Chapter 25 – The Secret Lair
All four of them stood in a shocked silence at James' words but it was eventually Polly who spoke first.
"That settles it. We need to find a teacher. Now," she said with urgency.
"Yeah she's right," Noah added, snapping out of his shocked state. "Let's go."
Polly, Noah and Edward began walking back down the corridor but James remained where he was, still listening to the voice only he could hear.
"Come on James we need to go get help," Noah said, noticing his friend wasn't following them.
"It's calling me," James said dreamily as he looked around the corridor for the source of the voice, like he was in some kind of trance.
"What are you talking about? We need to get out of here and let the teachers deal with it now," Noah protested.
James finally turned to Noah. "It's telling me I need to come to it or it will kill the Mudblood."
"Are you serious? You'll probably be killed too," Noah said with genuine fear in his voice.
"You two can stay an argue, I'm going to get help," Polly said, not wanting to waste time when someone's life was at risk and she began to head off again with Edward at her side.
But as soon as she turned the corner she let out a gasp of shock. "What the hell?"
James and Noah quickly went to her, thinking she was in danger but as they turned the corner they saw Polly and Edward facing a brick wall. Polly was now running her hands over the wall and it took James and Noah a second to realise that the wall hadn't been there before.
"I think someone doesn't want us to get help," James noted with their way out now blocked.
"So what do we do?" Edward asked, wishing he hadn't bothered to come find James now as he had no idea what sort of danger he'd put himself in.
"We follow the voice," James said and the other three looked at him in shock and dread.
"You're joking right?" Polly asked in astonishment. "You can go if you want but I'm staying right here."
"Fine," James said, not wanting to waste any more time discussing it.
"James is right. Someone is in danger and if we can't get help then we'll need to help them ourselves. I'm going with James," Noah said, taking a step closer to his friend to show his decision.
"Me too," Edward added, stepping over to the boys. "Greta is my friend despite what she may or may not have done. She won't listen to you two but I may be able to talk some sense into her."
James smiled at Edward, glad to have another person on his side but surprised it was a Slytherin who until today only had animosity for him.
"You three are crazy. You're going to get yourselves killed," Polly ranted as she crossed her arms to reiterate her stance that she wasn't going anywhere with them.
"Come on lets go," James said and turned to leave with Noah and Edward with him as they headed back down the corridor and James tried to listen to hear where the voice was directing him to go.
"Wait!" Polly shouted as she caught up to them a few moments later.
"Decided to come along after all?" Noah asked as he stopped to wait for her to catch up.
"You three are hardly the most competent at magic. You need a skilled witch if you're to stand any hope of surviving," Polly said like she was bragging.
As much as James found Polly annoying and big headed, he had to admit to himself that he was glad she was with him now.
They continued down the corridors, which were dark until they approached and then torches mounted on the walls magically lighted, illuminating their way. Every now and then James would stop and listen to make sure they were going the right way before he moved on again. Eventually they came to some stairs, which the voice was telling James to go down them, and he recognised them from his dream.
"This is definitely where I came before," James said as he stood at the top of the stairs and looked back to make sure the others still seemed eager to follow him but no one expressed any concerns that they weren't and James started heading down.
At the bottom the quartet continued along the corridor before turning down one and then another when suddenly James stopped once again with the others nearly crashing into the back of him. Noah could see over James' shoulder as to why he stopped and he shuddered.
"What's wrong?" Polly said, sensing something wasn't right and she moved past Noah to see for herself.
The floor ahead of them was slithering with a carpet of hundreds of live snakes, which were crawling and sliding all over each other. Noah thought he was going to be sick and Edward who was at the back of the group had still yet to see what the holdup was.
"Maybe we should go another way," Noah suggested, not wanting in the slightest to wade through the snakes.
"Why what's the problem?" Edward asked, still unable to see.
Noah moved aside to give him a better view and Edward went as white as a sheet as he saw the gruesome scene.
"I agree with Noah, let's find another way," Edward said, supressing the urge to vomit as well.
"No the voice is telling me to go this way," James said, looking back at the rest of them. "If you don't want to follow you don't have to."
James turned back to the sea of snakes and tentatively lifted his right foot, extended it and carefully brought it down onto a very small gap amongst the gyrating creatures in front of him. The others watched with trepidation knowing that if they were to continue on with James they would have to do the same.
James continued to cautiously step through the snakes, every now and then having one crawl over his stationary foot but he rested the urge the shake his foot and try and sling it off as he'd only risk his own balance and most likely end up face first amongst the snakes which was a much worse prospect.
Behind him Noah had started the perilous walk, trying to step in the same places James had as Polly now started through the snakes too.
James tried his best to not focus on the snakes and instead think of them as something harmless like pieces of rope or very large jelly snakes like he bought from the sweet shop.
Eventually the snakes started to thin out and stepping amongst them became easier until James had cleared them all. He turned around and gave encouragement to his friends who had all decided to follow him.
"You're nearly there, just focus on me," he called back and soon Noah was by his side, relieved he had made it.
James could see Polly had stopped with a look of horror on her face.
"What's up Polly? You're doing so well," James shouted back to her.
She didn't reply but James could see by the look of fear on her face something was up so he looked down towards the floor where she was standing when he saw a huge snake that had wrapped itself around Polly's leg.
"Don't move, James shouted, trying to remain calm and not panic Polly anymore.
Noah too had now spotted the snake which was moving its way up Polly's leg.
"What do we do?" Noah furiously asked.
"Polly can you get your wand?" James asked but all Polly could do was shake her head, the rest of her body was literally frozen in fear.
Without waiting a second longer James reached for his own wand.
"What are you going to do?" Noah asked, though he knew the answer already and he didn't like it.
James pointed his wand at the snake that had now wrapped itself all the way around to the top of Polly's leg.
"But if you miss and hit her she'll fall into the snakes. You're not that good at Charms," warned Noah and James was ungrateful for the vote of no confidence.
"I'm much better than I was," James said, really hoping that was true. "Polly just stay as still as possible."
Polly furiously shook her head, knowing exactly what James was about to do but she could also feel the snake starting to move around her waist and she closed her eyes.
James counted to three in his head, allowing a few extra seconds to compose himself.
"Stupefy!" he shouted and a red streek of light shot from his wand, striking the snake's body, rendering it unconscious.
The snake began to go limp and its grip on Polly slackened until it fell to the floor, amongst the many other snakes, which still slithered around on the ground furiously.
"Nice shot," Noah said, patting James on the pack and Polly finally opened her eyes and looked like she was about to faint from the shock of it all.
"Come on Polly you're nearly there," James said as Polly finally took another step with Edward following behind her, even more apprehensive now in case a snake started to crawl up him too.
When Polly made it to the other side she almost collapsed into James and Noah, who held out their hands to help her with the last step.
"Thanks," Polly rasped, her voice sounding week, having still not composed herself after the ordeal as she looked at James. "That was pretty good wand work."
"Just 'pretty good'?" James joked with a smug smile.
Polly straightened herself up and seemed to finally regain her composure. "For you it was good but I could have done better," Polly said haughtily before striding off as Edward finished traversing the snakes.
James watched Polly in disbelief and was about to say something when Noah stopped him.
"That's as close as you'll probably get to a compliment from her, I'd just take it if I were you," Noah said and James had to agree, plus he had bigger issues right now.
James strode down the corridor in front of the others and started leading the way again, listening to the voice guiding him. After a few more turns he finally stopped.
"I think we're here," James said but didn't sound completely convinced.
"But there's nothing here," Polly noted, looking up and down the corridor and seeing only stone walls.
And there was nothing there. No doorways, no portraits, no staircases. Nothing.
"This is where the voice led me," James said, knowing they had to be in the right place and as if on cue the bricks in the walls to their right suddenly began to vibrate and move, forming the shape of two large stone doors.
The four of them stood looking at the doors with stunned expressions on their faces.
"Should we knock?" Noah said, breaking the silence.
James stepped towards the doors and hesitated before pushing on the left door with both his hands. It was heavy and took a lot of effort to just get it to move a little before Noah came up beside him and pushed too and the door began to slide open.
As soon as the door was open they were hit by a cold breeze emitting from the room that gave James and Noah goosebumps.
James peered in but it was dark. He grabbed his wand and lit it and moved cautiously into the room. Noah, Polly and Edward lit their wands also and followed James in.
From the light of their four wands they could now see the room more clearly. Hanging from the ceiling was a very old, medieval looking metal chandelier, with unlit candles that seemed to have been burnt down to almost nothing. On the right wall there was a large stone fireplace and as with the chandelier it was also unlit but on the hearth were the remains of a long since extinguished fire. A lone armchair was positioned towards the fire and there were bookcases around the room filled with books and ornaments and everything was covered in a thick layer of dust and cobwebs. At the back of the room was another door, this time made of wood.
"What is this place?" Noah asked as James stepped around the room and inspected some of the books on the shelves.
"Some sort of study?" James guessed as Polly walked over to the fire place and noticed on the mantlepiece were engraved the letters 'SS'.
As Polly looked closer she realised the letters were in fact two snakes carved into the wood.
"I think this is Salazar Slytherin's living quarters," Polly said as she looked around the room once more.
"What? The Hogwarts' founder?" Noah said in surprise.
"Yes," Polly replied. "I heard that when he left he sealed them up so no one else could come in here. They've supposedly been lost for hundreds of years."
James was about to say Polly was probably right when all of a sudden there was a loud bang as the stone door they had entered by slammed shut.
Edward and Noah immediately ran to the door to see if they could open it again but it was no use. It wouldn't budge.
"I guess we go this way then," James said as he moved towards the wooden door and tried the handle. It was unlocked. He pushed open the door, which was stiff, most probably because it didn't seem to have been used much for many, many years.
James lifted his wand to get a better view of the next room, not waiting for the others as he cautiously stepped in but before his friends could enter too, the door like the other one slammed shut behind him. James immediately tried the door but it was now locked and he could hear his friends on the other side trying furiously just as hard as he was to open it as they pounded on the door.
"James!" Noah shouted through the door. "Are you OK?"
"Yes I'm fine. I think I'm meant to go on alone," James replied taking a deep breath as he turned to face the room again.
"Don't be stupid it's too dangerous on your own," Polly shouted through to him as Noah still frantically tried to open the door.
"Look just try and get this door and the one back into the corridor open," James said as he scanned the room. "I'm going to carry on. If it's taken a muggle-born like it said it has then they need my help,"
"James!" Noah shouted but he got no reply, James was already moving on through the next room.
This room like the last had lots of bookshelves that were filled to the brim. There was another unlit fireplace and a small desk and chair and another door at the back of the room. Seeing nothing else of interest there, James headed straight for the door. It was unlocked and he went through it.
As soon as James held up his wand in the next room he could tell it was a lot bigger than the other two as the light from his wand barely penetrated the darkness of its vastness. Plus as he stepped inside the sound of his footsteps on the stone floor echoed continuously. It was like he was in some sort of cavern. He took another step forward when suddenly two torches that were hanging on the walls either side of him ignited, only the flames were eerily green, bathing the room in an ominous glow. There were stone archways going across the room but there seemed to be no furniture. Even the light from the two torches didn't penetrate all the way into the room but James could see something. Laying on the cold stone floor were what looked like two bodies. James instantly ran to them and as he got closer he could see one of the bodies was lying face up and realised it was Greta. The second body was face down and as James crouched down between them he wasted no time in turning the second body over. It was Seth Cooper.
At once James checked both bodies and was relieved to find they were both breathing.
"Seth wake up!" James said as he lifted Seth up and tried to shake him but he was unresponsive.
"He won't wake up yet," a voice called out and James immediately looked all around to see where it had come from.
It sounded different to the voice that had guided him there. This one seemed more real, like the person who had said it was in the room.
"Who are you?!" James shouted. "Show yourself!"
James listened as he heard footsteps in the darkness coming from the back of the room as more green flamed torches began to light along the walls and illuminate. James had to take a second look as he finally saw the figure walking towards him as he couldn't believe his eyes. It was a small girl with long black hair in school robes. It was Nancy Blunt.