I've decided to make The King's Chronicles into a seven book series, rather than one massive story. So congrats, you're almost at the end of book 1 lol
Chapter 17: Through The Trapdoor
Finally, we had made it to the door. The door was slightly ajar.
"Well, there you are." Harry said quietly. "Snape's already got past Fluffy."
Seeing the open door made everything come into prospective. We were about to do something completely mental. Something two twelve and one eleven year old had no business doing. We were probably going to deal with spells and enchantments not found in a first year textbook. There was a 50/50 chance we wouldn't make it out of this alive.
"If you want to go back, I won't blame you." Harry said. "You can take the cloak, I won't need it now."
"Don't be stupid." I said, nudging him a little.
"We're coming." said Hermione.
Harry smiled and nodded. Then, he pushed the door open.
As the door creaked, low, rumbling growls met their ears. All three of the dog's noses sniffed madly in their direction, even though it couldn't see us.
"What's that at its feet?" Hermione whispered.
"Looks like a harp," I said. "Snape must have left it there."
"It must wake up the moment you stop playing," said Harry. "Well, here goes..."
He pulled out the flute that Hagrid had given him for Christmas and blew. It was a terrible tune, but whatever Harry was playing was lulling the beast to sleep.
"Keep playing," I warned Harry as I slowly moved the cloak off of us and crept towards the trapdoor, Hermione and Harry in tow. I could feel its hot breath on the back of my neck, sending an eerie chill down my spine. This bloody thing could wake up at any moment and tear us limb from limb.
"I think we'll be able to pull the door open. Want to go first, Hermione?" I asked.
"No, I don't!"whispered Hermione, sharply.
"All right." I said through my teeth. I stepped carefully over the dog's legs. I bent down and pulled the ring of the trapdoor up, opening the door as noise free as I could.
"What can you see?" Hermione asked.
I peered in. It looked like a giant black hole. "Nothing, just black. Looks like there's no way of climbing down, we'll just have to drop."
Harry blew a quick note, pointing to himself.
"You want to go first? Are you sure?" I asked. "I don't know how deep this thing goes. Give the flute to Hermione so she can keep him asleep."
Harry stopped playing. The instant he did, one of the dog's eyes opened. He passed the flute quickly to Hermione and she began to play (merlin can she not be good at something), lulling it back to sleep.
Harry climbed over and looked down through the trapdoor. He lowered himself through the hole until he was hanging on by his fingertips. Then he looked up at me and said, "If anything happens to me, don't follow. Go straight to the owlery and send Hedwig to Dumbledore, right?"
"Right." I said, nervously.
"See you in a minute, I hope..."
Then Harry let go. I couldn't help out let out a small yelp at seeing my friend completely disappear. A couple seconds later, I heard what sounded like a dull thump.
"It's okay!" he called "it's a soft landing, you can jump!"
I breathed a sigh of relief and looked back at Hermione.
"Harry made it." I said. "He says the landing is soft. As soon as you see me jump, you come right behind me and shut the door, do you understand?"
Hermione nodded as she played the flute.
I took a breath and leapt in. I fell for a couple seconds and then landed on what seemed to feel like a huge cushion made of some line looking stuff.
"What's this shit?" I asked, feeling around.
"Dunno, some sort of plant thing. I suppose it's here to break the fall. Come on, Hermione!" Harry called. Hermione must have gotten scared.
The distant music stopped. There was a loud bark from the dog, but Hermione had already jumped. She landed on Harry's other side.
"We must be miles under the school." she said, looking around.
"Lucky this plant thing's here, really." I said.
Hermione looked around, her jaw dropping. "Lucky?!" she shrieked . "Look at you both!"
She leapt up and struggled toward a damp wall. She had to struggle because the moment she had landed, the plant had started to twist its vines around her ankles. I looked down and noticed that my legs had been bound too, along with Harry's
Harry and I started to panic. We twisted around, trying to free our legs. The hold only got worse, and it seemed like more vines were trying to tangle around us.
"Stop moving!" Hermione yelled from against the wall. "I know what this is, it's Devil's Snare!"
I was in no mood to know the name of that bloody plant.
"Oh, I'm so glad we know what it's called, that's a great help." I snapped, leaning back, trying to stop the plant from curling around my bloody neck.
"Shut up, I'm trying to remember how to kill it!" said Hermione.
"Well, hurry up, I can't breathe!" Harry gasped, as the vine curled around his chest like a python.
"Devil's Snare, Devil's Snare... what did Professor Sprout say? Ooh! It likes the dark and the damp." exclaimed Hermione
"So light a fire!" Harry gagged.
"Yes! Of course! But there's no wood!" Hermione cried in a panic.
I couldn't believe my fucking ears. She had to have gone mental.
"HAVE YOU GONE MAD?" I bellowed. "ARE YOU A WITCH OR NOT?"
"Oh, right!" said Hermione, and she whipped out her wand, waved it, muttered a spell, and sent a blast of her bluebell flames at the plant. The plant seemed to cringe at contact and loosened it's grip on us, allowing us to wiggle free. Made out what to the wall, hoping to never touch that shit again.
"Lucky you pay attention in Herbology, Hermione." said Harry, wiping sweat off his face.
"Yeah." I said, patting her on the back. "And lucky Harry doesn't lose his head in a crisis - 'there's no wood,' honestly."
"This way," said Harry, pointing down some weird stone corridor. We took another look back at the dreaded Devil's Snare, turned, and walked on.
I always knew I hated plants.
The walkway was quiet and damp. All we could hear was water dripping from the ceiling into the floor and our footprints.
Not unsettling at all.
The passageway sloped downward like we were heading down to the pitch. We held onto the back of each other's shirts, I holding Harry's and Hermione holding mine. Suddenly, I thought I could hear a faint noise. Almost like a whisper
"Can you hear something?" I uttered.
"Do you think it's a ghost?"
"I don't know" I said as we got closer. "Sounds like wings to me."
"There's light ahead. " said Harry. "I can see something moving."
We reached the end of the passageway and entered a small open chamber. From where we were standing, it looked like jeweled birds were fluttering around slowly over our heads. A huge wooden door was on the far wall.
"Do you think they'll attack us if we cross the room?" I asked.
"Probably," said Harry. "They don't look very vicious, but I suppose if they all swooped down at once... well, there's no other choice... I'll run."
He took a deep breath, covered his face with his arms, and ran across the room. Nothing happened. He touched the door. Nothing happened. He tried to pull it open, but it was locked.
We ran over and tried to help him open it. Hermione tried alohomora and it didn't work. We were at a loss
"Now what?" I said, frustrated.
"These birds... they can't be here just for decoration," said Hermione, looking back up at them almost in a new light.
As we looked at them, one of the birds caught a bit of light. Suddenly, I realized that they weren't birds at all, but..
"They're not birds!" Harry said suddenly, realizing it too. "They're keys! Winged keys, look carefully. So that must mean... yes - look! Broomsticks! We've got to catch the key to the door!"
"But there are hundreds of them!" said Hermione. "And I'm rubbish at brooms."
I looked at the lock shape of the door. I was used to doing this, as we have had to pick many a lock at the Burrow.
"We're looking for a big, old-fashioned one." I said. "Probably silver, like the handle."
We each picked up a broomstick ( Awh, come on Hermione") and kicked off into the air. As soon as we were airborne, the keys picked up speed and flew in different directions.
I couldn't see what we were looking for, the sea of flying keys hit it well.
"That one!" Harry called out, finding it. Those bloody good seeker eyes of his. "That big one there! Shit! No, there! With bright blue wings, the feathers are all crumpled on one side."
I spotted the key and took off towards it, speeding pass a wobbly Hermione. I ended up in the ceiling, crashing my broom and almost falling off. Charlie would have been oh so proud.
"We've got to close in on it!" Harry yelled "Ron, you come at it from above. Hermione, stay below and stop it from going down and I'll try and catch it. Right, NOW!"
I gained control of the broom and dived, while Hermione zoomed up. We had the key closed in. Harry managed to pin it to the wall, grasping it firmly and flying down towards the ground with it in his left hand.
Harry ran to the door with the key struggling in his hand to get out. He rammed it into the lock and turned, unlocking the door. The keep flew out the door and rejoined the others.
"Ready?" Harry look back and asked.
We nodded, and with that, Harry opened the door.