Something was poking Jamie in the back. In fact, his entire back was extraordinarily uncomfortable, like when he'd bet Mia that he could sleep comfortably outside without his wand or Bedlam. But wait… he hadn't been outside; he'd been in a pyramid. He'd been talking with Ron and Mia, and then… nothing. He opened his eyes to more inky blackness. Well, good thing he was allowed to use charms now. "Lumos."
The ground next to him was sandstone. It looked practically new, considering chisel marks were still visible on the stone. Most of the room was empty, but in the other corner was another pile of clothes he recognised. "Mia!"
He ran over, and his sister sluggishly opened her eyes and sat up at his prodding. "Where am I?"
Jamie shrugged at his sister. "We're in some kind of sandstone room, which makes me think we're probably still in a pyramid, but I don't remember how we got here. Do you?"
Mia scrunched up her face as she concentrated. "...a flash of light? It had an odd color to it. Is Ron also here? What about our parents? Or the rest of the Weasleys?"
"No such luck. So far, it's you, me, and a big sandstone room. I'm pretty sure this isn't part of the tour, though."
Mia pulled her wand out of her holster. "Well, we won't figure anything out by staying here, and I refuse to sit here and starve to death. We passed our charms ECHIDNAs, so we can probably find our way out of here or at least send a message to the cursebreakers. I'm sure our parents have already sounded the alarm, so we probably only need to lead them to us."
After a thorough visual search of the room revealed nothing, Jamie reached into his back pocket and pulled out his wallet. It looked mundane from the outside, but there was a second, heavily expanded pocket in the billfold. While Mia had gotten an expanded bag from Mr. Ogden for passing her ECHIDNA, Jamie had gotten this wallet, which he felt was infinitely cooler. Reaching in up to his elbow, he felt around for a Christmas present he had received for his eleventh birthday. Ever since their adventure at Santa's workshop, they'd been getting the coolest magical toys every Christmas. The particular gift he was looking for was a never-ending bottle of multicolored glow-in-the-dark bubble-blowing solution. Pulling it out, he quickly cancelled his lumos and blew bubbles until the room was illuminated. With this new light source, he and Mia began casting diagnostic charms, looking for the exit. After a few times around, Jamie noticed his sister had become quite focused on a particular section of wall. "Mia, do you think that's the exit?"
His sister ignored him for a full fifteen seconds before answering. "Well, this is the only area of the room that seems to be warded, so I'm assuming it's the exit. But I haven't found a way to undo whatever is keeping the opening sealed, and there is always the possibility that we don't really want to undo the ward. After all, we could release a nest of scorpions or mummies or something..."
Letting his sister go back to work, Jamie finished checking the rest of the room for wards but didn't find any. "That's the only warded area, Mia. I think we're going to have to risk it."
Mia sighed. "I haven't figured out what's keeping the room sealed, only that it's definitely sealed. But if we're going for it, no use risking anything we don't have to. Let's stand on the other side of the room. I'll shield, if you'll destroy the wall?"
Once both siblings were behind Mia's strongest shields, Jamie pointed his wand at the far wall. "Confringo!" The spell flew rapidly towards the wall before exploding violently upon impact. Almost immediately thereafter, it was followed by a larger magical explosion as the wards keeping the wall in place collapsed. The magical storm nearly made it through Mia's shields, but they held against the onslaught.
As the dust settled around the room, Mia turned to her brother "Well… That was a bit more extreme than I was expecting… Was the blasting curse really necessary? I feel like a reductor would have been just as effective and would have had a slightly smaller chance of bringing the pyramid down around our ears."
Jamie sheepishly shrugged at his sister. "Maybe it was a bit much, but it turned out okay, right? Besides, that curse sounded like so much fun when we read about it, but Mum and Dad won't let us practice it in the backyard… I couldn't resist the temptation."
Mia sighed, mildly exasperated at her brother and his very boyish love of explosions. "Let's just get going. And no more explosions, please. I'm not keen on getting buried beneath several tons of magical pyramid." The two siblings exited the room via the newly created, still-smoking hole in the wall. The glowing bubbles cast eerie multi-colored shadows on the walls such that Mia almost didn't notice the remains of hieroglyphs on the very edges of the hole her brother had created. Pulling out a notebook from her bag, Mia quickly copied the remaining fragments of whatever had been on the wall onto a blank page so she could study them later.
Jamie investigated their immediate vicinity while his sister's charms copied the hieroglyphic remnants into her notebook. They had just ruined some ancient carvings, so it was probably best that Mia was preserving what was left. At least he wasn't waiting while she copied stuff out by hand anymore. Magic truly was awesome. Looking further ahead, he found a fork in the path. Blowing a few bubbles down each corridor didn't reveal anything interesting; they'd have to find another way to choose.
Jamie returned to find his sister analyzing the runes on the wall, trying to make some sense of them. "I think it's time we moved on, Mia. There's a fork ahead, and we need to figure out which path to choose."
Mia reluctantly turned away. As fascinating as the hieroglyphs looked, she could always study them later. She walked with her brother to the fork and thought for a moment before reaching into her bag and digging around for a bit before pulling out a small carved figurine of a kikimora, another Christmas present. Carefully spinning the beech wood carving, the base glowed briefly before the statue stopped, facing left. Mia picked it up and put it back in her bag. "I guess we need to go left."
That little figurine had gotten them both into and out of quite a bit of trouble. The statuette had some magic in it that would "Show them where they should go," according to the instruction manual. It sounded terrific, but the "should" in the instructions made it very unpredictable. Once, it led Mia straight to her teacher when she tried to escape after kicking a classmate for teasing her. Apparently, it had decided that she "should" turn herself in and accept her punishment. Since then, the siblings had taken its directions with a grain of salt. However, this time, Jamie couldn't think of a better way of deciding.
The siblings stopped when they reached a set of stone doors. Cautiously, they pushed them open and stepped inside. They both felt a slight tingle of magic swirling before torches flickered on around them and the door closed behind them. In the center of the room, a giant figure emerged, and both children backed away with their wands at the ready. A booming voice echoed from the shadows, "Trespassers in this ancient and holy place, I will pose to you a riddle. If you do not answer, you may return the way to came, unharmed. If you answer correctly, you may pass and continue on your way. But if you answer incorrectly, you shall die in this place at my claws." It held up one large paw with razor-sharp claws that neither sibling wanted to encounter, "This is my riddle:
I do not breathe, but I run and jump.
I do not eat, but I swim and stretch.
I do not drink, but I sleep and stand.
I do not think, but I grow and play.
I do not see, but you see me every day.
What am I?"
"Bloody hell! What is a sphinx doing down here?!" Jamie whispered to his sister as he started backing away to the door.
"Harry James Granger! Language!" Mia glared sternly at her brother.
"Now really isn't the time, Mia." Jamie tried to open the door but found it locked. "We're trapped in here with a Sphinx! I know it said we could leave unharmed, but that doesn't seem like an option. The door is sealed shut!"
The sphinx snickered from across the room, "Oops," its booming voice echoed in a pitiful attempt to sound innocent. "I guess you'll have to answer the riddle or die. Of course, there's no rush. You can just stay here until you die of starvation. Magic might prevent me from killing and eating people who haven't answered my riddle, but that won't be a problem if you die on your own."
"Mia?" Jamie looked at his sister.
"Yes, Jamie?" Mia looked back, rather pale.
"Have I mentioned that your statue sucks?"
Mia blushed and huffed, "Well, I didn't see you suggesting a better idea. Let's just think for a bit. Surely we can solve a riddle, right?"
The siblings went back and forth, debating possible solutions for quite a while. They only had one chance to get it right, so they wanted to make sure they didn't mess it up. The sphinx calmly waited in the corner for them to finish their debate, occasionally twirling its hair with one paw.
After about fifteen minutes of rather enthusiastic debate on their answer, the children stepped forward. "We have an answer for you, sphinx," Mia said.
"Are you sure, children? You could always think about it more. Watching you two discuss it was the best time I've had since a novice forgot to take the secret passage around my room. He was quite tasty, too."
Jamie shuddered, "Well, we've got an answer for you anyway. I don't think you'll be getting a meal this time."''
"Well, then, what say you? What is your answer?"
"The answer is 'legs'," Mia answered with as much confidence as she could muster. Their only other idea was 'a shadow,' but they both agreed 'legs' was much more likely to be correct.
The sphinx sighed, "Well, I guess you get to go through. I wasn't really hungry, anyway. I just had that novice a few minutes ago. Go along, children. I won't eat you this time."
"Err… Thank you, Ms. Sphinx." Jamie said with a bow.
The sphinx politely inclined its head in return, "Yes, yes. Move along. I want to get to sleep and relax."
The children hurried across the room, and Mia closed another set of stone doors behind them, relieved that they'd soved the riddle. Being eaten by a sphinx was not her idea of a good holiday.
~~~~~~~~~~ Y ~~~~~~~~~~
Ron Weasley woke up with a groan, wondering why his head hurt so much. Opening his eyes, he found that he couldn't see anything. It was pitch black, without a shred of light. "Mum? Bill?" Ron called out for his family, but his voice simply echoed back at him from the darkness. "Anyone around?" The darkness didn't answer him.
Ron reached for his wand, only to find an empty pocket. 'Of all the times for Mum to confiscate my wand! I can't even cast a wand-lighting charm!' Ron sat down in the darkness, scared and unsure of what to do.
He didn't know how long he sat there, but after a while, Ron started to give up hope that anyone might be coming. Tears prickled at the edges of his eyes as he stood and started moving. Ron stretched his hands in front of him and shuffled forward, hoping to find a wall or a door that might lead him out or at least give him some information.
The darkness made him rather nervous, but he was a Gryffindor! He hadn't been scared of the dark since he was eight! He reached a wall and started groping along it. It kept turning at odd intervals, but he couldn't really do anything but continue to follow it and hope it got him somewhere.
Sometimes, when he approached a turn, he heard a sound from around the corner. It sounded like a pebble falling, but each time he checked, he couldn't find any loose stones on the ground. Sometimes, it sounded like creaking wood, but there was no wood in this place, only smooth, cold walls. He had walked quite a distance but had never encountered anything but solid stone.
He was at the edge of his nerves when he heard a sound like a growl. Ron froze, hoping the sound wouldn't come any closer. 'It's just your imagination, Ron… Nothing's here. You're alone in this maze. You just need to keep going. You'll eventually find the exit.' He refused to acknowledge the thought that he might never find one. He slowly turned around to see if there was anything behind him, but he only saw darkness. 'There could be something right next to me, and I'd never know…' He reached out his hands and didn't touch anything but couldn't shake the growing terror.
Following the same wall into the inky darkness, he kept exploring. The noises became increasingly frequent, but nothing ever happened, and the fear creeping into Ron's mind slowly started to recede. He stopped jumping at every noise and started following the wall a bit faster.
The moment of peace, however, only lasted for a short while. Ron heard a screeching howl from behind. He jumped and turned to face the sound but saw nothing. That sound was not his imagination, though. Something was in the darkness with him, and he was helpless! He turned to the direction he had been heading before and started running. He heard feet pounding behind him as he crashed into a corner, fumbling in the darkness. Shaking off the pain, he picked a direction and ran again, holding his hands out in front of him. As he ran, he looked over his shoulder and saw the first thing since he had woken up in this horrible place. A pair of sharp, glowing eyes loomed out of the darkness, staring at him. For a moment, he froze. The eyes continued to stare, unblinking. The stalemate broke as Ron started edging away. The eyes disappeared, and another howl echoed forth, spurring Ron into action. He ran as fast as his legs could carry him. He banged into a wall at every corner, but the adrenaline blocked out the pain and kept him moving.
Sometimes, the howl would come from a corner ahead of him, and sometimes, it would come from behind him. 'There are two!?' Ron felt a fresh rush of terror, hemmed in on both sides. Soon, though, he saw light reflecting from around the corner and felt a surge of hope. He rushed towards it, hoping he would have a chance of scaring off the beasts that were pursuing him if he could just make it to the light.
Turning the corner, Ron realized something. The light hadn't been coming, as he assumed, from an exit or a torch. It had been coming from the belly of a massive spider. He tripped in shock, sprawling before it and letting out his first shriek of terror. The creature's eight eyes locked on him, and the spider made a terrifying clicking sound as it lumbered towards him, each step shaking the ground beneath him.
Ron lost himself to fear. He was beyond fight or flight. Ron screamed, flailed, and somehow scrambled to his feet. He ran into the darkness, too far gone to consider that he was running right back to the unknown beasts. His screams continued to echo throughout the corridors as the young boy ran, pursued by endless horrors.
~~~~~~~~~~ Y ~~~~~~~~~~
The hallway stretched ahead of them, and the siblings continued down it, carefully looking for other hidden surprises. However, in the end, they didn't have to look very hard. The corridor simply dead-ended at a solid wall covered in a vast array of hieroglyphs in neat, straight lines. Mia immediately got her book out and began the spell to copy the runes. Jamie, meanwhile, began searching the grid for symbols he recognized. After all, Cursebreaker Weasley had explained a couple of the sequences before they had been separated.
As the two siblings studied the hieroglyphs under the odd, multi-colored light of the gently drifting bubbles, they became aware of something else in the background: faint screams. They ebbed in and out, getting louder and softer like waves crashing on a beach, if at a much higher pitch. It was a disturbingly soothing sound, considering its origin.
"You hear that too, right Mia?" Jamie put his ear against the wall while Mia attempted to decipher her notes.
"Yeah… It's strange… It sounds like it's coming from just the other side of the wall."
"Wait… It sounds like Ron, Mia! He might be trapped in there with something!"
Mia gasped. "We've got to get him out!" The two children started scrambling for a way to open the wall, but neither of them could find anything. Mia looked through her notebook, while Jamie poked at the wall with his wand, looking for a switch or anything that might open it.
"Mia, I don't think we'll be able to open this passage properly. I think we'll have to force our way through."
"But what about Ron, Jamie? What if we cause an explosion, he won't have a shield up like we did. I want to save him, but we need to be careful, or we'll just blow him up." Mia gave Jamie her notes. "Here's what was warding our room, and this page shows these hieroglyphs. I'm a bit out of my depth." Mia frowned. "I never thought to read up on magical uses of hieroglyphics before we left on holiday. Maybe you can see something I'm missing."
Rushing over, Jamie studied the notebook intently, his brain in overdrive as he rushed to find a way to help his new friend, whose screams still echoed in the background. "I can't figure anything out either! None of these symbols are what Cursebreaker Weasley showed me earlier… Wait… Right here, Mia!"
Mia looked over his shoulder, "I think… See this section, and this section?" Jamie pointed to a set of runes from each page.
"Yeah, I see them, but what do you think they mean?" Before showing them to her brother, Mia had looked for identical patterns between the two runic arrays, but she had found nothing.
"I'm not entirely sure… But… This has some of the same… Flow, I guess? Right here, see how this symbol flows sideways from here into this symbol and then down to this one?"
Mia followed Jamie's finger. "I'm not so sure, Jamie. Looks like something pretty thin to go on."
"I know, but this gives us a starting point. This is where the runes have the most commonality with each other, as far as I can guess. If we destroy it, we might be able to open the wall without destabilizing the pyramid since both runes were locking whatever is behind it. There's other stuff in the runes, of course, which means something else will likely be disrupted. But this might open it up, at least! And I'm 90% sure the rest of it will keep working. Look." Jamie traced the section with his finger. "This section looks pretty… Isolated? Not much else flows into or out of it, so I think it will be okay without it."
Mia studied where Jamie was pointing and frowned. "I really can't see it, but I don't have a better idea." She stood up and walked over to the wall, "Let's do it. We'll smash this section, and then, hopefully, we can get through the wall and get Ron out of there without a large explosion." Mia raised her wand. "Let's do the same as before. You shoot, I'll shield." Mia raised her shield as Jamie got into position. "And don't do anything crazy, or I'll get you with my strongest tickling charm as soon as we get out of here."
Jamie smiled cheekily back at her, "Wouldn't dream of it, dear sister. Now, let's get our friend out of there." He raised his wand, aiming carefully and summoning all of his focus. "Reducto."
~~~~~~~~~~ Y ~~~~~~~~~~
*CRASH*
The explosion barely registered in Ron's fear-filled mind. He could practically feel the beasts nipping at his heels as he ran, afraid each step might be his last. It seemed as though every corner he passed by contained a new horror: a giant snake, a screeching beast with wings and claws. Nothing had caught him yet, but he knew it wouldn't be long.
"RON!" Hearing his name broke through the haze gripping his mind enough for him to turn towards it.
"RON!" The voice was louder this time. He was running in the right direction! He crashed into a wall and turned before he saw his new friends running towards him, bathed in glorious light. Hope filled him for the first time since seeing the glowing spider.
~~~~~~~~~~ Y ~~~~~~~~~~
"RON!" Jamie yelled out, blasting through the walls ahead of him towards the screaming Ron as Mia followed behind, casting charms on the glowing bubbles so they hovered in the air behind them like a trail of breadcrumbs. They heard crashing footsteps in the distance before they saw Ron rushing at them. Behind him, they saw unknown creatures pursuing. The siblings started casting stunners, shields, and other more creative spells while they urged Ron on towards them. When he reached the siblings, Ron practically tackled Jamie in tears of relief.
"Mia, I don't think our spells are doing anything. They're still coming!"
Mia looked around. "Let's hurry back the way we came and see if we can close the wall back up. It contained them before, so let's hope that works in our favor again, even if the hieroglyphs aren't completely intact."
Pulling the crying, exhausted, and very bruised Ron, Jamie ran back, following the frozen bubbles and blasting his way back through the erratically shifting maze. Mia followed, repairing the maze to block the hordes of monsters from following them. Yet, as soon as she fixed one section, another monster approached from another direction. When they reached the original wall, Jamie let Ron slide to the ground and helped Mia hastily levitate pieces of rubble back into place. The wall shuddered when the last piece was returned before settling into place. They could still hear horrible rumblings from the other side, but the magic held firm, even with the few effaced runes. They weren't sure what they had broken when they blasted them off, but the siblings were satisfied as long as the wall wasn't exploding or disgorging monsters.
Breathing a sigh of relief, they took a moment to gather their thoughts. Ron was basically catatonic, not really doing much other than responding to simple commands, but both siblings were surprisingly unscathed. Jamie thought he had gotten hit at least a few times by those monsters on the way out, but after a few moments, he shrugged to himself. It wasn't important now. Jamie tried to snap Ron out of his mumblings while Mia checked her statue.
Mia sighed, "Well, it's pointing back the other way now… I guess we did what we 'should' do here." She turned to her brother, "How's Ron?"
"Well, he's in pretty bad shape. He's got a bunch of bruises everywhere, and he's not thinking straight at all. Whatever happened to him in there scared him pretty bad. Adrenaline was keeping him going, and now that that's gone… Well, I think we need to get him some medical attention or some comfort from his family at the very least."
"Alright. Let's get going. Here's hoping the Sphinx has an easy riddle lined up for the return trip."
Supporting Ron, the two siblings walked back towards the sphinx room. Upon opening the door, they found everything exactly as it was when they left it. The sphinx turned to them and looked surprised.
"Back already, are you?" It licked its claws menacingly.
"So it seems," Jamie looked imploringly at the creature, "Any chance you could let us pass without another riddle? After all, it's only been a few minutes."
The sphinx looked at Jamie and said, "Sorry, little boy. No matter how polite you are, one riddle for one passage. That's the rule."
Jamie sighed, "Well, if that's the case… Let's have it!"
"So be it!" The sphinx cleared its throat and winked before launching into a riddle.
"I do not breathe, but I run and jump.
I do not eat, but I swim and stretch.
I do not drink, but I sleep and stand.
I do not think, but I grow and play.
I do not see, but you see me every day.
What am I?"
Jamie and Mia's jaws dropped as they stared in shock at the sphinx.
The sphinx laughed at the children, "I am not compelled to tell each passing person a different riddle. Now, I hope you remember your answer."
Mia collected herself first, "Legs."
"Very good." The sphinx graciously inclined her head at the children. "Now, off with you."
The teenagers hurried across the room before Jamie turned around and asked, "Do you like being here? Or would you prefer to leave?"
"Telling riddles is what I exist to do, but being imprisoned in a pyramid isn't exactly the high road to Thebes! I haven't been here long, but telling riddles to children and scrawny priests really isn't as fun as juicy farmers and brawny adventurers."
Mia shot a puzzled look at the Sphinx and was about to ask it a question when Jamie spoke instead. "Got it. We'll make sure to tell someone outside about you. At least, if we manage to get out of here ourselves." The teenagers turned to leave.
"Good luck now. I hope the next person who walks through the door is a dashing young wizard who will either prove tasty or can break the enchantments that keep me here."
Leaving the sphinx behind, the children continued. They passed the side passage they'd originally come from and continued forward in the unexplored direction, hoping they could handle whatever confronted them next. Ron was getting pretty heavy, and they weren't sure how much farther they could drag him.
Ahead of them was a door that fortunately opened without any percussive theatrics. Stepping into the room, they saw what awaited them. The room was covered in snakes, from the floor to the ceiling to the walls. The wards were the only things keeping them from spilling out of the room.
Jamie perked up. "Wow, this is amazing. Look at all of these snakes!" He bent down to the edge of the wards. "This is an asp, and this is a viper, and this is a cobra… And some of these aren't even native to Egypt. I've never even seen that one! Who'sss a pretty girl?" Jamie reached out to the snakes and moved his hand around laughing as they snapped at him with sharp fangs.
An exasperated Mia poked her younger brother while struggling to hold up Ron's weight. "Jamie! Focus! You can come back and play with the snakes later. Can you ask them to let us pass for now?"
Pouting, Jamie stopped playing with the snakes and stood up before speaking in his most regally accented parseltongue, "Can you nice ladiesss and gentlemen please let us passss? My sssissster and I are trying to get help for our friend, and we need to crossss this room to do ssso."
"Sssure, ssspeaker." The snakes chorused in reply before opening a path. Ron, on hearing the parseltongue, came out of his catatonia and started screaming and disorientedly pushing at Jamie to get away from him.
"You're a parseltongue! A dark wizard! Mia, we've got to get out of here before your brother kills us both!"
Mia tried to calm him down. "Ron! Be quiet! Jamie isn't going to kill us!" Ron kept struggling until a bolt of red light hit him, and he went unconscious. Mia relaxed. "Thanks, Jamie. I wonder why he's so scared, though? Think it had anything to do with that story Mrs. Wilkins told us about Mr. Mort? He was an evil parselmouth from Britain, right?"
Jamie shrugged. "Doesn't really matter. Let's just get out of here." He turned and walked through the snakes along the path that had opened up for them. Mia could see that Ron's reaction hurt her brother, but she didn't really know how to comfort him. Once he cooled down, she'd point out that Ron had obviously been delirious when he freaked out. With a muttered spell, she levitated the now unconscious boy behind her.
After leaving the room, they found a wall that opened when they pushed on it, letting them out into the warm, dusky light of the ending day.
~~~~~~~~~~ Y ~~~~~~~~~~
A/N
Many thanks to the author of for the riddle, so Mr. Darcy and I didn't have to think up our own. :) We write slowly enough as it is. -_-
As always, please leave a review if you enjoyed reading - it encourages us to keep typing. :)
Lady Beatrice