A/N: Sorry for the wait.
Love-Fiction-2019: Hope you like this one :)
Chapter 19: The Lost Diadem
Unedited...
"Okay, someone else come up with any brilliant ideas, yet?!" barked Isabella, panting and wheezing and almost dissolving into tears now. And what's worse, the boys weren't doing any better, either, because the teens would have spent at least an hour in this place and yet, didn't seem to have 'gone' anywhere at all!
Her legs felt numb and worn out as it plodded on and on in this never-ending maze of a castle with all of its mind-bending illusions. The Magic of it all was so great that no matter how many stairs they took, whichever way they turned, they never seemed to move an INCH off of where they stood! And to make matters worse, the mirrors that hung in every wall and every corner around them only threw them into a deeper state of delusion, enough to drive anyone crazy.
Frustration and desperation were all that they were left with now as they trudged on and on to no BLOODY avail!
"I mean!" started Sirius, sounding about ready to pull all his hair out now. James and Isabella immediately exchanged glances of horror as they watched Sirius have yet another one of his iconic meltdowns. "We fought them bloody lichs... most valiantly—"
"Good Godric, make him stop—" mumbled a frustrated James.
"—almost DIED in that piss-ridden ship—"
"—hooow?" Isabella sobbed in James's direction.
"—almost broke BOTH my arms trying to hold that stupid wheel, found the damned locket—"
"—would punching him in the face help?!" Peter hysterically suggested.
"—only to end up locked away in this... this... bottomless... cock-spewing... SNAKE PIT?"
Isabella eyebrows knitted in disbelief. "Did he just say 'cock-spewing'?" she asked before she could stop herself.
James shrugged lifelessly. "Yeah, reckon his filter's wearing off... In his defense, though, this is the longest we've been around a girl and there's only so many hours we can go without swearing!" he smirked.
Sirius, meanwhile, continued to baboon around in the back, as if the flood gates to some of his choicest vocabulary had finally burst open. "Bollocks! Pool. Of. FUCK! Gone to cock! It's all gone to COCK!" he kicked at the air and pinched the bridge of his nose in the most dramatic fashion ever.
James, Peter and Isabella simply stared back at his animated profile, if not slightly amused at how much of a drama queen Sirius actually was. Nobody even had the energy to tell him off because, frankly, this was the most frustrated they had ever been in their whole life! And even as Isabella acknowledged that fact, her stomach growled ravenously. How could she think about food at a time like this?!
"I can't walk anymore!" she sat down in front of the mirror that had mysteriously kept appearing on their left no matter how far they walked away from it. "We're stuck. Properly stuck! We're never getting out of here, are we?" she cried, her voice barely above a whisper as she eyed the eerie setup of this ancient castle. Everywhere she turned, all she ever saw was the blackness of death because, she was confident no path EVER would lead its traveller in the right direction, only to trap them in forever...
"I want Moony!" bawled Sirius, collapsing next to Isabella too and sulking in the most annoying way possible. "We're complete tosspots without our Moon, aren't we?! I am going back!"
"What? NO!" Peter and James yelled at the same time.
Sirius raised an eyebrow. "No?!" he challenged them confidently.
"Yes, NO, you lazy sod! Get up!" said Peter through gritted teeth and dragging Sirius up to his feet by his collar. "YOU dragged me into this mess against my will, but now that I'm here, I'm finishing what we started! We're not leaving without those rotten heirlooms, not on my watch!" he said bossily and wagged a dangerous finger at Sirius's face. "And we're not leaving this place without Lily!" he added reassuringly to James.
Sirius scoffed. "No, Peter, YOU are not leaving this place without her. I, fortunately, do not care enough about Grumpy nor am I in 'LOVE' with her to make such idiotic promises!" Sirius spluttered back pettishly.
"Honestly, Pads?" James asked.
"Most certainly! Besides, serves her right for every time she refused to do my homework!" he added with a flinch. Isabella had to do everything in her power to not roll her eyes at the over-sized baby, but before she could even blink, Sirius had grabbed her by the hand. "So long and haffun in this shit hole, then! I'll see you two arse-fucks on the other side. C'mon on, Iz!" he said, tugging her up to her feet too.
Peter surveyed them for a second before his eyebrows suddenly disappeared into his hair. "You just want to go back to SNOGGING Williams, don't you?!" he gasped, gaping widely in disbelief.
Sirius merely cocked an arrogant eyebrow. "Yeah, I'd be jealous too, if I were you," he shot out. And this time, Isabella did roll her eyes, long and wide.
She waved off Peter's shock immediately. "Oh, for blinking heck's sake, Pete, like I'm ever leaving with this goose!" Isabella muttered.
Sirius gasped and held his chest in mock shock. "Did you just bail on me?"
"You're mad if you think I'd leave without Lily!" Isabella said, shrugging matter-of-factly.
"YOU DID NOT JUST—"
"Pads, shut it!" screamed James, making three heads swivel in his direction. He was breathing heavily, but his eyes were fixated on the mirror in front of him, an odd expression etched across his features. It was almost as if he was having a revelation but was too mind-blown-dumbfounded to form words just yet...
Sirius frowned. "What's happened?" he muttered, his tone shifting immediately from petulant stupidity to wolf-like alertness. "Prongs..." he said, shaking him lightly by his shoulder.
"I... I think I know what's wrong with this place," said finally James, still refusing to take his eyes off the mirror.
Exchanging nervous looks with one another, the other three gathered around him and peered curiously into the beautifully carved marble mirror in front of them. And no matter how hard she looked, all she ever saw was her own reflection, staring back with an expression of gripped fear and anxiety etched across her face... Nothing jaw-dropping or astounding whatsoever came to mind...
"What are we looking at?" she asked, screwing her eyes in concentration till she almost gave herself a nosebleed.
Instead of replying, however, she saw James merely smirk at his own reflection and pocket his hands lazily, as if this world didn't—not one bit—deserve a genius like him.
"Er... Mate, this is when you actually say something?" Sirius offered after what seemed like forever.
James graced him with a slide glance at him, still sporting a look of triumph in his face. "The Claws were geniuses," he began, pushing his glasses up his nose and turning back to the mirror. "And they knew EXACTLY how to play with your mind. They knew their army wasn't as vast as the Slytherins or as great as the Gryffindors, nor as assiduous as the Puffs. But, if they still had to thrive, the only way they could it was by getting into their enemies' minds and messing with it."
Peter blinked wildly from Sirius's other side. "I... Think we already... Know that?" he said, speaking very slowly, his voice dripping with sarcasm.
James shot him a playful death-glare. "They bewitched the whole place to form a riddle..." he said, and winked at him. "This castle is all jumbled up and it's up to us to put it back in place to get to our destination," he said.
"And how do we do that?" asked Peter.
"Using these mirrors."
His words almost slapped her awake.
OF COURSE! That's why they weren't getting ANYWHERE, because, without their knowledge, they kept walking in circles, in the same corridor that was reflected off in several different angles and ways across this castle! Dumbfounded beyond words, she gazed dazedly at the hundreds of differently shaped mirrors that hung all around them, each carved beautifully and lavishly in their own way, some gilded, some heavily adorned, some flowery, and still some just plain and simple, but grand nonetheless...
"How did you work that out?!" she asked (practically screamed), beaming in James's direction, who merely shrugged and bit a smile that tugged at the corner of his lips—"I thought like Lily..."
...
Isabella knew a LOT of time had passed by now, because whatever little light trickled in through an odd window here and there was now ruby-red in colour. The sun was setting already and they needed to hurry up—desperately...
The four of them had spent more than an hour frantically trying to analyse the structure of the castle and painstakingly fit the pieces together in their minds. The castle was so high and so jumbled up and held SO MANY MIRRORS that it was practically impossible to choose the right right set of mirrors from across the length and breadth of the walls to understand which four of five would accurately match to form a meaningful structure... The revelation had Isabella nursing a massive headache at the end of it all. And the more she looked at the mirrors, the more she was convinced that they were NEVER going to achieve this... There was NO WAY they were going to accurately solve the puzzle, and that only meant one thing—they were never going to actually return to Hogwarts or the life they had left behind...
Finally, after what seemed to have been forever, James seemed convinced of four mirrors in odd locations across the castle to be the ones that needed to face each other for their destination. Isabella was supremely unconvinced, but James's odd certainty made her trust him blindly—there was that look in his eyes that screamed confidence and no one, not even Dumbledore, would contest James's opinion every time this particular look hung about his eyes.
"Okay, positions everyone," James muttered feverishly, standing in front of a silver mirror at the lowest level.
Isabella was at a level several stories higher than James and exactly perpendicular to him. Sirius and Peter were at the very top, one standing upside-down and the other seemingly inside-out! And if James's calculations were right, all four of them had to move at the same time and at the SAME SPEED to successfully lock their mirrors in the precisest of positions for a coherent path to eventually open up. There was absolutely NO room for error whatsoever, because the tiniest of slips could send the whole place into a whole new jumble altogether and there was NO WAY they could work it all out from scratch all over again.
"Precision is key," James muttered once again. "It'd be disastrous if one of us got anxious and moved wrongly, you hear me?" he called out authoritatively, only to receive an impatient sigh from Sirius. "I'm not joking, Pads, I'd be especially livid if you lads muck around!"
"Don't tempt me to kick you in the nuts," Sirius called out, goading him to get down to business already.
"On my count then!" called James, gripping the side of his mirror as tightly as possible. Isabella saw Sirius and Peter visibly stiffen in their spots. Sweating profusely and almost losing all sensation in her hands, Isabella looked herself in the eye and geared up for the task—she wasn't going to let her friends down, not now...
"On the count of three!" James wheezed.
Almost trembling on the spot, Isabella gingerly took the large, extremely heavy mirror in her hands.
"One..."
"Easy!" called out Sirius from above. Isabella's breaths were coming out in short rags now and she was almost asthmatic. And even as she stood there stalk-like, on high alert waiting for James, she heard Sirius once again. "Izzy, you alright down there?"
An odd warmth washed over her when she heard that, instantly transporting her back several hours ago earlier today when his lips had been on hers—she quickly shook the image off her mind. "I am!" she called back.
"Good girl," he said, smiling broadly. "Now help me get us out of here, babe..." he added cheekily.
Isabella rolled her eyes exasperatedly, but she was smiling nevertheless.
"Two..." said James, a bit more sternly now, as if beckoning Sirius to come back to Earth.
James and Isabella exchanged glances. "THREE!" he cried.
Almost at once a loud creaking resounded all around them as everyone started moving their mirrors in the pre-discussed directions. It was almost like clockwork as four mirrors, held by four young teens, turned around at the same time and in the same speed, prompting a cascade of change to the castle around them.
It took Isabella's breath away, when she realised the mirrors was causing the whole space to move around in the most jaw-dropping way possible! Almost as if four different building blocks were turning and moving around in perfect sync to fall into their correct slots and form a meaningful structure, the mirrors in each of their hand helped move entire sections of the castle.
And in all her panic, the one thing that kept her slow and steady was Sirius's constant chants from above. "Easy... Easy... Easy... Almost there... Nice and slow everyone..." he wheezed and it was evident from his voice that the mirror in his hand was particularly heavy.
Isabella's hands had turned a ghostly white now and was shaking uncontrollably from the weight of her large mirror too.
"Nice and slow... That's it... Keep at it, everyone..."
Excitement levels were at an all-time high now as the four different blocks continued to move in perfect sync and find each other in the accurate slots. "Almost there! Almost there! Slow and steady, company!" roared Sirius.
"Any second now!" screamed James
BANG!
Before Isabella even knew what was happening a blinding light had stung her eyes followed by a loud clang, enough to rip their ears open! The whole place lit up and all Isabella could ever see for a whole thirty seconds was just white hot light that made her eyes water.
"Did we fix it?" asked Peter from somewhere.
Squinting wildly, she opened her eyes once more and her jaw nearly dropped to the floor!
Despite the illusory palinopsia, she could clearly make out the outlines of three boys standing ahead facing her with a mirror in their hands. But what truly knocked her cold was the fact that everything they had seen for the last several hours had disappeared entirely only to get replaced by a long black, dimly lit corridor with beautiful carvings on the walls from the floor to the ceiling, for as far as the eye could see. And if James's calculations were right, this passage most definitely ought to lead them to Lily and their next heirloom...
"This is the most incredible thing I've ever seen..." James muttered from Isabella's left. Gingerly placing the mirror back in the wall, Isabella looked around and took in the sight once more. This truly was the greatest form of Magic she had ever seen.
"Which way, Prongs?" asked Sirius, surveying the long tunnel-like passage.
James examined the carvings on the walls as did the rest of them. Almost all of the stone carvings depicted—in one form or the other—the solving of a puzzle. But even as Isabella's eyes traced the stick-figure carvings of long-ago, her eyes suddenly fell on something that looked like the face of an ancient queen wearing a spectacular crown, bejeweled and carved most intricately, facing one end of the tunnel. The expression on her eyes oddly seemed to convey a deep meaning that Isabella somehow knew had to do something with regards to their hunt.
"This way, I think," she said, pointing in the direction of the face carving on the wall. "It almost looks like she's watching a game of chess in progress, doesn't it?" she added with an excited smile. "Come on!" she beckoned at them and nervously took off in a run towards the other of the passage, the boys following closely behind.
Their footsteps echoed all around them most eerily, making this mission seem that much more dangerous than it already was! On and on they ran down the long, never-ending passage.
"Are you sure we're heading in the right direction?" wheezed Peter.
Before the others could even respond, the passage took a sudden, sharp turn and a MASSIVE square opening welcomed them, revealing the an even bigger chamber that lay beyond.
Isabella's eyes widened at the sight as they entered the ginormous circular chamber with a colossal glass dome on top that let in a spine-chilling blue light that somehow put them all in a disquieted state. But what nearly brought tears to Isabella's eyes, however, was what lay at the centre of this chamber: a massive, giant-scaled, tri-dimensional chess board that rose from the floor to the ceiling, distributing sixty-four squares onto separate floating platforms in a hierarchy of spatial levels. And somewhere between the middle and the top platforms stood a red-haired girl, stalk-still and holding a focus as that of an eagle, unperturbed and unmoved by their arrival, even as her brain worked at 200 kilometers an hour, mentally assessing and deciphering her next move. She was playing for the White side.
The four teens simply watched her in awe, knowing fully well that they had walked in at the most crucial phase of the game.
At the foot of the board, right next to Isabella, stood Lily's carry-on bag.
"Is this going to take a while?" Peter whispered solemnly.
"It looks like it," James replied, not even bothering to look at him.
Isabella held her breath and watched Lily still contemplating her move when she registered Peter shifting and moving over to her other side. Mutely, he knelt down and picked up Lily's bag. Giving the three of them one look of pure admiration, he drew his wand out and pulled out what looked like a tiny glass container. Isabella was so engrossed in trying to understand where the game was at and whose side was it turning towards that she didn't realise the depth of Peter's actions. With just a split second to spare, Isabella tore her eyes away from the game and swiveled her head towards Peter just in time to see him slam his hand on the Wigentree terrarium case.
Time stopped.
Isabella's eyes widened in shock and opened her mouth to yell his name, but there was only enough time to see him smile and wave at her before getting sucked into a TINY hole with a loud pop!
Horror and panic shot up her spine as she realised what had happened.
"She's in a terrible spot, mate," breathed Sirius, almost feverishly.
"I know..." said James, sounding even more terror-stricken than Sirius. "I mean, the correct line is Bc1, positionally, if Black trades, his defender of the dark squares is gone. The crucial and obvious line is Bd6..."
"Exactly... But if she moves to b4, the follow-up tactics could potentially favour White. And Black can't take on b4..."
"No, Black can't, because then c7 wins material and Black would be losing a LOT..."
James sighed heavily. "The obvious move is b4..." he said, and held his breath. "Come on, Lily..." he whispered to himself. "The follow-up WILL pay off, give up that pawn for free already!"
The two of them had obviously not yet realised what had happened a second ago with Peter, as they watched with bated breath at what Lily had decided.
Leaning on to the giant Bishop piece she was sharing her space with, she opened her mouth and cried, "Pawn to b4!"
The wash of relief that flooded on to the boys' faces was priceless as they watched the giant piece move forward and take its position. Panting and sighing as if they'd run a marathon, the two of them broke into grins and looked towards Isabella only to realise something even more terrible had happened...
"He's gone," she announced and jerked her head towards Lily's bag. "Peter... He's gone to Elvedoria... All alone."
The dread that descended on their faces was beyond words.
...
"HE'S OUT OF HIS MIND!" James whisper-yelled, beside himself with rage. "What was he THINKING?!"
"I don't know! He just walked over and disappeared into the damn glass case!" she hissed back, overcome with fear herself. "You think he'll be alright?"
Sirius sighed frustratedly. "Well, I reckon he would considering he's the best among us in Herbology—"
"—That doesn't mean ANYTHING!" growled James even as they heard Lily scream another move in the back. The three of swung around and held their breath one more time. Every move she made felt like a dance between life and death for some reason. A second later, however, the boys must have thought it was a brilliant move because they relaxed immediately. "Peter's an idiot," James declared.
"You bet he is. Merlin's beard, I hope he comes back in one piece!" Sirius said, shuddering a little.
The three of them had spent yet another hour oscillating between panicking for Lily and panicking for Peter every now and then. Isabella was tired. She wanted this whole thing to be over and return to her soft bed already. This was NOT something a bunch of fifteen-year-old's should be concerned with, not one bit.
"James, look," Sirius suddenly said, nudging him in the ribs, watching the Black make its move. "Oh my god, d'you think—"
"NO WAY!" James hissed, his eyes the size of tennis balls now. "Merlin's beard, that's it, this is it!" he cried, going berserk with joy. "You've done it! Go for it, Lily, GO FOR THE KILL!" he screamed, finally managing to break her focus and turn around to look at them.
It was as if she hadn't even realised she had company in all this time... And not a second after revelation hit, she burst into tears, finally allowing herself to relax and letting go of the control she had kept going for nearly three hours! It broke Isabella's heart to see Lily bawl her eyes out in joy at the sight of her friends that she felt her eyes get misty as well.
"You've done it..." James repeated, gushing with awe and admiration for her. "Queen to f3. Finish it..." he whispered even as another fat tear rolled down her cheek.
Sighing heavily, she turned back to the game and squared her shoulders. Isabella barely heard her when Lily said, "Queen to f3."
Everything from that second felt like a dream as she watched the Queen float up to the topmost slab, with nothing but vengeance in her eyes. It was almost as if that lifeless piece of rock, too, knew that the game had ended, that the Black King had no choice but to give in.
"Checkmate," Lily breathed, as the White Queen edged closer to the Black King. All the other black and white pieces around Lily turned around to face the execution. The three teens watched on from below, and held their breaths, as if they expected to see something grand and out of this world to happen as soon the White Queen destroyed her nemesis.
Much to their surprise, quite the opposite happened: the White Queen simply stepped in front of the Black King and put her hands out instead.
And soon enough, they watched him bow out and make way for the Black Queen who ignored her white counterpart and walked straight towards a terrified Lily. Putting her hands up on her head, she serenely picked up her pristine blue tiara, brought it forwards and placed it in her hand—the lost diadem of Ravenclaw.
...
The four of them were sat on the floor, leaning against the deep blue walls of the massive chamber, too grubby and far too tired to talk or even worry about the other two heirlooms and about Peter. After all that, the four of them simply needed to say nothing and do nothing and simply sit just for a little while.
Lily stared at the tiara and a tiny tear trickled down her eyes once again.
"I hope all this was worth it at the end..." she whispered. "You know... All this trouble meant something at the end of the day... Dumbledore's always about the 'Greater Good'. I hope this was one of those things."
"Nothing's worth it if Peter doesn't return from wherever he's gone to," Sirius replied grimly. "He was foolish and stupendously dense to have taken off like that! I'm never forgiving him if something were to happen to him in there..."
"NOTHING'S going to happen to him, he's Wormtail!" James spat out. "He gets out ANY situation, that's why he's the best of the lot! He's the best Marauder!" he added bitterly. "We will wait till he comes back, because HE WILL! He has to."
"But James, we still have to find Gryffindor's heirloom," said Isabella, almost on the verge of tears herself. "I don't want to sound selfish, but we still need to move forward..." she said, her lips quivering uncontrollably, "...we still need to finish the task. Time's ticking."
"I'm not going anywhere without Peter," James replied curtly. "I will wait here forever if I have to."
"James..."
"No, it's fine," Sirius cut her in. "Izzy is right, we need to find the fourth heirloom too, James, so, why don't you wait here for Peter while the rest of us go to Woldorin? Sound about right?"
James thought over it for a second before nodding slowly in Sirius's direction. "Yeah, we could do that. I will wait here for Wormy."
"I'll wait with you," Lily said almost immediately. "You shouldn't be here all alone, that's... stupidity," she added even as a slight colour rose up her face.
Sirius nodded solemnly and rose to his feet. "Take care of each other, yeah?" he said, pulling James up by his hand and giving him a quick rap on the back. "Also, if it takes us too long..."
"Padfoot—"
"—Just go back to Hogwarts with Peter, we will be RIGHT behind you!"
"I. Leave. With. You," James said firmly. Sirius merely rolled his eyes but gave in; there was no arguing with James for sure.
Taking that as her cue, Isabella levitated the dagger from Lily's bag and held it up in front of her and Sirius. "We'll be back soon," she said, looking at Lily specifically, but in all honesty, she was almost as good as dead by now. And almost as if Sirius read her mind, he mutely grabbed her hand and without even thinking slammed it on the floating dagger and in the blink of an eye, the two of them had got sucked into yet another painful tube and disapparated with a loud Pop!
An earth-shattering silence followed their exit, throwing Lily and James into a void that could have smothered a dragon...
The two of them lingered on and watched the space where their friends had stood up until a second ago, whilst fully being aware of the gurgling tension that abounded between them. For Lily, at least, she thought James and her had shared a particularly warm moment right before she had made the final move on the slab several feet above the ground. She vividly remembered their eyes meeting and the mutual feeling of victory, admiration and relief that they had felt for one another in that split second. It had been priceless... Never before had she felt that sort of genuine connection with anyone else other than Isabella until this second, and what made it even more real was the tiny little tear of joy that had rolled down the side of his face when he had cried, 'Queen to f3. Finish it!' She knew in that moment that she had made a grave error in misjudging him for so many years and the guilt nearly consumed her whole.
Sighing heavily, she fidgeted with her sweater before bravely turning to face him only to find him broiling in pettishness that would have earned him a hearty scoff from her old-self.
Fully avoiding eye-contact with her, he swiftly turned around and went back to sulking in his corner by the wall, waiting for Peter, while Lily simply stood there and took in his petulance with a slight shake of her head. She understood him just as much as she DIDN'T understand him. And there was this other problem as well: she didn't quite understand herself about how she felt about him, making it that much worse.
Firmly making up her mind, she took two steps and settled down next to him by the wall, deliberately sitting a lot closer than she would have ever dreamed in all her life—perhaps it was her way of letting him know that she had finally accepted him for who he truly was. James visibly shifted uneasily next to her, apparently more than aware of her proximity to him too.
"Thank you," she muttered, looking straight ahead, but meaning every syllable that formed those two words.
James froze a little and turned his head just a little towards her, seeming mildly confused. She noted how shallow his breaths were and her face automatically turned a deep shade of magenta for some reason. "What for?" she heard him say.
"For being a good friend," she said, still stubbornly looking straight ahead. "We couldn't have done any of this without you..."
He tossed that statement in his head for a second before nodding curtly. "Likewise."
A tensed silence followed that exchange.
"Er... How did you manage to navigate through that mess down there?" James asked quietly and Lily knew immediately that he had been itching to ask her about this for sometime now.
Trying very hard not to smile, she screwed her face up to form a solemn expression and said, "Why, light, of course."
James actually turned around to face her this time. "'Scuse me?"
"You analyse which mirrors are stationed at what angles and shine your light at the right ones for it to reflect off of the others and move the jumbled pieces around, obviously. Why, isn't that how you lot did it too?" she asked, only to find him staring back dumbfoundedly and almost as if he was kicking himself for not thinking of THAT. "You did something else?" she asked, wildly curious now.
"W—yeah, no, that... That was exactly how we did it too, of course! Anyone with brains would know that!" he scoffed, and shrugged arrogantly—except he didn't sound convincing at all...
They fell silent once more.
"Do you know what day today is?" Lily suddenly asked after several minutes.
James paused almost immediately. Without a word, he quickly pulled out his oddly-shaped hour glass with several markings all over it and squinted at the sand level, before his eyes flew open. Stiffening slightly, he kept his eyes trained on his shoes before he spoke again.
"Happy birthday..."