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The floor. It was obvious, almost as obvious as the thought of trapping the wall had been, albeit with hindsight. If Grindelwald hadn't hidden the passage that lay before them — that was still assuming there was one — in any portion of the walls, what if he'd hidden it in the floor? Slytherin had done the same, and he and Grindelwald seemed fairly similar in terms of personality.
Well, from the little Harry knew about either. Even now, he still wasn't certain of whether or not that man in the portrait had been Slytherin. Harry would have to return to that little study one day when he had time and the world had peace. Not just any peace either, but a lasting peace without the looming threat of a Grindelwald return. No world needed that, least of all the one he'd been sent to ensure the safety of.
"Elaine," Harry said, beckoning her forward now that the last of their Auror presence had been carried across to stand near them. "I'm going to try the floor, do you have anything that might make sure the walls don't have anything behind them?"
"I suppose I could think of something," Elaine agreed, watching him with a small smile, perhaps of amusement or something of that ilk. Harry didn't mind one way or the other.
Instead of minding her look, he focused back on the task at hand. As he'd done previously, he began to transfigure holes in the ground that went a foot deep or thereabouts. Foot by foot, he made sure the path ahead was without secrets. It took quite a bit of time, just as the walls had, but this time, his idea bore fruit.
It was nearly three-quarters of the way down the hallway when the first hole with a result other than those he'd come to expect, arose. Initially, it was nearly without notice, for the amount of light that whatsoever lay at the end of the path was incredibly dim. Harry had only noticed a flicker, his eyes playing tricks on him, he'd thought, but he'd refused to ignore the itch in the back of his mind that it might be something; he was lucky he'd been so stubborn.
Harry had focused in on the area and more meticulously and cautiously transfigured it. Slowly, layer by layer and piece by piece, he uncovered a path. It was a staircase, steep, old and made from stone rather than the concrete; that was a sure sign that the path ahead, was a good one.
If it wasn't, well, he'd go and eat his own boot, he supposed. There wouldn't be much else to do on the walk back from the end of the stairs and all the way to the exit.
"Lead on then, lover. I'll be by your side ensuring you don't fall prey to any of Grindelwald's traps so long as you keep watch for any of Muggle make," Elaine said before her hand yanked him along after her, in the direction of the stairs he'd only just uncovered.
He wasn't given but one second to grin and pump his fists in victory.
Ah well, at least he felt vindicated, and so they continued onwards. Hopefully, as they progressed, they were doing so near the end of the path. Harry couldn't stand it if there was still far more to go. Grindelwald, he wasn't as untouchable as he had thought himself to be, and these excursions were nought but tedious at this point. If only the man could come to see himself being put low by two people that weren't even in their twenties yet.
Harry wondered how the man felt and arrived at one word that described Grindelwald completely and utterly; defeated.
As Harry had feared, the path ahead wasn't quite as cut and dry as he'd have hoped. Instead, it went deep, deeper than the light would indicate since there was a turn nought but twenty or so feet in. If that hadn't been bad enough, there was a second bend as soon as they'd made it past the first. Harry could tell, the area was meant to break lines of sight, why else was it built in such a way?
If that didn't slow them down for the sake of caution, the fact that Muggle traps had been previously present, did. They couldn't grow complacent and simply follow the stairs without a worry in the world. If they did, there'd be an explosion.
Well, a second one, Harry supposed. This time, whoever activated it — likely him or Elaine since they were at the front — might not be half as lucky as he'd been. The stone had eaten a good portion of the blast, and the fire had been stopped completely by Elaine, who'd been vaguely prepared; the latter still rang true, the former didn't, and he reckoned with all the metal that'd previously been in him from the small bit of the blast he'd taken, the fire not reaching him wouldn't matter.
He'd be riddled with holes.
"Ah, the way ahead has more light," Elaine said, her tone surprisingly joyous and bright given the circumstances in which they found themselves. "How wonderful."
"Why don't more places use torches that never go out?" Harry queried, partly out of boredom as they passed yet another torch that seemed to burn endlessly. It wasn't rare, and he doubted it was all that difficult, but he'd never come across the spell before.
Maybe he'd just never checked the right places.
"It's complex, exceedingly tedious and altogether pointless when one remembers that house elves exist. Why go through the process and burden if it can be avoided very easily?" Elaine pressed one thin, pale finger into his chest. "Even the torches in your home aren't always burning as these."
I've never thought about that, have I? Harry asked himself. He supposed that would be another fix, or some of them, at the very least. The ones in the bedrooms could be put out when needed. Merlin, his list of things to do grew day by day.
"This seems as if it might have been here a fair deal of time before all the concrete might indicate," Elaine said aloud, observantly, and with a quick look at Harry that soon returned to the trail ahead. "I've no doubt it's been thoroughly looted, but it might mean more places nearby might be filled to the brim with old tomes and older artefacts. An interesting thought for another time, perhaps."
"When we're old and bored," Harry agreed. Elaine's words had seemed to indicate much the same, even if she'd not said it outright. As for him, he was more than content to live a peaceful life away from politics the moment he wasn't needed.
It'd be grand. He could already picture it.
"Bored? Never," Elaine shook her head and turned the corner, and unlike the previous time, the path before wasn't an unending staircase.
Instead, it opened wide into an extremely large, cavernous hall. Pillars made from stone were still standing, likely supporting more weight than they should be given the boulders and stones that had broken off given natural decay. In addition to the pillars, there were ornate carvings in the stone in a language of runes that he wasn't remotely familiar with. There were even a few inscriptions too, and were he able to read them, who knew, he might have just glanced at an old spell that had long since fallen out of use.
"Quite the interesting place we've discovered, isn't it?" Elaine queried with a glance at Harry as she took in the rather grandiose view before them — given the age and era, he'd give it the title of grandiose.
"We could study it down the road if you'd like. It shouldn't be too hard to hide away again, and if we use a few spells, transfiguration, illusion, charms and the like, we should be able to keep it nice and tucked away until we'd have time to examine it all," Harry gestured to a large path beyond the central portion of the hall. "Fancy starting there? It seems like it's the most fanciful looking of the lot."
"Down the road, I'll not forget those words," Elaine warned as she took the final few steps down from the staircase, now standing at the landing thereof so that she might take in the entirety of the room. Based on the way her brows rose as she glanced from side to side, before looking at the room as a whole, she'd gotten quite a view.
Harry didn't wait to be beckoned forth. Not when she was standing where she was without any harm coming to her. If she'd made it, he could make it right up to her; there had to be a lack of spells that were in their immediate area too. For a scant few seconds, Harry was left wondering as he made his way towards Elaine, just what Grindelwald's thoughts had been like. At times, he'd seemed like he was a genius, beyond a genius even, and yet, other times, he'd seemed reckless and stupid.
Greedy too. Grindelwald's greed had become a thing of legend to Harry when the man practically wanted to knick his entire identity, Hallows and all. Unfortunately for Grindelwald, he'd failed, and even now, Harry possessed two of the three; the Potters had the last, the cloak, and maybe… maybe sometime down the road, he'd find a way to recover it. If he could master death, maybe he could finally get himself some answers.
"If only the museum on the second floor of our manor wasn't full," Elaine said with a solemn shake of her head. "I do so hate to leave behind pieces of history, and the statues before us are most certainly that. Your thoughts, lover?"
"We can take everything we'd like from this place once we're sure it's clear and there aren't any traps waiting for us. Merlin, if you'd want to renovate it and make it a getaway, we might as well. It's not like too many people know about it — we could even task the group with us as guards if we'd ever need to make use of it," Harry nearly snickered when Elaine's face soured at the thought of using this place as a getaway.
He hadn't meant it to be a literal escape for them, but a small little vacation home. Magic could work wonders, and he was sure with a few good charms here and there, it could be as if it were a log cabin. They could go out, go skiing or what have you, and then return to the mountain, wherein they'd be protected and have a warm place to rest.
"You raise one good point if only one. We could task a few of our escorts with the liberation of the items before us, I'm sure they'd not want any of this art to go to waste, the same as us, wouldn't you say?" Elaine held up a hand and spoke again before he could so much as interject. "They'd earn themself a nice little bonus for ensuring the safety of such treasure, and we'd be able to ogle it to our hearts' content. Beneficial for all, an outcome you're sure to enjoy."
Harry looked at her, rolled his eyes whilst shaking his head, and then gestured for a couple of the Aurors to step forward. As he did so, he continue a few steps further ahead so as to leave Elaine to order the Aurors about since it was her wish they'd be fulfilling. Whilst she did so, Harry was more than content to use the very same spells that she oft used to investigate the surrounding area.
He didn't want to be caught unaware by any lingering Inferi that hadn't been destroyed, nor did he want to activate any statues, Muggle-made traps, Magical traps that'd been made by Grindelwald or whoever had been here before him… the more he thought about it, the more he reckoned there was that might bite him in the arse. It certainly made him feel as if he'd become paranoid in an instant, but the added attentiveness was more a boon than anything.
It was almost as if he'd never truly been focused before, such was the scrutiny with which he looked around and cast his spells to aid him in finding anything if there were truly anything to find. Whilst Elaine spoke to the Aurors behind him, a conversation he heard but didn't try to make out, he continued further and further into the room, albeit slowly. Time and time again there proved to be nothing that might be a trap.
In fact, by the time Elaine had come up to him he was nearly completed his search for traps throughout the entirety of the cavern they'd entered. By then, he figured there wouldn't be any traps. If there would have been one or any other number, the locations for them to best be hidden had passed. Instead, what remained were places for very obvious problems to occur.
"Ahead?" Harry asked, splitting his attention between his search and Elaine as he continued with his self-given task. One that would allow her a spot of rest and him a touch of experience.
Another win-win for Harry, and he imagined she'd noted that down too. Elaine kept track of the strangest things.
"We could clear the paths on either side and save the archway at the far end, for last. I'd rather ensure the emptiness of the smaller, less substantial-looking paths; who knows if one's meant to look past them on purpose or not?" Elaine gestured to the two on the right, then the three on the left, and finally, back at their Auror companions. "It's evident by now that if Grindelwald has risen, he's not escaped from this place or he's not risen here. There's one other Horcruxe at the very least, as you can recall and so we'll assume. I suggest we split ourselves."
He blinked at Elaine. "You want us to split up? You realise there might well be more Inferi, don't you?"
"I have reason to believe this area isn't trapped," Elaine said cryptically, her eyes peering around the area with a gleam of emotion he couldn't quite place. It was strange, searching for sure, but strange. Maybe she knew or suspected more about their current whereabouts than she'd said.
Harry wasn't sure, but if the feeling or look on her face grew too much larger, he'd bring it up. There wasn't any point in letting it die down. Not that he could see.
"I'll take two of the Aurors left, you and the others should stay in the centre, and then we'll swap once my side's clear. If he's here and hasn't gotten out, or if there's anything else down here with us, it won't stay hidden long, right?" Harry shook his head before she could argue, and he could already see words forming on her lips as he did so. "I'll be fine, I know the spells you use to make sure nothing's present be it Magic or Magical. You just make sure nothing sneaks up on me and… the brothers. Yeah, I'll take the Yankee brothers."
Elaine's mood seemed to lighten ever so slightly. Maybe she thought he'd take one of the two witches with him, and he'd considered it, but he'd quickly squashed that idea. Undoubtedly, the two were talented. They had to be if they were in the group he'd picked. One of them had aided him too, something he'd not soon forget. But the problem that presented itself if he did pick one of them, was very evident; Elaine.
She'd not be fond of that. Not in the slightest. It wasn't hard to understand why either, she'd always been possessive and jealous. He'd seen that since his time with her at Hogwarts and it's persisted until even now.
"Be careful, I'll keep watch," Elaine said, her eyes peering deep into his; in the back of his mind, he could register that feeling, a sensation he'd come to know over a great deal of time. It was Elaine actively interacting with whatever link was between them. The magic, a type nobody seemed to be familiar with, least of all the two of them beyond the basics, was so every evident now.
He wondered how either of them had missed it for so long. Harry couldn't imagine life without the sensation of Elaine buried back in the deepest portion of his mind. It felt like a comforting presence that was impossible to put into words.
"I'm sure you will," he said with a fond shake of his head, and, like that, Harry went forth with the two Auror brothers by his side.
He hoped the two would make for good conversationalists.
Nick and Thomas were, quite unfortunately, not excellent conversationalists. It was as Harry feared, and much of the first passage they'd cleared, had been uneventful and silent. With Elaine, there had been banter to break the monotonous tasks they went through, but with the two Aurors he'd dragged along, everything he did was in silence save for when he needed to speak the incantation aloud.
It was an altogether awkward and not pleasant feeling in the slightest, and so it was when the group was about to start the second passage, their last, that Harry spoke up.
"So, you two," He said aloud, garnering the attention of the two brothers. "You both enjoying the trip so far?"
Harry would admit the question was pretty lazy or stupid, in hindsight, but he didn't know how else to broker a conversation on account of the power dynamic between the three of them. He was their boss, far above their boss, actually, and yet, they weren't that far apart in age. It didn't help that the journey they'd started wasn't exactly as cut and dry as any of them had probably hoped it'd be.
At least nobody could say the Minister's protection force wasn't worth their pay. It might well be their first assignment, but they'd earned all of the Galleons they'd be getting at the end of the month and a bonus for their assistance. Maybe Harry would figure out some sort of commendation or plaque for the lot of them too. This was the first time the group had ever truly been deployed after their creation.
Nick looked at Thomas, and eventually, the latter answered with a nod. "We've never minded the cold all that much, it's the heat that gets us. Extreme heat, I should say."
Harry nodded. "I've never liked the extreme of either. I'm more of a temperate weather guy, myself," he paused, observing a thin wire of some kind, but he continued not more than a few seconds later when he realised it was just a cobweb. "Sorry for dragging the both of you along for this too. Neither of us thought it'd be quite this involved. If we had, we'd probably have done some things differently, you know?"
The brothers shrugged in unison, and when they responded, it was in unison again.
"Don't know what you could have done differently."
They raised a fair point, and the fault wasn't really on anybody. Not Elaine or Corene that had gotten the information or the person who'd given it to them. If anything, they were lucky to learn of the place; that was a testament to Corene's web of eyes and ears she'd somehow weaved whilst at Hogwarts.
"All the same, the five of you will be getting a healthy bonus at the end of the month. Inferi, I'd reckon, are a bit much for a first outing, but it's definitely been a memorable one, I'd say," Harry snickered and nodded to himself as he stepped over a particularly deep crack in the stone. It wasn't for any reason save for the back of his mind urging him not to step on the crack. "I can already picture it in the history books, can't you?"
Thomas snorted. "I hope it's in the history books for a good reason rather than a tragic one. I'd hate to be the first of the Minister's Elite to be lost — it's a title, that's for sure, but not one I'd want."
"Maybe we can continue for decades without a single loss. That and the fact that we've raided Grindelwald's fortresses would make for a hell of a reputation, yeah?" Harry grinned and elbowed the other guy… before coming to an abrupt stop.
What he saw before him, before the three of them, was reason enough to give pause before they continued on ahead. He might not have thought much about it, not typically, and certainly not if the entire group was together, but that wasn't the case.
Before them, was a fog, dark and greyish and not at all unlike that of the earlier mist that the Inferi they'd fought had carried around them. The strength of it, no, the presence of it indicated that there were, indeed, more Inferi, and they were nearby. If they thought they'd gotten lucky and the path ahead was nought but an empty one, they'd been wrong.
Harry only wondered why this batch was stationed so far down in the labyrinth in comparison to the earlier horde they'd faced, or how the other group had gotten to where it had if they'd been from this horde. That alone was tempting enough to send him back for Elaine, but he didn't.
Instead, he directed the two Aurors to watch the path ahead while he walked a dozen or so feet back whence they'd come. When he was far enough away to whisper without worry that his voice might alert Inferi that lurked ahead, he cast a Patronus and sent it off with a message for Elaine.
One that told her just what they'd found. With that done, Harry turned on the balls of his feet and started onwards once more.
The Aurors, Nick and Thomas, had looks of steely resolve on their face. It was evident the pair each knew what the mist meant by now, they were quick learners, but neither seemed nervous or worried about the fact. In fact, based on how their wands were gripped and those looks he'd seen, they were ready for a fight. That was good, he supposed. It meant they'd probably not be likely to flee or panic; one battle, especially one that was as easy as the previous one, wasn't enough to tell who was cut out for the life of an Auror, and who wasn't.
That came with time and multiple excursions, and it seemed like the two brothers would be first to test their mettle away from the group of very powerful Magicals. Instead, it'd be nought but the two of them, and Harry.
For what it was worth, the lattermost of the three wasn't remotely concerned about some Inferi that might be waiting for them. No, Harry was beyond confident that the group of three could destroy the horde in a minute at the most so long as it wasn't thousands of reanimated corpses.
"You two don't mind continuing?"
Harry asked just to ensure neither had any reservations, and when two pairs of eyes met his and neither shook their head, he nodded once, pleased, and started forward again.
Behind him, Nick and Thomas followed with their wands at the ready.
No traps, no other passages, no corpses, no Inferi… Harry continued with the two brothers by his side for a few minutes. They moved slowly, sure, but the pace was necessary if they wanted to ensure they were careful; Harry wasn't exactly trusting Elaine's gut either. Just because she claimed there weren't any traps didn't mean he'd believe the claim. Not without any proof, at the very least.
"Still nothing," Harry said as he cleared a large, jagged crack in the ground before them. "I don't believe we're nearing the end of this passage anytime soon either. My Lumos isn't exactly dim and we still can't see the end of the hall; I don't want to make it any brighter either, even this is dangerous enough without us knowing just exactly where the Inferi are."
"They can't burrow, can they?" Thomas asked, his eyes looking at the ground with a lack of trust.
Harry shook his head, albeit after a few seconds of thought. "No," he said to the other young bloke. "No, I don't think I've ever heard about Inferi burrowing. That'd be horrible, wouldn't it?"
Nick, the older brother, Harry thought, huffed. Clearly, he didn't like the idea of the Inferi burrowing anymore than Harry or Thomas did. It was thoroughly off-putting, that much was true.
"I count four side passages ahead in the space that we can see," Nick said before any silence of a suitable duration could fall. "Are we going to check the four of them, or just peek our heads in to make sure the Inferi aren't waiting to welcome us to their home?"
"We could always just transfigure the archways into smooth slabs of stone. We'd not risk alerting the Inferi if they're inside and we'd make sure it's thick enough to contain them. That'd solve a few problems," Harry said, and after a breath and look of scrutiny shot at a pebble, he spoke again. "If we don't find anything of interest by the time we reach the end, we'll come back and clear the rooms one by one. It'd certainly limit the chance of an ambush, that's for sure."
Harry had learned from Aster. With the four passages that they could see and however many more that they couldn't see, if the Inferi were in half or more of them, they could swarm out at speed and potentially close the distance in seconds. Harry could destroy many of them in a short amount of time, he knew he could, but anybody could be overrun if they weren't given enough time to cast a spell.
"I like the idea, Deputy-Minister," Thomas said in an instant, nodding his head as he moved closer to the right wall, his wand aimed at the nearer door. Harry looked more closely at the other bloke after noticing some was off, and only now could he make out a sense of nervousness from him. One that he'd failed to notice or that hadn't previously been present.
He didn't bring it up, and he couldn't make eye contact with Thomas, but he shot a look over at the other man's brother. One that didn't go unnoticed, and Nick, making eye contact with Harry, pulled a look of nonchalance. Clearly, for whatever reason, Nick remained unconcerned about his brother and the nervousness he seemed to be exhibiting.
Harry would keep that in mind as he pressed on until he came to the first door, and upon making contact, silently cast the transfiguration magic necessary to seal shut the room. He left a little knob sticking out in the shape of a typical door handle to mark the location, and on the opposite side of him and a few meters down with his brother by his side, Thomas sealed shut the next door.
"Nice," Harry said to the other guy under his breath, just loud enough for the two other men to hear. He earned himself a grin in thanks from Thomas, and another nod from Nick, albeit with a matching grin on his face.
No noise came from either sealed room. Not an explosion, at the very least. Harry imagined any Inferi that might once have been inside, were still sleeping or in that trance they were in whilst they waited for their next target to show. If they'd risen by way of noise or some sort of activation, it was too late for them.
Harry let out a sigh of relief as he continued forward, this time on the left side of the hall as he gradually drew closer to another door; the final on the left side that he could make out even as they advanced. Nick had taken over the Lumos' duties, and still, as they'd gotten further ahead, there was nothing else.
It was pretty strange, Harry thought. Why was there such a long hallway with signs of Inferi if it were four, possibly five passages; he imagined there had to be a fifth too. How couldn't there be?
If there wasn't, the hallway would have ended at the final door. Then again, maybe that was some sort of modern logic that he'd applied to some old, archaic style of building. If it was, ah well, he'd been played by ancient architecture.
There wasn't much he could do to remedy th—
Harry blinked and turned his head to look at the brothers. Nick and Thomas were near the passage on the right, but there was something.. .strange. Harry couldn't describe it, in fact, he could barely even react in time — it felt as if he hadn't too, but his arm moved and his lips did too, seemingly of their own volition. He was practically a spectator as his wand summoned back the two brothers, earning a startled grunt from Nick and a jolt and flash of panic from Thomas.
At least until the two brothers realised that he'd pulled them back with a silent spell. They looked angry, the pair of them, at what he'd done, and then he pointed ahead, his eyes and mind making sense of the pure muscle memory and adrenaline his body had just operated on; perhaps, with a touch of assistance from Elaine too.
He wasn't sure if that had been her or his mind, but something had triggered that sensation of nervousness in him, and rightly so.
"Runes," Harry said, whispering the word as he directed the gaze of the two brothers at the stone ahead. "Reckon for all of our sakes that we'd probably want to avoid that. Give me a few minutes and I'll see to it, just make sure there aren't any Inferi that try and sneak up on us. That'd not be too great."
Nick snorted, enjoying Harry's dry humour as the latter young man began to investigate the Runes before them. Harry could tell this one wouldn't take him too long on the size alone; larger wards, ones that are more complex and more dangerous, wouldn't fit on such a small surface.
"What do you suppose it does?" Thomas asked Nick, Harry overhearing the words after they'd left the mouth of the former of the two brothers.
Before Nick could answer, Harry, with his eyes and the rest of his attention still committed down the hallway, where the trap lay, answered. "I'd say it's a wailing charm of some sort, and if not that, a simple stunner. At its most dangerous, it might leave you dazed and confused as if you'd been confunded."
"Not too bad then," Thomas agreed hesitantly.
"Depends on what's ahead," Nick said, to which Harry nodded despite his eyes not seeing either of the brothers. "I'd rather not be paralyzed as Inferi rip me apart. That sounds like it'd be a horrible way to go — Deputy Minister Peverell, you think the trap might have been a wailing charm to summon the Inferi?"
Harry used his free hand to give a thumbs-up to the other man as he finished the final few syllables of an incantation, one that confirmed the severity, or rather, lack thereof when it came to the Runes that dared lay before them. "Maybe," Harry said, shrugging. "Whatever the use of it had been, it doesn't matter anymore. It'll be disabled in a few seconds, and then we'll continue our little search."
Seconds later, and whilst the two brothers watched on with impression clear to read on their faces, Harry had confirmed the clearing of the runes. Whatever had been set and whoever had set it had been thwarted. Harry held in a grin of satisfaction and, with a look over his shoulder at his companions to ensure they were ready, started forward again.
They'd come this far, and with two doors left to go and the remainder of the path ahead, Harry reckoned they'd soon finish the excursion. He'd be damned if the place went deeper still, into a second ancient tunnel system. It'd have been funny, he'd admit.
"Near it," Thomas whispered to Harry before the young man with his brother at his back moved the few remaining feet towards one of the final two archways that weren't sealed. Once the two had reached it, and the surrounding area was determined to be trap free, they took a final step and began to transfigure the stone to cover the archway that passed as a doorway.
Harry watched silently, his wand at the ready lest any Inferi came sprinting out, but as had happened with the previous two archways, there was nothing. Instead, what happened was quite simple; the stone covered what once had been an archway for one to navigate through, and that was all. The knob to signify where once a path had existed was all that remained to tell that the path existed; if they found what they were searching for without needing to go through it, well, Harry supposed somebody else might one day find out.
Elaine, maybe. She'd certainly not want to leave so much as a crevice unturned in her quest for knowledge, trinkets and artefacts from eras past.
"Final archway," Harry muttered, the two brothers nodding at him. He motioned for them to stay alongside their wall when they made to cross over, assuring them with a shake of his head that he'd take care of this one as he'd taken care of the previous one on his side. "Watch ahead."
Those were the last words he said to them before he swore himself to a thirty or so-second silence as he approached the final archway. It wasn't any more grandiose or ornate than the previous ones, nor was it any larger or more decrepit. He wanted to peek inside, to see what might be lurking for them in the shadows, but the rational part of his brain took control and started the process of sealing off the last passage.
Seconds later, and with the path thoroughly sealed off with inches, possibly feet of stone, Harry turned to look at the brothers. "Nick, Thomas, either one of you, really — cast your brightest Lumos. We need to see just how much farther this place goes and just how many more paths await us… whichever one of you doesn't cast it, transfigure the walls partially collapsed. If there's a horde ahead, it'd be better to funnel them."
Just like when Aster funneled Reinhard through various strategy games the two would play back in the Dorms. Merlin, that felt like it was a lifetime ago. Harry shook his head as those thoughts passed through his mind.
It had, indeed, been a very long time in his mind since those happenings. Any and all of them. Hogwarts, as a whole, felt as if it'd been so unimportant and inconsequential, at least when he compared his life back then to now. Elaine, she'd been the only focus… if only everything could return to that way.
He reckoned the two of them — he and Elaine, that was — deserved a nice long vacation. Once the war was over and she was satisfied that their position was secure, maybe they'd take one. He'd lobby for it, and it was hard to imagine Elaine deciding otherwise, least of all if he begged her for it.
Harry snorted to himself and then held up his arm to cover his eyes. Nick, the seemingly older brother of the pair, had cast a Lumos and revealed one very strange fact to the three inhabitants of the passage. Unlike what Harry had thought, that being there were a dozen or so more archways ahead, there were but four. One was relatively near the three young men, and the other three were nearly at the end of the passage.
"Already halfway done. I'd say we're making good progress," Nick said dryly, and as he folded his arms. His eyes stayed looking down the passage the entire time, and in them, Harry could see distrust and suspicion.
Like Harry, Nick didn't seem to expect everything to be as easy as it had proven to be. Not with Grindelwald's name attached to the place, and not with the reputation he had so carefully weaved for himself. Harry imagined the entire group of Aurors, Frank the veteran included, had been a bit nervous at the prospect of the assignment.
They'd be right to be if that were the case, and crazy if they weren't.
"What do you say we transfigure the three on the sides and take a peek in the one at the very centre in the back, lads?" Harry asked, nearly cursing himself when he used 'lads' in his sentence. He sounded like one of those Professors that was trying to act hip or up-to-date with their students; Slughorn Senior and Dumbledore had certainly influenced him.
"You think it's safe?" Nick asked, his hands still folded and his eyes still looking ahead.
Harry gave an honest answer. "I think it's safer than the area we'd been in earlier. There doesn't seem to be Muggle traps down here, only old magic and the occasional ward; Inferi too, I suppose, but we might have blocked them off."
"Inferi?" Thomas snorted and waved his off-hand. "We took out an entire horde earlier, what's another group of them gonna do? I bet we'd handle them just as fast as we previously did, and it'd get rid of this damn mist — sounds like a double win for us."
Nick seemed less confident, or less sold on the idea. By now, Harry could easily tell the two brothers were far more different than appearance and initial interactions had led him to believe; he supposed dangerous times would bring people close together quite quickly. At least insomuch as learning about your companions.
"I'd say so," Harry agreed, finally, and as he came to a stop, probably the last he'd come to before the next passage.
He was intent on looking out for traps lest somebody activate one. Thus far, the three young men had done an excellent job together, and Harry was intent on keeping that up. As he'd done before, he sought out traps of any kind, but unlike that previous time, there was no surge of emotion or thought in his mind as he looked around.
Harry failed to spot a tripwire or Muggle weaponry, he failed to spot runes or inscriptions or even a wand that might be dropped on the ground or potions waiting to fall from the ceiling. As far as he could tell, the path ahead was clear and safe, and after wiping his forehead, he motioned over his shoulder for the two brothers to follow after him as they'd been doing since they'd separated from the group earlier on.
They did so without so much as a second passing, and Harry couldn't help but let out a small, proud smile as he continued down the path. He'd earned their trust, to some degree, or they were simply that loyal; either option made him glad he'd picked the two brothers and given them a chance.
"Deputy Minister?" Thomas whispered, the trio only a dozen or so steps away from the entrance or exit, whichever terminology one might prefer. "Do you think it'd be wise if we left a small hole in the archway? One we could send a spell through to illuminate the room beyond but not nearly wide enough for anything to come out after us through?"
They hadn't done so previously, but the idea hadn't been presented. In truth, silly as it might sound, the idea wasn't all that bad. In fact, Harry quite liked it. His innate curiosity would be tickled and he'd be certain there wasn't a thousand Inferi lurking beyond one passage.
"We'll do that, then — Nick, staying watch the path ahead, Thomas, get ready to send a Lumos through the next passage ahead," Harry looked between the two brothers, made sure he had their attention and gave them both a nod when he'd confirmed he did. "Are we ready?"
Nick nodded back at Harry, silent, but with a resolve that was plain to see. Thomas, meanwhile, nodded far more animatedly than his brother had and reaffirmed the grip he had on his wand.
"Ready," he mouthed to Harry, the word only barely reaching his ears.
Still, it was enough for Harry, and he continued towards the archway again. This time, as he extended his wand to transfigure the passageway shut, he left a gap as they'd discussed. It wasn't large, one could fit an arm through it at the most, and the rest of the stone around the area was a foot thick, ensuring nothing short of a troll or dragon might break through after them.
Done and satisfied with his work, Harry stepped aside and ushered Thomas forward. With a fervour that seemed unparalleled by most, the other young man did just that and sent his Lumos blasting full force into the room they'd just barricaded; the word room was most definitely used loosely too.
Thomas took a glance for all of a second, and then he stepped back, allowing Harry to look whilst keeping his wand and Lumos, by extension, pointed inwards. Harry gave a nod to the other man and wasted no time looking in; he snorted and shook his head almost immediately.
Inside what had once been an old, ancient chamber, was a rather unusual privy. Harry saw no sign of Inferi or conflict, and with one more shake of his head, he looked at the path ahead and wondered what those final three rooms might be.
It was then spellfire and the lights thereof graced the three young men.