Chapter 30-Find Carina!
Scorpius, Leo, Albus, and Rose all walked through the lower levels of the prison. The floor was no longer cement, but dirt. They were underground. It was a place for the more dangerous of the prison's criminals. The walls had supports out of which levers stuck. Now and then, something would make a strange noise and the dirt around them would shutter and fall in mists.
"If you squeal one more time, I'm going to curse you," Scorpius threatened, glaring at Albus.
"I can't help it. It's terrifying in here."
"Then you shouldn't have come."
"She's probably not down this deep," Albus said. "I think we went a floor too far. Why don't we go back up to that floor from before? It had all of those empty cells with sketches of swear words in the walls. Remember that?"
"Rose, would you shut your cousin up?"
"Be quiet, both of you," she told them. "Whatever's making those noises, we'd better head away from it and I can't tell what rooms it's coming from with your talk—EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEHHHH"
The ground cracked and broke beneath her before she could finish. Scorpius watched as she was sucked into the black room beneath, her screams reverberating until a metallic clang echoed through the darkness under them.
"Rose!" Albus shouted.
The three boys ran to the hole to try and look down, but it was pitch black.
"I'm alright!" she shouted back up. "Find Carina! I'll get out of this!"
Leo looked up. "There's a split ahead. I'll go one way, and you two the other and search the cells. Hopefully we'll find someone."
"Deal," Scorpius and Albus said in unison.
Scorpius and Albus ran down the right hand hallway. There were dozens of cells, but every single one they looking in was empty.
"Carina!" Albus shouted. "Carina!"
"Shut up, you thick moron. This place is crawling with goblins. It's not like we aren't obvious enough as it is."
Albus stopped in front of an open door. "This cell has a chest in it."
"Shut up and search. If the hallway's—."
"You don't think that's weird?"
"What?"
"The chest. I mean, all the other cells are empty."
"Who cares?"
"Well, remember before how Frieda used a path Jagobin created to get to the surface and it was inside of a cell? What if the main hallways don't do anything? What if it's the other passages? This place is deserted, after all. What do you think is over there?"
"I don't know," Scorpius sighed. "Go look."
Albus looked back at the chest. "Will you look?"
"Me? It was your idea."
"But…I'm afraid."
Scorpius walked slowly up to Albus and sized him up, stretching out his back so he was several inches taller. The boy looked the other in the eyes.
"You've got more to fear of me than anything in that chest."
Albus sighed. "You know, all I was looking for was the magic word." He started walking towards the chest. "Is that so hard? Manners to an aristocrat should come easy."
Albus pointed his wand towards the lock on the chest.
"Alohamora," he said. The lock clicked open and he removed it. Carefully, he opened the crate so a squeaking noise filled the cell. Nothing happened.
"See, there," Scorpius said. "Nothing. What did I tell you?"
That's when a tiny human form came buzzing from the crate. Albus stood up as the tiny human cocked it head. Several more heads popped up out of the crate and slowly rose into the air, looking at the two boys.
"Albus get up," Scorpius told him. He walked into the room and grabbed the fifteen-year-old by the arm to haul him to his feet.
"What?" Albus asked. "They're just fairies."
"Those are not fairies," Scorpius told him. "They're doxies."
"Are those dangerous?" Albus asked.
Scorpius gave him a look. "Don't you listen in Care of Magical Creatures?"
"Of course I do! That is, of course, assuming I go to class."
"Doxies aren't deadly, but they pack a punch."
The group of tiny furry people began to zoom back and forth. More and more emerged from the case.
"They're protecting something," Albus realized. "I was right. There is something there!"
A doxy zoomed towards Scorpius and he slashed it with a spell. The tiny creature smashed against the wall and dropped motionless. It was the wrong more. Twenty more instantly came after them, diving towards every inch of skin he and Albus had. Scorpius was quick, though. He slashed at them with one spell after another, murdering, knocking out, and even burning them to a crisp.
Scorpius backed up slowly until his back hit something. It wasn't the wall. Albus's back was pressed to his as the other boy looked to the same threat around them.
"I got your back," Albus smiled, instantly lashing a curse at three doxies.
"Never thought I'd hear you say that," Scorpius muttered, stepping on a doxy at his feet and slicing another in half.
"Me neither," Albus agreed.
"By the way…we'll get Rose back. I know you're protective of your cousin."
"Rose can take care of herself. She's a grown woman who can make her own decisions and she has her own right to fight with us."
"That's…very progressive of you."
"Well, I'm a feminist now, you know."
"Honestly, after you ran down the hallways naked, shouting 'Down with the patriarchy,' I don't think there's a wizard alive who doesn't know that. STUPIFY! PATRIFICUS TOTALUS! IMPEDIMENTA!" Several doxies fell motionless.
"You're angry with me. That actually wasn't my idea. It was my girlfriend's."
Scorpius scoffed.
"What was that?" Albus asked, kicking at the doxies in his frustration. They came towards him by the dozens, more and more coming from nowhere.
"You have a girlfriend?" Scorpius said belittlingly through gritted teeth as he battered the doxies back with a shield charm. "Let me guess: she's double your intelligence and triple your maturity."
Albus paused after driving his doxies back with a ball of fire. "No…"
"You're despicable. You can't expect to have a real girlfriend until you stop acting like a child!"
"Acting like a child?" Furnunculus. "I'm fun to be around." Confundus. "I play jokes." Avis. "I have a good time" Immobulus "unlike you and your constant negativity. I feel like a raincloud's hanging over us every time you're around."
"That is a description from a children's book. I'm sure of it."
The doxies were all on the ground, scores of them either dead or immobile. The two were panting and in a rage.
"Make fun all you want." Albus said as they turned to each other "You're just sour."
"Only because your existence makes my life miserable."
"Your own existence makes your life miserable! You're just jealous."
"You know what? I am jealous. I'm jealous because people love you for being the son of the Boy Who Lived and being able to have such a stupid attitude because of how easy you have it. Meanwhile, everyone hates me for being the son of Harry Potter's rival."
Albus rolled his eyes. "No one hates you because of what your father did. They hate you because you're nasty and horrible and a Slytherin to top it off!"
"You really believe that don't you? You really think the way I'm treated has nothing to do with my family being notorious death eaters. It's all because I'm cynical and sour. How do you think I got that way? Just in the last week, I got detention because you and your friends decided that I was just a convenient person to blame and the professors believed you because you've good families and you're Gryffindors."
Albus said nothing for a moment.
"That wasn't my idea—."
"It doesn't matter!" Scorpius shouted. "You and the rest of your friends are all actively screwing me over just because it's easy!"
"Just because it's easy? You gang up on me with your other Slytherin friends! You kick me around and make fun of me!"
"You deserve it. After all your family's done to us. With the way you act. People hate you, Albus. Every last Slytherin hates you."
"I'm not my father or anyone else in my family. Neither are you. I wish you could separate yourself from the war."
"Believe me, so do I. Here's a fun fact: I don't like dueling. I don't want to duel anyone, least of all you. I attack you so the rest of the Slytherins won't think I like you. I'm a prefect. I have some of the highest grades in the school. Do you really think I'd waste my time with you if I didn't need to?"
Albus paused, genuinely surprised. He'd never noticed the badge on Scorpius's robes. "You're a prefect?"
"You're not? What a surprise."
"Shut it, Scorpius. Why are you in Slytherin if you don't like it there?"
Scorpius waited to speak for minute, wondering if he should say.
Because I belong there. I've always hated your family for disgracing mine, yet I've never wanted the world my family would have created with Voldemort. I'm stuck in limbo and all that's left is to hate everything because there's nothing I'm allowed to favor.
"I didn't choose it; the sorting hat did."
Albus shook his head. "That's a bunch of‑-."
And he stopped and dropped to the ground.
"Albus?" Scorpius asked.
Albus pulled up his robes to reveal doxy bites at his ankles.
"I don't feel well," he breathed.
"You need an antidote," Scorpius said. "Doxy bites are toxic."
"Can we make one?"
"The ingredients aren't found on this continent, let alone this prison. We'll have to get you to St. Mungo's. I don't think we'll be able to get you out of here anytime soon. Not with the goblins and being five stories down."
"Tell my girlfriend she can have all the chocolate frog cards from my collection that she doesn't have yet. Also, tell my brother Albus that he's a git and he can't have my broom."
Scorpius rolled him eyes. "You're not dying, moron. It's not lethal. I'll just go get help."
"No! Find Carina."
"What? You're kidding. I have no idea what this poison does. You could lose your feet for all I know."
"And what about everybody else risking their lives? Do you think I didn't know what I was getting into coming here? The more people we have to fight, the better. I'm not risking someone else's neck for my own. Besides, you're right. Nobody takes me seriously now. If we both make it out of here, you can finally tell people that you have a reason not to hate me. You can change things, Scorp. Just take advantage of this."
Scorpius didn't know what to say. Had he really gotten to Albus? He thought back to when he'd stuck that dirty toothbrush into Carina's mouth. "I want you to remember that taste in your mouth when you realize you can't see through people." Maybe that didn't just apply to Carina.
"Then, I'm going to whatever room the doxies were guarding," he said. "In the chest."
"Also," Albus said, lying on the ground. "This could help me score serious points with my girlfriend."
"There it is," Scorpius said, standing and rolling his eyes. "I'm leaving, then. Good luck with that venom, Potter."
"Wait!"
Scorpius stopped.
"A kiss goodbye?"
Scorpius feigned kicking the boy between the legs and the young Potter squealed and rolled away.
Scorpius walked towards the chest, took a breath when he saw the ladder leading downwards, and stepped onto the first rung.
I stare straight ahead at the glaring eye of the beast before me. It breathes out and I feel its breath blow against me. The black hair that's fallen out of its clip, down around my ears and hairline, flies back, but our gazes do not part. I am bound to think I could press my palm over that emerald eye and only just cover its iris. That's how large this creature is.
Scales gimmer scarlet light across its body and golden spikes stick out around its snout. It only just fits in the cage they've given it. It's no dragon. A dragon would melt the cage around it with its fire. A dragon would not be captured in the first place. They are too powerful to be controlled by wizards, let alone goblins. No, it must've been illegally bred to be weaker. Why they have it here, I can't say.
It looks at me, watching me dangle from the wall. My arms hurt and I wonder what it'll do. I'm trapped. All around me is a circular wall. Then, something happens. The chain dangling the entire contraption in the center of everything drops the cage a meter and the beasts' giant eyes narrow to slits. It jumps, rattling the cage as its mouth opens wide. I let go just as a jet of flame bursts from its throat.
"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEH!" I scream as I fly downward. Suddenly, I'm scooped up by a pool of salty liquid and water invades my ears, eyes, and nose. My mouth was open, screaming as I fell, so the water rushes in and down through my throat. I wriggle there for a moment, staring at the faint blue light above me, and surface, coughing and sputtering, every inch of the tubes in my sinuses burning from the salt and infestation of water.
The noise is unbearable. The dragon screams and releases balls of fire, coloring the room red and heating it quickly. That's when I look for the vents along the walls. Sure enough, there are dozens. Too high for me to grab any, but that's not the point. The dragon was the alarm. It did take me a while to climb all of those crates. I'm at that same point in time as when the goblins ran from the room after Jagobin and I switched bodies.
That's when I hear someone. It's an echo. It's a voice, but I can't see a thing. The only light is coming from the glowing red bars of the cage and air vents. I pray the dragon doesn't aim his fire downward. I'd be cooked to a crisp without my wand.
For a moment, I see the glow of lighting from a Lumos spell coming from atop the cage, but the cage drops again. I can only tell because the chain above clatters and the dragon shrieks again.
"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEH!" someone screams. A splash sprays me with water and makes waves in the pool. Afraid of what it is, I swim towards a stalagmite and grip it. I might have been shivering from the cold, but the dragon's flame warms the rooms so I instead quiver from whatever's just dropped into the pool with me. I imagine a water demon or goblin, but instead, I see flame beneath the water. A face emerges from the mass and comes sputtering up for air, red hair slicked back against her head.
"Rose!" I exclaim. I get down from my rock and swim towards her. I am not the hugging type and we are both swimming, but I throw my arms around her anyway. When I pull away, she is still coughing up saltwater.
"Carina," she says. "What are you doing in here? I thought for sure you would be kept right next to Jagobin for whatever his plan was."
"I'll explain later," I promise her. "We need to figure out how we're to get out of here."
The cage drops another foot and the dragon unhinges its fire. It fills the cage with the inferno, the bars beating red like an iron heart as the beast pumps its blaze into the metal. He cooks the rock and water of the cavern like we are in some great oven. Something tiny drops into the water beside us. Considering this is an enclosed cavern, I do not think it is rain.
"The metal's melting off the cage," Rose says. "I have an uncle who deals with dragons spells like this. We broke the holding charm by coming into the room. It can get out once it melts the bars. What is it?"
I shake my head. "This is an enclosed cavern, right?" I ask her.
"Of course it's enclosed, Carina. We're five levels down!"
I give her a look. "Where did all this water come from?
Her panicked breathing quiets for a moment as she looks at me.
"It's going somewhere," she realized. She brings out her wand from her pocket.
"Ah…Rose…"
"It's alright," she assures me, grabbing my hand. "I can do it now. I know I can."
I nod and squeeze her hand right back as drops of liquid metal rain down around us. One catches at the back of my ear and I yelp. She brings the wand up to her face and closes her eyes.
"GUIDE ME!" she shouts, slashing her wand down through the water. A line forms from her wand and we shoot through the water like a golden snitch.