Chapter 11 - Debt

It was pitch black. Tracey had lost all sensation. Was she still falling? She had no idea. She felt like she was on the verge of a panic attack, breathing heavily, except she couldn't hear anything. Well, that wasn't quite true. She could hear the distant crackling of torches, much like they had sounded just before, except somehow distorted, more apart. She looked around frantically. Where was she? Where had Iris gone?

Tracey gathered her courage and called out. Iris?

Tracey froze. Somehow, no sound had escaped her lips. She tried again; this time louder. Iris, where are you?

Nothing. She couldn't hear any sound coming from her. Not her voice, not her breath. With a sinking feeling of dread, she tried clapping her hands, only to yield no result either. It also didn't quite feel right. But she definitely wasn't deaf. She could hear the distant door creak, and the fading footsteps of whoever it had been that they had been hiding from.

Was this it? Was she dead? She should have known better than to follow Iris on one of her mad adventures. But somehow, she thought, she had expected death to be different. If there wasn't any light, why was there still sound? Why could she move, yet not make a noise herself?

There was a shimmer of light, somewhere ahead of her. Tracey stumbled forward, or at least she thought she was moving. It felt off. She squinted her eyes. Was this... the corridor? There was a splotch of light in front of her, a rift in the darkness, a small rectangular shape, that yielded some light. Now that she was close to it, she could also make out her own outline. But she couldn't see anything more than shades of black.

She gazed through the gap, trying to see something, anything, until suddenly, one of the torches went out. But curiously, instead of the light fleeting, the rift opened wider, the corridor became a bit clearer. As she stepped closer, she realized that the gap of light wasn't entirely uniform, it seemed to respond to her presence. As she moved her hand along it, a reflection of light followed her, as if she was casting a shadow, except it was a window into the corridor.

Tracey saw something from the corner of her eye and whirled around. There was a strange shade of light and dark, further along into the nothingness behind her, and it was moving. Her blood froze. Moving shadows were never good. Her father had warned her about this. She had been halfway out of her mind when Iris did whatever she had done, but this? Was this... Her mind came to a sudden realization, and she scrambled backwards, away from the shadow of light, to be somewhere else, anywhere but close to that thing. She had only heard bedside tales about these beings, shadows that moved on their own, none of them of the good kind, but she had no intention of meeting one up close. The shade froze, but it seemed to follow her with its gaze. Now that her eyes had adjusted, she could make out something else. It was not just the rift of light on the wall that was moving, there was a creature of darkness in front of it, casting the light as a shadow, much like her own hand.

She looked into the empty void that was its face and she almost felt like there were eyes boring deep into her soul, except it was just nothingness staring at her. Then the shadow moved, slowly, it raised a limb up high, higher, spread its claws—fingers? —and... waved.

Tracey narrowed her eyes and looked closer. The shape seemed vaguely humanoid, but she couldn't make out any features. Carefully, despite every instinct in her body protesting, she raised a hand. Against the screaming voice in the back of her mind telling her to run, get as far away as possible, she lifted her hand above her shoulder, and waved back.

The thing took a step closer, hand still raised. The light-shadow it was casting moving along with it. Suddenly, something happened. There was a feeling of wrongness. A wave of blackness, even blacker than the total darkness she was standing in suddenly burst from the things hand. Tracey felt her body freeze, she tried to move but it was like moving through honey. The air was pressing in around her, and she found it more and more difficult to breathe with every second.

As suddenly as it had begun, the feeling vanished again. Tracey looked wide eyed at the thing who was now crumpled up on the ground in a heap, shivering. What in Morgana's name had just happened?

Despite her better judgement, Tracey took a step closer. The thing slowly scrambled back into a sitting position and gazed up at her, almost looking sheepish. Hang on. Iris?

It couldn't be, could it?

Tracey narrowed her eyes. Yes, it was definitely a creature of complete shadow, but the shape was very similar. Come to think of it, her own hands looked pretty similar. Just what had they become? Tracey moved up towards it—her? —and raised her hands in a calming gesture. The shadow's hands were moving, and came to a rest in a strange position. One hand perched flat on top of the tip of the other. It paused, seeming to be trying to convey significance. Then it moved again, hands coming to rest in a new shape, one hand clutched in a curled position on the side of the other. Hang on. Was it spelling something? What would this- R? And before that T?

T-R-A-C-...

Relief filled her as she vigorously nodded. The shadow—Iris—came towards her, arms stretched out, as if to pull her into a hug, and... slipped right through her. Merlin, that was a weird sensation. Not quite like touching a ghost, but more like swimming. Tracey shook herself, and turned around. Iris was standing there, completely made up of darkness, and hesitantly reached a hand out towards her. Tracey lifted her own hand shakily, just as dark as hers, and moved towards her. Her fingers slipped through Iris' and she felt her heart sink.

She could almost see Iris' expression droop, even if she couldn't make out any of her face.

Tracey shook herself, and then started to spell W-H-A-T

In response Iris just raised her hands and shrugged. Apparently, she had landed them in some sort of eldritch hellhole without knowing anything about it. She didn't know what she had expected.

'HOW TO GET BACK?' Tracey spelt.

'NO IDEA,' came the inevitable reply.

Tracey sighed. Or at least tried to. She still couldn't make a sound. Tracey felt that she should be a lot more scared in this situation. However, since she had realized that this was Iris, her fear had slowly been overshadowed by a familiar feeling of exasperation.

~V~

Iris looked back at Tracey—at least she hoped it was her—helplessly. She had once again messed up, done something she had no idea about, and immediately made things ten times worse. At least Tracey seemed unharmed. But they were still stuck in this... whatever this was. She wished she could just talk to her, but spelling everything letter by letter was getting really tedious. She should probably look for a way out of here, but she had no idea where to start.

Curiously, Iris walked back to the rift that showed the spot in between the two statues they had come from. She moved up to the shimmering gap, and carefully pushed against it. There was resistance. She pushed harder and harder, but the more she pushed, the stronger it pushed back. In the end, she collapsed back onto the ground, silently panting. The fact they couldn't make any sound whatsoever creeped her out more than anything else about this place.

The last torch winked out, and suddenly, the rift grew to a massive size. it stretched along the whole wall, and she could also see the room from below upside-down if she looked down, as well as from the other side if she looked behind her. It was like there were mirrors everywhere now. Also, her light-shadow had disappeared. Iris took a step, and jumped. With one step she had accidentally covered a distance that was halfway down the hall. How did that work? Iris reached out for the walls again and pushed against them. There was a lot less resistance now. Feeling her hopes surge, she tried to push further and further, almost sinking into the wall, feeling like she could step through any second now, and suddenly she was flung back with a lurch, tumbling across the corridor of mirrors until she finally came to a rest on the ground. The shadow known as Tracey walked up to her and started to frantically move her hands.

'R U OK?'

Iris tried to groan, slowly got to her feet and nodded.

'CANT GET OUT,' she spelt.

Tracey slumped. Iris frowned. What could she do? She couldn't push through to the other side, and she had no idea how she had done whatever she had to get them here in the first place, whatever here was.

She looked around. It was like she was in the corridor, except every wall was a reflection as if looking into the corridor from that wall. She looked down towards the door that whoever it was had come from, and she silently gasped.

There, she could see the corridor, but she could also see something else, something behind. It wasn't transparent, it was more like she was seeing the same thing from two perspectives through both eyes at the same time. This was really disorienting, but it also allowed her to see past the door. And what she saw there, froze her blood cold. She could see the reflection of the door from the other side of the room, and a massive... thing... sitting in front of it. It had three heads. That was two heads too many. Logically, she realized that it was in the next room, but she still was terrified of looking so directly at a monster like that.

It seemed Tracey either hadn't or couldn't see it, as she was still walking around the room, looking at the gaps, but didn't show any further signs of distress than she had before.

Was that thing really locked behind that door? What had whoever it had been done in there? Then another more terrifying thought struck her. What if it was just over here in this place, with them. Iris really didn't want to wait to find out. She waved to get Tracey's attention and started to sprint down the corridor, trying to get the hell away from that thing, hoping that it hadn't spotted them, if it really was in here.

She looked over her shoulder to see the shadow known as Tracey stumbling behind her as they made it to the ajar double doors, both of them seemingly covering a lot more ground than their steps should. Squeezing past it, they found themselves on what had to be the grand staircase. This was where things got confusing. It got darker again, the rifts through which they could see the world growing sparce, their movement became slower, but they also could see so many things at once in so many directions that it was really hard to navigate. Iris blindly followed the structure of light that seemed to make up the staircase down. When she saw a familiar statue through one of the gaps, she turned down the corridor, or at least what she hoped was the corridor.

There was that same effect again. The center of the wall both reflected the part of the hallway in front of it, but she could also see something behind it as if looking through her second eye. This had to be the entrance to the common room. She turned to look at Tracey, but froze. To her side, where there would be a row of abandoned classrooms, she could see something through the reflection. One of the classrooms was less visible than the others, mostly covered in darkness, but she could make out things through the gaps of light, and one of those things looked far too familiar. Draco. What was he doing out here?

Iris waved Tracey over and moved up to the part that had to be the door. She could both see the corridor and the dark classroom behind it. Also, the reflections were uneven, almost shaped like a door. She moved up towards it and pushed against it. Iris could feel the resistance, but this time it was even less. The more she pushed, the further she sank, until suddenly the resistance stopped, and she fell.

Iris came tumbling to a halt in a dark room. She could still make out the corridor back where she had come from, but most of this room was dark. There were several rifts along the walls however, and she quickly moved towards one of them. There, Draco. She could even hear him talk- There was someone else with him.

"I told you, I'll get it back to you tomorrow," Draco drawled, but his voice didn't sound quite as self-assured as usual.

The other person—she couldn't quite make him out, but he looked like an older Slytherin—spoke up. "And I told you I want it back now. What's the problem? It's not like you would be stupid enough to leave anything checked out, would you? Especially after I told you earlier..."

Draco growled. "Yes, I still have a book checked out. And I couldn't return it earlier. I'll do it tomorrow, then you can have it back."

"Malfoy, Malfoy, Malfoy. What am I going to do with you..." the other boy said in a droll voice.

"It seems you can't even keep your end in the simplest of deals... I remember you asking me for my pass to the restricted section for a day. One day, Malfoy. It's been two, and now you tell me you still need another?" he sneered.

"Look, Warrington. It's my fault. I just couldn't make it today. I'll get it back to you tomorrow, I'll even pay you double what I promised."

Warrington, apparently, started to pace, then turned back towards Draco with a raised eyebrow. "Is there something you're not telling me? You seem a bit too eager to get this whole thing swept under the rug... It's just one book after all..."

Draco narrowed his eyes, but said nothing.

"I don't think you understand quite how much this pass means to me. I went through hell last year to get Snape's reward. He's not going to give me another one if I just lose it."

Draco seemed to squirm under his gaze slightly, but tried to put up an uncaring face nonetheless.

"I told you, I promise you'll get it back first thing tomorrow."

There was a long pause.

"Yeah... That's not good enough, Malfoy."

Both boys froze and stared at each other across the room. Then Iris tried to gasp as there was a blur of movement. Warrington's wand snapped up and aimed at Draco, who desperately fumbled for his own, but the older boy was faster. He whipped his wand in a circle and shouted, "Expelliarmus!"

A red beam of light shot across the room and hit Draco square in the chest. Iris wanted to scream as he was knocked off his feet. She could see Tracey cover her mouth next to her.

Warrington's hand reached out and snagged Draco's spinning wand out of the air with a smirk.

"Well, since you still have something of mine, I think it's only fitting if I had something of yours. Let's call it... collateral," he said, and slowly and deliberately pocketed Draco's wand.

"You'll get it back, as soon as I get back what's mine. Let this be a lesson in the importance of holding up your end of a deal." And with that, Warrington turned on the spot, stalked out of the classroom, and slammed the door shut behind him.

Iris watched wide-eyed as Draco slowly gathered himself, visibly shaken, and looked around the room. When nothing seemed to happen, he slowly made his way to the door, and pushed the handle. It was locked. Iris felt torn as she watched the boy sink to the ground with a defeated expression. She wanted nothing more than to talk to him, to tell him... something. But no matter how much she tried, she still couldn't make a sound.

Iris made her way to another rift that was closer to him. Now that the older boy had left, there were a lot more gaps in the room. She found a rift that was directly next to Draco, slightly behind him. She reached out, wanting to do something, but she had no idea what. After a minute, Draco's head raised, and turned. Suddenly his eyes went wide as he looked towards her. He scrambled to his feet with a girlish squeal and scurried across the room, away from her. Could he actually see her? Iris heart started beating faster. She quickly made her way across the room, hands held up in a calming gesture. Draco just fled further, trying his best to keep as much distance from her as possible in the small room. He was staring at her in terror; his lips mouthing something, repeatedly, but no words came out. La-ti-fo? Le-ta-fu? She had no idea how to read lips.

She somehow had to get to him, talk to him, or at least do something. What had she done to get in here again? Somehow, she had made the shadows bigger...

What if she did that again? She had tried to cast her light before, which had caused a squeezing sensation that felt like she was deep underwater, and had almost knocked her out. Would trying to create shadows again have the same effect?

How had she even done that anyway? It hadn't felt anything like when she used her light, but still somehow related. Iris closed her eyes and focused. She wanted to create the shadows again, make the shadows bigger, stronger, right in front of her.

She opened her eyes again. Nothing had changed. Damn. Apparently, it wasn't that easy.

Iris thought back to what else she had done. Well, she had been scared out of her mind. Perhaps this was more of an emotional thing? She focused on the shadows again, while trying to bring her mind back into that state of panic, desperation. After a few seconds, she had to give that up, too. Apparently, panicking on command wasn't one of the skills she possessed.

Would other emotions work? If it was just about darkness, metaphorically, any negative emotions would work, right? But what kind of emotions could she use?

The solution came to mind pretty quickly. If there was any negative emotion she had her fair share of experience with, it was hate.

Whether they did something to him, or she got in trouble, Harry ended up paying the price every time. She hated when Harry got hurt because of her, but he refused to let them touch even a hair on her head, if there was a way for him to take the punishment instead. She hated herself for it, but she hated the Dursleys even more.

Just thinking of them drew her mind into a dark place. She almost didn't think about what she was doing, it was like the shadows came all by themselves. Or in this case, the light. Rifts grew wider and wider, more vibrant with every second and causing Draco to scream out in terror, which served to snap Iris out of it. As the gaps stopped and started to quiver, she quickly waved Tracey over and took a step through the yawning gap. There was a rushing tingling sensation, and a blinding flash of light in her eyes, and suddenly, she was back. A second later, Tracey tumbled out of the shadows behind her and toppled her to the ground. Draco was just staring at them, his jaw on the floor.

"I did it! We're back!" Iris gasped in joy, turning around to hug the ever-living daylights out of Tracey.

"Iris? ...Davis? What? H-how?" Draco was apparently losing his mind. She guessed she couldn't blame him.

"Merlin, it's so good to be able to talk again..." Tracey whispered, relief palpable on her voice, a haunted expression on her face. She could feel the girl was still trembling.

Draco was now completely lost. "How did you get in here? What were those shadows on the wall? I thought that was- Was... was that you?" he asked, voice tinged in disbelief.

"Well, I saw you were in a bit of a tough spot, and thought I'd come help," Iris said with a grin.

She walked over to the door, drew her wand, summoned an almost blinding amount of yellow light, and cast, "Alohomora."

There was a yellow flash, a loud clunk, and then a groan as the door came off its hinges, tilting towards them until it crashed onto the ground.

"You're welcome," Iris chirped.

Draco was gazing between her and the door in disbelief. Tracey had gathered enough of her wits to manage a half-hearted facepalm.

Iris looked at Draco intently and then asked, "What was that about anyway? Why didn't you say you needed the book back?"

His face fell, and he quietly asked, "You heard that?"

"Yeah. I had no idea you needed it back so soon. I was using it yesterday to do a ritual to give Neville some luck for his surgery, but I've pretty much read the whole thing, you can have it back..."

"You wait you what? Haven't you heard anything I told you?" Draco said accusingly.

Iris sighed. "Draco, it's fine. Nothing happened. I've done these things for years, it's pretty easy. Even the book says it's perfectly safe, if you do it properly."

"It... wait, it does?" Draco backpedaled. "But what about the catastrophic failure part?"

"That's what happens if you go and do something stupid in a ritual, like using symbols or things you don't know the meaning of. It's the symbols that determine the rituals intent, not you."

"I... I guess that makes sense..." Draco said slowly. "And... you did a ritual... for luck?"

"Yeah, apparently they are pretty common according to the book. Like something you'd do every Sunday for some good luck for the whole week, or for a bit more luck for a short time, I guess. I just went a little bit further than what the book said. I would have done it in the big ritual room or whatever it is that I found at the bottom right of the grand staircase, because that seems to fit the descriptions from the book, but well, I found something even more fitting in this case," Iris rambled off.

Draco looked at her, as if pondering something. Then he apparently decided to change the topic.

"Anyway. I tried to find you today, but you disappeared after classes, I've been looking all over for you. Warrington told me this morning he needed his pass back, and I have to return the book before I can give it to him."

"Uh, sorry, I guess? I've been outside, and later... well..." Iris replied, shifting uncomfortably.

"Don't worry about it, you couldn't have known. It's just unfortunate," Draco replied offhandedly.

"Well, let's go and get your book then. It's in my room."

Draco nodded at that.

Tracey spoke up incredulously. "Hang on. You're just going to accept what just happened? Like, without a word? We literally just popped out of a Merlin-damned shadow!"

She was looking between Iris and Draco with a raised eyebrow.

"Merlin, no. But I have absolutely no idea what to think about that, so I'm trying to pretend it never happened for the moment," Draco said in a serious voice.

She turned back to Iris with a meaningful expression. "I know you asked me to come on an adventure and all, but this was a bit much. I didn't expect to literally get banished to the shadow-realm."

"Hey, I thought you knew what you were signing up for."

"Yeah, well so did I."

Even though Tracey was smiling, she couldn't help but hear the truth in her words. The girl had taken the whole ordeal a lot less well than she had. She guessed she could count herself lucky that Tracey hadn't seen the thing in the third floor, whatever it was. Was it still there? She would rather not think about it.

"Well, shall we?" Iris asked, and stepped out into the corridor.

Across the hallway, they found the blank (and still pretty) section of stone wall, which upon being provided the password revealed the path that led to the common room.

Iris turned and said "I'll go grab the book, see you in the common room," and ran off down the stone corridor.

She saw nobody about at this time of day, but still she somehow got the feeling of being watched, as she hurried along the maze of stairs and made her way into her dorm. She was greeted by an angrily flying physics book that had once again escaped her trunk. With an annoyed glare, she sent it back and went to fetch Draco's ritual book. There was a loud meow from Salem, but she didn't have time right now, so she grabbed the book and hurried back to the common room.

She spotted Draco pacing around the set of couches he usually claimed for himself, Vince and Greg. She didn't see Tracey around anymore. She might have gone to her room after her, after all, the path that led from here to their room was a different path than the one that led back. Iris quickly ran up to him and thrust the book into his arms.

"There you go. Now you can go return it first thing."

"Yes, Malfoy. Good to see you haven't lost any books you've been borrowing with my pass..."

Both of them froze, as a familiar voice came from one of the doorways leading into adjacent corridors.

Draco's eyes went wide, and he slowly turned to face Warrington.

"Disregarding how you got out for a moment, I very much remember having told you explicitly not to tell anyone else about this, or involve anyone in any way."

The older Slytherin slowly stalked up to their group and towered over them with a furious expression.

"Imagine my surprise when I find you not only wandering about, talking with strangers about your exploits, but apparently even lending them books that. Are. Linked. To. My. Pass." He said sharply.

His gaze swept along the group, and Iris had a sinking feeling that he wouldn't let this go with just apologies or money, or whatever else Draco had promised him. He seemed to be glaring particularly balefully at her most of all.

"Now... What am I going to do about you? I can't afford any loose ends, you understand?"

Iris noticed with a shudder that the boy was clutching his wand at his side. Even if she could cast any other spells, she doubted she would be fast enough.

"Look, I have the book right here. I'll return it as soon as the library opens, and you'll get your pass back. There is no need to involve anyone else in this." Draco's voice had an uneasy tone, but he was trying to act confidently.

"Malfoy... You and I both know that's not how this works..." drawled Warrington.

"Leave her out of this. This is between you and me, Warrington," Draco growled.

"Oh, that's how you want to play it? And, tell me, why would I agree to anything of the sort?" Warrington said with a smirk.

"You'll do it if you don't want my father to get involved," Draco said.

Warrington laughed at that. "Ah, Malfoy, you haven't changed after all... Just two small problems. First, unlike most of your so-called friends, I don't really care what your father may or may not think of me."

He paced closer towards Draco, stopped in front of him, then suddenly turned to Iris.

"But more importantly, I don't see why he would in any way care about what happens to her..."

Draco ground his teeth, but said nothing. Then he muttered, "What... do you want?"

Warrington smirked. "A duel. Very simple, very public. Slytherin dueling ring, Saturday night. I'll even let you have your wand back early, so you can practice. If you win, I'll forget all about your little friend's involvement. If I win, I want you to relinquish any claims you'd get to the council, publicly, as a result. Well... I guess I'll get the pleasure of beating you into a pulp in front of the whole house on top."

Draco gaped. Apparently, this council meant something to him. He desperately looked between her and Warrington, and then finally took a breath and ground out, "...Fine. Saturday night."

Warrington held out a wand—Draco's wand. "Pleasure doing business with you."

Draco snarled and snatched it out of his hand, and stalked off down the corridor, wand and book clutched in each hand. Iris just hoped that he knew what he was doing.

~V~

Draco was sitting in his room, flipping through pages furiously. He had no illusions that he could beat Warrington in a fair duel. He wasn't just older, he was good. Really good. And while Draco was no slouch either, he had only the lessons of his magic tutors to fall back on. No. If he was to beat Warrington, it would have to be an unfair fight.

Something Iris had said stuck with him. Some of the more common rituals were rituals that would grant you luck. There was even a template ritual in the book that he could follow to the letter. He knew several spells, and while he had no chance of ever out-skilling someone like Warrington, if he just got a ridiculously lucky shot in, he might just be able to win this thing. It was a desperate plan, and his parents' warnings played in his mind over and over again as he considered it. But the more he read, and the more he thought back on Iris' words, the surer he became of his path.

He had to do this. Not just for himself, but for her as well. She... well he guessed, she was his friend. He had never really thought about it all that much, but somehow, through everything that had happened, they had become friends. And now he was in her debt. He needed to do this.

He looked through the book, deciding on which ritual to pick. He read through descriptions of symbols, their meaning, and how wide-spread they are. His eyes kept coming back to the template ritual. It required three people for the best effect, and just a simple sacrifice by drawing the symbol in his blood. He stared at the instructions for a while, then he checked the symbol it was using in the encyclopedia. Well, the choice was kind of obvious, wasn't it?