Marik
The fourth room of the dungeon was thankfully much less hectic room than the last room had been. Three normal grey brick dungeon walls surrounded them on all sides as they entered. Inside this room there were only two things that stood out immediately. A large wooden desk sat in one of the room's corners. Atop of the desk were a large number of flasks, vials, cauldrons, and what looked like potions ingredients.
At the far edge of the room, on the fourth wall, was what looked like a large black curtain of magic inside a gateway, placed where the doors in the other rooms had been. The curtain was made out of a veil of flowing back magical energy that gave off an unwelcoming aura and sent cold shivers up his spine. The gateway was made out of a black obsidian-like stone.
"Now this room I like," Hermione said as she practically skipped over to the desk in the nearby corner and picked up a potions flask.
"Okay, so same deal as in the other rooms. Let's split up and look for anything that stands out and try to find some letters," Harry called out as he started to look around the room. Marik made a straight line for the black gateway.
The unwelcoming aura of the gateway only grew stronger the closer Marik got to it. He could hear what sounded like muffled whispers calling out to him from behind the curtain of magic with each step towards it. Their whispers sent shivers down his spine and raised the hair on his neck. There was a lot of magic here, and none of the magic felt like something he wanted to mess with. At the center of the top of gateway, surrounding the curtain, the obsidian formed into an archway. At the peak of the archway Marik could clearly make out three letters carved into the stone, l, r, l.
"I found our letters for this room," he shouted out as he walked away from the gateway, "and I don't think we should fuck around with this room. I get a bad vibe from that gateway and all the whispering coming from it gives me the shakes."
"What are the letters?" Harry asked as he walked over to the gateway.
"And what whispers?" Hermione asked as she joined Harry by the gateway.
"You can't hear the soft murmurs coming from the magic?" he asked, finding it difficult that Harry wasn't hearing what he was.
"I don't hear anything," Hermione replied, leaning his ear closer to the gateway.
"I hear them, I can't hear what they are saying though," Harry added.
"You both are crazy. I don't hear anything," Hermione said.
"Huh. . . maybe we both are going crazy from all the thinking. Anyways, the letters are l, r, and l."
"L, r, and l this time, huh. Hermione any ideas coming to mind?" Harry asked.
"I think it's obvious we have to brew a potion or something. In the story the Sorting Hat sees wizards brewing potions. Makes sense with what is provided in this room," Hermione answered.
"What ingredients are you seeing there?" Marik asked. If the room did have to do with brewing potions this would be Hermione's room to take charge in for sure.
"I'm seeing wormwood, sopophorus bean juice, mercury, roots of asphodel, octopus powder, leaves of the lily, onion juice, and lionfish scales," Hermione answered.
"So maybe we have to brew three potions that start with each letter with all of these ingredients," Harry suggested.
"Hmm. . . Can either of you think of any potions that make use of lionfish scales in their recipes? I can't," Hermione asked them. Marik wracked his brain for a few moments, trying to see what came to mind but nothing did.
"I got nothing," he admitted.
"Me either. Pepperup potions use scales of a thin fish but that's the only thing I can think of that even comes close," Harry replied.
"I get the hunch that they are here either to throw us off the trail with solving this puzzle, or they are to be used for something else entirely," Hermione said, thinking out loud.
"What else are lionfish scales used for?" he asked. He had never heard of them before.
"If I recall correctly they have magical properties sort of like a bezoar. If I'm remembering what Professor Snape told me they are used to treat patients who drink or are touched by the liquid death potion," Hermione answered.
"What about the gateway? Do you recognize anything with the gateway that could apply to a potion or recipe?" Harry asked Hermione.
"I've never heard of any gateway or potion to enter gateways before," Hermione responded.
"Scores of doors line my halls, Each with something special within their walls, The mystery should be one of your fears, What's left unsolved could end your years, When you find the missing piece, You should worry about yourself the least, Because when you look into the mirror who do you see, But of course it is I, your greatest enemy," he quoted the clue, hoping that they may hear something in its words.
"Hmm. . . maybe. . ." Hermione mumbled to herself.
"Come on, spill it!" he ordered as he watched the wheels spin in her head.
"It's a stretch, and a long one at that," Hermione replied.
"Better than nothing," Harry said.
"Well if we go off the "mystery should be one of your fears, what's left unsolved could end your years" part of the clue I have a possible idea. Both of the lines deal with death. The mystery of death, how, and when it will happen is almost one of everyone's greatest fears. And "end your years" is obviously a metaphor for death.
"The black veiled gateway instead of a door is another metaphor for death. Door's are associated with positives, like when a professor says "studying will open doors for you". Passing through a veil or a gateway is a way people describe someone passing away, like with the gateesy to hell and the veil of death," Hermione explained.
"So where are you going with all of this?" Harry asked the same question Marik was wondering. All this death talk combined with the aura of the room was dampening his spirits and making it hard to think.
"I'm getting there. Looking at these ingredients there is everything you need here to brew the liquid death potion. That is the only potion we have ever learned about that uses leaves of the lily in it. I think that there is just too many metaphors and symbols of death here for it to be a coincidence. I think the puzzle has something to do with death, and if we go by the riddle I'm assuming it has to do something with solving death," Hermione continued to explain.
"Solving death? What does that even mean?" he asked her.
"That I don't really know yet. But I'm confident it has something to do with the third and fourth lines of the clue," Hermione answered.
"Well liquid death starts with an l, so that part makes sense too," Harry added.
"What else could you brew with those ingredients that has to do with death?" Marik asked her.
"I don't know. . ." Hermione replied.
For what must have been longer than an hour the three of them just stood around the table staring at the ingredients before them thinking things over. Occasionally Harry would take a lap around the room to look for more clues or go over to the gateway to examine it further. None of it seemed to shed any light on solving this puzzle though. At the moment they were beat.
Hermione had a long list of potions written down on a piece of parchment and would angrily cross them out as she thought over their ingredients or effects. Marik was struggling to think of much at all. He was a good potions brewer, but nothing he thought of was something new that Hermione had not already written down and crossed off her list. This was not his room.
"I am an idiot!" Hermione shouted, throwing her parchment and quill onto the ground. Before either he or Harry could react Hermione had ingredients in her hands and was already throwing stuff into two of the nearby cauldrons.
"Explain?" he asked, trying to make sense of what she was adding into the cauldrons.
"I was right earlier when I said there was too many metaphors and symbols of death in this room to be a coincidence. However, I was wrong when I was thinking about everything only associating with death."
"I'm still lost," Harry replied.
"There are also symbols of life in this room. The other rooms had doors, this one has a gateway. A gate is what many religious people believe you pass through on your way to heaven. There is also a random jar of lionfish scales here. Lionfish scales aren't used in brewing potions. They are used, like I said before, to counter liquid death potions, thus giving life. We have to do exactly like I said before. We have to solve death." Marik was still clueless.
"Still not following," he admitted as Hermione began to stir one of the cauldrons counterclockwise.
"I'm sorry, my mind is rushing so fast I'm struggling to explain things. Basically, everything in this room is a symbol or metaphor for life and death. So with the letters we are given we have to create life and death. The first l is drinking the liquid death potion. The r is drinking a restoration potion. The second l is eating a lionfish scale," Hermione said, adding more ingredients to the cauldrons.
"How did you arrive at those potions and in that order?" Harry asked, still not sounding convinced.
"And you want us to drink liquid death?" he asked, feeling like Harry had missed that part of Hermione's explanation.
"Because it is the only path from death to life you can take with everything given in this room. We have to be able to pass through the veil, or death, and the gateway, life, to enter the next room. Liquid death will kill you if left untreated for a short time, What's left unsolved could end your years. Drinking a restoration potion and eating a lionfish scale after consumption of liquid death will cure the deadly effects," Hermione explained. Sounding much more confident in her answer this time around.
"Are you sure? I don't know how I feel about drinking liquid death on a hunch," he replied honestly. Hermione's explanation was still going a little over his head, but parts of it made a little sense.
"I'm positive. These both will take me close to an hour to brew. So both of you keep thinking of other possibilities in the meantime. I'm sure I'm right though," Hermione said.
Over the next hour he and Harry bounced other possibilities off each other while Hermione brewed the two potions but nothing they came up with sounded better than Hermione's plan. Every room in the dungeon was about passing through the door and Hermione's explanation made sense on helping them get through the gateway veil.
The longer they sat there waiting the more ancy Marik got for them to get out of the room. Thankfully, after exactly an hour, Hermione finished brewing the two potions.
"Okay, so I want to test this out first. I don't want us all drinking liquid death before we know it works," Harry said as Hermione poured the two potions out into vials.
"No Harry, I will go first. It was my idea and you don't get to be the hero every time. I promise I am right and everything will be okay." Before Harry could argue Hermione had already downed a flask of liquid death. Hermione's body immediately fell to the floor where it began convulsing.
"Marik grab the fucking lionfish scales!" Harry screamed out as he rushed to the table and grabbed a flask of restoration potion and began trying to pour it down Hermione's throat. "Open up, Hermione, please open up," Harry pleaded, his voice hollow and cracking. Thankfully Harry was able to force some of the restoration potion into Hermione's mouth and a lionfish scale quickly after that. After a few moments of eerie silence Hermione's body stopped convulsing and her eyes open. She looked fine, pale, but fine.
"If you ever do that again. . ." Was all Harry got out as he fell into Hermione's shoulders.
"I'm fine Harry," Marik heard Hermione whisper into his ear. They all just sat there in silence for a brief moment, no one wanting to say anything.
"Okay, we can't waste anymore time. I'm gonna try to walk through the gateway," Hermione said, pulling herself away from Harry and standing up. "If I make it through without problems both of you help the other drink their flasks. Come through quick and with your wand at the ready, we don't know what is in the next room so."
"Good luck," he told her, not sure what the right words to say were.
Hermione approached the gateway, and following a loud, audible gulp walked through it and disappeared.
"Well?" he asked after a few seconds of nothing happening.
"We don't have time to waste. I'd say it worked. Let's go," Harry ordered and sprinted over to the table. Marik helped Harry quickly down a flask of liquid death. Just as Hermione had done his body fell to the floor and Marik had to force the restoration potion and lionfish down his throat.
As soon as Harry seemed to return to normal Marik downed a flask of the liquid death. Thankfully, his body didn't react like Harry's and Hermione's had and he did not fall to the floor convulsing. He was able to down his flask of restoration potion and lionfish scales quickly. Once the last of the scales were swallowed he followed Harry as they bolted through the veil, and were swallowed into darkness.
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