could fix it again with the Elder Wand."
"I can't believe you're even thinking that, Hermione," said Harry. "First of all, the Elder Wand is in Dumbledore's grave. We can't desecrate his grave. Second of all, I put the wand there for a reason. No one, including me, is ever going to use the Elder Wand again. End of story. And stop looking at my wand."
"You're right, Harry, of course" said Hermione. "I wasn't really thinking we should break your wand or anything like that. It's just that we've come so far. I can't believe we're not going to be able to get any further."
"Wait a second," said Ginny. "Maybe it's not over."
Everyone looked at her. She continued.
"Remember, Fawkes flew down to the Chamber of Secrets and fought with the basilisk down here. Maybe somehow one of his feathers got knocked out and landed in the chamber. We should look."
"I guess it's worth a try," said Harry, although he didn't sound very hopeful that they were going to find a Phoenix feather lying on the floor of the Chamber of Secrets.
They walked the length of the now very long, orange-colored room. As they walked, the colors changed and walls started reappearing until they found themselves at the door of the first, small, white room in which they had started. They walked through the doorway, hopped back on their broomsticks, and flew down the corridor toward the Chamber of Secrets. What they didn't see behind them was that the wooden door had closed. And there was nothing inscribed on the bottom of the door.
In the Chamber of Secrets, they searched carefully with their wands at maximum luminosity. Harry looked especially carefully in the areas where Fawkes had battled the basilisk. But they didn't see a feather. Finally, Harry thought of something, waved his wand, and cried "Accio Phoenix feather." Nothing happened.
After searching for an hour, Ginny finally said, "I know this was my idea. And Hermione, this was a great adventure. But I can't keep my eyes open any more I'm so sleepy. I think it's time to call it quits."
Everyone else had had the same idea for at least half an hour, but nobody wanted to be the one to tell Ginny that it was time to give up. Hermione looked longingly at Harry's wand.
"Stop looking at my wand, Hermione," said Harry sternly.
"Sorry."
"Hey, Gin," said Ron. "Fawkes isn't dead. He just went away. Maybe he'll come back some day."
"Sure, Ron," said Ginny. "Maybe."
But they had all been there the day of Dumbledore's funeral. They had heard Fawkes's final song. They had seen him leave. They all knew that Fawkes was never coming back.