One thing I forgot to say on FFN (but remembered to mention on Ao3): Harry's abuse at the hands of the Dursleys has a somewhat heavier effect on him in this story than it did in canon. It's going to be alluded to here and there from now on, so be warned.
"Ooh, we're really lost, aren't we?" Yellow fretted. "We were halfway up the castle. How did we get under it? I don't even remember."
"The curse is messing with our heads," Ron said grimly. "It pulled us down here, like a backwards notice-me-not spell."
While both Harrys seemed puzzled and unnerved by the idea, Hermione nodded in comprehension. "So this is another trick played by the curse on the castle," she said. Her eyes roved across the small cavern they stood in, observing its rough-hewn floor and boxy walls. All four walls had one doorway each, including the one they'd just stepped through. Three doorways were open, lit by the odd fire-bins that had replaced Hogwarts's familiar torches. The one closed door, whose outline could only just be seen in the back wall, had an unlit receptacle on either side of it.
Hermione pointed her wand at one of the empty stone bins. "Hold on, I want to try something," she said to give the group warning. "Incendio!" A jet of flame shot toward the receptacle. However, when the spell ended, the fire hadn't caught. "Just like Lumos, huh," she mused.
"Care to share with the class, Hermione?" Blue drawled.
The girl considered him as she had the room. Despite his calm voice, the boy clutched his wand tightly and his eyes were wide and scared. "This entire cave is just another puzzle, and one thing I've learned about these kinds of things is that they don't encourage creative answers. There's one, very specific solution to all of this," she said. "We need to light those bins to get that door open, but the puzzle won't let us come up with our own method for that. Therefore, we need to find how the puzzle intends for us to get those lit." She pointed to the open doorways to their right and left. "We need to check both of those areas. One or both of them will have something useful if I'm right."
Ron grinned. "You usually are."
"Does that mean we're splitting up? I don't know if that would be a good idea," Yellow said. "What if we get locked in one of those rooms full of monsters? We don't know where they'd take us if they knocked us out, or even if they'd stop at only knocking us out. This place feels different from Hogwarts." The boy looked even more wound up than Blue, like a puppy anticipating a kick.
Blue wrapped an arm over his twin's shoulders. "We're moving as one group," he said decisively. "Let's search the left room first."
The quartet went through the doorway on the left and began investigating the rectangular room beyond. It was dimly lit by a fire-bin in each corner, allowing them to see the multitude of round pots contained within. Three groups of twelve pots, each in a row of six, filled the room. Each pot was about the size of a large vase, made out of dully shining brown clay.
Hermione picked up one of the pots and turned it upside-down. Nothing fell out. "Why would pots be part of the puzzle?" she wondered aloud. These pieces of pottery looked more suited to a suburban garden than a dark cave.
"Ow!"
Everyone's heads snapped up at Ron's yelp.
"That torch-thing shot me!" the boy cried, pointing at the fire-bin nearest him.
At that moment, something not unlike a flaming cricket ball hit Hermione's back with the force of a hard punch. She stumbled, her hands instinctively going to the spot of burning pain. Her robes were scorched, but not on fire.
"We need to get out of here!" she shouted. Her voice cracked with the urge to cry. The girl gritted her teeth and forced down the childish impulse, wiping away her tears of pain with her sleeve. "The torches are some kind of defense system!"
"Smash pots and dodge the fire!" Blue barked. He had his sword out and a manic glint in his eye. "There's something in here. They wouldn't be shooting at us if there weren't an answer to find." He swung his sword viciously and clove through three pots. They shattered with unnatural force, the pieces vanishing as soon as they hit the ground.
"Blue, we don't know what—eep!" Yellow ducked a fireball. "We don't know what we're looking for!" he pointed out.
"Then just smash everything and collect whatever falls out!" Blue staggered as a fireball hit his shoulder. The boy shook off the attack with a snarl and continued mauling the pots.
Hermione and Ron began picking up pots and throwing them as the Harrys used their swords to their advantage. Fueled by anger, pain, and the stubborn determination all Potters shared, Blue went on a pot-killing rampage. He slew two-thirds of the three dozen pots, his teeth bared and his hair even wilder than usual. Even so, it was Ron who found what they were searching for.
"You think this is it?" he asked, holding up an oversized, tarnished silver key.
The lack of fireballs flying through the room was their answer.
"Finally." Blue wavered on his feet and sagged against a wall. "I need to do more exercise than Quidditch," he moaned. "My body can't keep up with my temper."
"I didn't even know you still had anger problems, with the way you talked to Snape," Yellow said. "I thought you'd gone all cool-headed and Slytherin-ish."
Blue gave him a flat stare. "I'm Harry Potter."
Yellow nodded, clearly understanding something that Ron and Hermione didn't. "Oh, right. Living with our family really teaches you to keep an even keel in certain company, doesn't it?"
Blue grimaced. "It certainly does." He pushed himself away from the wall and brushed off his scorched robes. The boy had caught at least four fireballs, from the amount of smoking cloth on his back and shoulders. "To the other room we go. Hopefully, it won't have any shooting torches." With his free hand, he flipped off one of the fire-bins.
"Blue, don't be rude!" Hermione scolded.
"It tried to set me on fire, Hermione. It was rude first." Blue stuck his tongue out at the torch and then led the way out of the room.
Shwanggg-chkch!
A massive, four-sided blade shot by—close enough to put a rip in Red's robes—and crashed into the stone wall with a rattle.
Red staggered back with a stream of curses and landed on his rear, his lamp clattering to the ground.
"I'll thank you to stop swearing," Harry said as loudly as he dared. He rubbed his pounding temples. "That isn't the first time one of those knife-squares has tried to kill you, anyway. One would think the surprise would wear off."
"It's really big and really fast, Green! And I like not having my legs chopped off!" Red defended. He snatched up his lantern and climbed to his feet. "How the hell are we supposed to get out of here, with those things in front of every door? I've gone at them three times, now, and they're still way too fast to dodge. I've done the dumb plan and it didn't work, so what's the smart plan?"
"We get past them the same way we got in, obviously," Harry said. His head hurt, his vision was swimming, and walking in a straight line was getting progressively more difficult. The resulting stress from this was making him echo Blue's jaded tones. "Look, there's a delay with these traps, isn't there? They swing out, try to kill you, and then slowly reel back in. If we run past while they're pulling themselves in for another shot, they won't hit us."
"Ohhh." Red put his hand under his chin. "Er, you're way slower than me right now, though. And I can't even avoid these things all that well. I'm not sure this is the smart plan."
Harry sighed. "I'm concussed—so sue me," he said with a shrug. "If you want to starve to death in here, fine. I have a Hospital Wing to get to." He climbed to his feet with the care of a staggering drunk, using his lamp as leverage.
Red watched him worriedly before ducking under his arm. "You know it's a bad idea when your inner Gryffindor is iffy about it," he groused. "Still, I'd rather you did it with me than without. You can't walk five steps without falling over."
"Your loyalty is 'preciated," Harry said with a sloppy salute. "Shall we?"
"I guess so." Red cautiously crept toward the blade that had just attacked him. When the boys were about twenty centimeters from its path of attack, it shot at them with startling speed. They froze in place, their hearts suddenly hammering, just out of harm's way. When the trap hit the wall, they scurried through the doorway before it could retract.
"I bet we're going to have to go back there for another key, or something," Harry commented once he could think over the sound of his slowing pulse. "I saw a doorway in there, and not the one we came in from."
"If we find another locked door, I'll go get that stupid key myself and you can stay put," Red growled. He helped Harry sit down and leaned him against the wall. "Now, what next?" He blinked, noticing that the room was completely unlit but for the illumination provided by his and Harry's lanterns. "Er, is it really dark in here, or is it just me?"
Harry had the same realization as he looked around. His slightly fuzzy vision reported an empty fire-bin a few meters off, near where he approximated the center of the room to be. Given that all the fire-bins he'd seen so far had been stationed next to doors or in the corners of different rooms, that didn't bode well. "I'm pretty sure we went from one trapped room to another," he sighed. "Red, get your sword out."
Red complied and held the weapon in one hand, the other occupied by his lamp. "What do you think it is? Shadow-bats? Electric slime monsters?"
"This place is more dangerous than the castle. Whatever's in here is probably—" Harry was cut off by the sound of metal grating against stone. The boys jumped at the awful noise and glanced back at the opening they'd come in through. A stone door and an array of spikes had risen up to block it.
The boys' shocked silence was broken by a five-note chiming sound. Red caught sight of something large and colorful before a trio of fireballs shot at him. He swore and threw himself sideways. One of the balls of flame still managed to clip him, searing his ear. Right as he landed, he heard another laugh and saw something glint yellow in the darkness. Immediately after that, the sound of many small, flapping wings could be heard.
"Toucans!" Harry cried. "At least two of them! Watch out for—" The boy was forced to scramble to one side as a boomerang-shaped blue spell hit where he'd been sitting. Ice grew explosively from the site of impact.
"Oh, come on!" Red railed as he dodged another set of fireballs. He was then set upon by a swarm of shadow-bats that had appeared from seemingly nowhere. The boy swung his sword wildly, slicing through several. "The stuff in the castle's just fun and games, compared to—" He heard a chiming sound, a whoosh, and an inhuman giggle, and was then knocked over by a wave of intense cold slamming into his back. "QUIT LAUGHING, YOU BLOODY BIRDS!" he roared.
Harry stumbled away from another ice-boomerang. "Yeah, that'll show 'em!" he called across the room.
"RRAUGH!" Red whirled around and chopped at the toucan who'd appeared behind him. The robed bird jerked back with a cry of pain and then used its magic to vanish. "How are we supposed to fight these monsters when we can't even see?" he bemoaned. "They aren't always going to appear right next to us." The boy had dropped his lantern when the shadow-bats had swooped at him. He was lucky the toucans' attacks were so bright, otherwise he'd have been unable to dodge.
"Wait a minute…We aren't supposed to fight them! They're a distraction." Harry wobbled over to the unlit fire-bins he'd noticed earlier and tipped his lantern over one of them. A drop of fire spilled out and into the receptacle, causing it to burst into flame. "It's just another puzzle!"
"Well, solve it!" Red shouted. He blindly snatched a shadow-bat out of the air and chucked it at where he guessed a toucan to be. The sound they created upon appearing and their high-pitched laughter made them easy to find, even if their habit of teleporting made them almost impossible to hit with a close-range weapon.
Harry hopped over a set of fireballs and finished lighting the torches. The moment they were all aflame, the room burst into full illumination and the monsters within vanished. With a screech of protest, the spikes blocking the exits sank into the ground.
"Bloody hell," Red panted. He lay flat on his back and gulped down air. "We really weren't built for combat."
"If we ever were, I'm sure the Dursleys starved that potential out of us," Harry said dryly. He noticed a red and gold treasure chest sitting in the center of the four torches he'd lit. If that had been there before, he definitely would have tripped over it. "Er, I think solving the puzzle earned us a present," he said. "Although I've never seen a treasure chest in real life before. Weird." As Red got to his feet and walked over, Harry pulled the lid of the chest up. "Let's see…We got a map?" He reached in and pulled out the rolled-up sheet of parchment. Though yellowed by advanced age, the ancient calfskin opened without any problem.
"I bet it's connected to that compass we found earlier," Red remarked. He fished the aforementioned object out of his pocket and held it up to the map. Immediately, the inked drawing gained detail. The rooms, represented in red and blue outlines that probably denoted where they had and hadn't been, became less simplistic in shape as their true dimensions were revealed. Small red rectangles popped up in a few of the rooms, and in the center of the map, within the only round chamber, appeared a skull symbol.
"Green, look!" Red pointed to a spot near the upper left corner of the map. Four lines of footsteps could be seen, each marked by a name. Two were labeled "Harry J. Potter", one was "Hermione J. Granger", and the fourth was "Ronald B. Weasley".
"They got pulled in, too?" Harry gasped.
"Not just them. See down here?" Red tapped a point to the left of the skull symbol. Four more names floated over tiny footsteps. "Vincent Crabbe", "Gregory Goyle", "Draco A. Malfoy", and…
Harry hissed through his teeth. "Sirius Black is down here?!"
"Why do these dratted keys keep breaking?" Draco asked irritably as the third silver key snapped in his hand. The door he'd just unlocked sprang open, and he glared at the doorway before stepping through.
Dog caught him by the back of his robes and tugged him out of the room. When Draco raised an eyebrow at him, the dog looked pointedly at something Draco couldn't see and growled softly.
"More enemies," he reported to his servants. "And here I was hoping this room would be nice and quiet." He pushed Crabbe and Goyle in front of him, then walked in after.
As it turned out, he needn't have bothered making the other boys go first. Spikes and stone shot out of nowhere to block the doorway behind them and every torch in the room spontaneously lit. In the center of the room, towering at over two meters tall, stood a shadowy figure clad in yellow armor. The monster held a spiked iron ball the size of a large watermelon in one hand, the weapon's thick chain clutched in the other. While Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle stood frozen in fear, the ghostly knight tossed the ball in the air and began swinging it over its head. With a radius of at least four meters, there wasn't much space to flee from the deadly flail.
Draco backed toward the spikes blocking the exit. His wand was held out in front of him, supported by a madly shaking hand, but he couldn't recall any spells. As scared as he was, Draco felt a surge of frustration. He was going to die, and he couldn't remember any bloody spells!
A sharp bark startled his shocked mind into motion. Dog nudged him in the side with his nose and then planted his large, skeletal frame between Draco's group and the monster.
'He's protecting us? But what can a dog do against an armored ghost like that? He'll die!' Draco's panic-clouded mind managed to churn out. He shook his head and pulled his right arm out of its sling to support his trembling left hand. His father had advised against getting his wound magically healed ("to better sell the story", he'd said), and it ached dully under its bandaging. Still, it didn't hurt enough to hinder his aim.
"Ex—" Draco's voice cracked as the ghostly knight's flail came swinging at them again. "Expelliarmus! Locomotor mortis!" he cried.
One of the spells worked. The ball-and-chain leapt from the monster's grip and flew toward Draco, who ducked with a shriek of terror. It crashed into the wall with a great clang, the ball embedding itself in the stone.
"What? I…I got it?" Draco stammered. He looked from the knight, which was staring at its empty hands in confusion, to the weapon stuck in the wall near the door. "I got it!" he proclaimed. "Attack!" Grinning viciously, the boy shot off a spell he'd learned from his father. The monster took a step back when the orange curse attempted to rip its leg off.
The three boys battered the weaponless knight mercilessly. Even once it seemed to realize it needed to retrieve its weapon, the students didn't let the thing take a single step toward it. Two years of Hogwarts schooling and five years of home tutoring had taught the boys enough basic offensive spells to drive the monster back against the wall. It was Dog who ended the fight by gripping the monster's dented, scorched helmet between his jaws and decapitating the creature.
A deep, resonating bellow of pain echoed through the room, and then the monster disappeared. In its wake floated a triangular blue crystal thrice the size of any Draco had seen so far. A treasure chest faded into existence in the center of the room, larger and fancier than the ones that had contained silver keys.
"Goyle, fetch the crystal. Potter will know what to do with it," Draco ordered almost absently as he gravitated toward the treasure chest. What was in it? Why was it bigger than the others? Was it possibly a way out?
The boy's anticipation soured once he opened the chest. "Another key. Wonderful." He pulled out the large, ornamental-looking object. It was about as long as his forearm, topped by a ghoulish eye and sharp, curving horns. "Big treasure chest, big key. Of course." He stuffed the key in his bag. After a moment's consideration, he took off his shoulder sling and put it away as well. He'd definitely be going to the Hospital Wing to heal that scratch after this; there was no point in "selling the story" now, with Hogwarts cut off from anyone who could oust Hagrid and his pet monsters.
Dog barked and pranced around Draco. His grey eyes were alight with a doggish sort of joy.
"What is it? Have you found Potter?" Draco asked. Dog barked in reply and towed him toward one of the recently-unblocked opening to their right. "Come along! Dog's found something!" he shouted over his shoulder to his servants.
Echoed voices began to reach Draco's ears. He pulled his sleeve from Dog's mouth and hurried down the narrow corridor he'd been led into. He was even more curious than Dog to see who else had gotten stuck in this miserable cave.
He reached the doorway at the end of the corridor and came to a halt. Two of the Potters, the Weasel, and the Mud—the muggleborn stood on the other side, holding up lanterns identical to his. They appeared no less stunned than he, though Draco was the quickest to conceal his surprise.
"Potters and friends. How nice," he said with a sneer. His eyes flicked to the bespectacled boys in the group. The blue-eyed one subtly shook his head. So they hadn't blabbed to the rest of the Golden Trio about their alliance, yet. What a pleasant surprise.
Crabbe and Goyle ran up and took their customary positions behind Draco. It had taken them long enough. "So, what brings the lot of you down here?" he asked. "Come to play savior?"
"We got lost, like you did," the yellow Potter piped. How did he manage to sound so childish when he was only a few months younger than Draco? "We've been going around fighting monsters and stuff." The boy jumped when Dog moved forward to sniff him curiously. "Whoa, you're big! Biiig doggy." He petted Dog's shaggy head with a smile on his face.
Draco pursed his lips. Dog was his dog. It wasn't fair that the Potter got to pet him, too.
Weasley's voice interrupted his small fit of pique. "Lost the sling have you? I knew you were faking." The boy grinned in a self-satisfied way that made Draco want to curse him. "I bet Dumbledore will cancel Buckbeak's execution once he finds out."
Draco snorted at the name. "Buckbeak"? What a stupid thing to call something that could easily have eviscerated him. "Maybe the beast won't die, but at least I've made class safer for everyone who isn't one of the giant's favorites," he sniffed. "You do know that thing could have ripped me to shreds, don't you? Having thirteen-year-olds play with creatures who might kill you if you don't bow deeply enough is a terrible idea. Flobberworms may be boring, but at least they don't have beaks, hooves, and talons."
"Hagrid said not to insult them! It's your own stupid fault you got cut!" Weasley snapped.
"Most magical creatures are dangerous. The whole point of Hagrid's class is to learn how to deal with them," the muggleborn said in that maddening, know-it-all way of hers. "We aren't learning anything from Flobberworms."
Blue interrupted the conversation. "Not that your debate isn't interesting, but could you get this mutt off of me?" He shoved at Dog, who had almost knocked him off his feet in his eagerness to sniff the boy.
"Come here, Dog," Draco commanded. "Potter can't be that interesting."
Dog looked over his shoulder with wide, innocent eyes. Ah, so that was where the term "puppy eyes" came from.
Draco stood firm. "You can sniff him later. There are four of him, so it isn't as though we'll never run into one again."
The dog cocked his head to one side.
"Absurd, isn't it? Apparently, he picked up a sword and it split him four ways, in addition to letting all this nonsense happen." Draco waved vaguely to the underground tunnel they stood in.
Dog made a sound of canine consideration and walked back to Draco. He sat down with his head inclined, seemingly deep in thought.
"Er, what kind of Crup is that?" Weasley asked. His eyebrows had crept toward his flaming hairline. "They don't get that big."
"What's a Crup?" the yellow Potter inquired.
"A magical dog. Like a mundane one, but smarter," Weasley explained. "They're never that big, though. What is that thing? It's the size of a Grim!"
"This is Dog, and he's mine," Draco said coolly. He didn't appreciate the Weasel insulting his pet, especially when the only pet that blood-traitor could boast was a fat, useless old rat. "He's been helping us find our way through this cave. I'd like to see that nasty vermin you keep do that!"
The tips of Weasley's ears turned red. "Better to have a pet rat than be rat-faced!"
Draco's cheeks flushed as well. He worked hard to keep himself as immaculate and glamorous as a Malfoy should be! How dare this grubby, muggle-loving pauper insult his pureblood features! "You dirty Weasel! My father will—!"
A loud shout came from behind Draco. "Oi! Any of you see Sirius Black around here?"
"Harry?" Weasley and the muggleborn gasped.
Draco spun around and directed his servants to do the same. Slowly making their way up the corridor were Potter and his red copy. Potter leaned heavily against his crimson-eyed counterpart. His legs appeared to be having trouble supporting his weight.
"Did he say 'Sirius Black'?" Goyle muttered to Crabbe over Draco's head.
"Pretty sure he did," Crabbe grunted. Raising his voice, he called, "What was that about Sirius Black?"
"I asked if you'd seen him!" the red Potter shouted back. He waved a piece of parchment in the air. "We found this map, and it says he's with you. Any of you noticed a crazy, skinny, black-haired bloke skulking around?"
"Nah, but we found this wicked-smart dog," Goyle said.
"We found Dog chained to a peg nailed into the ground," Draco said, sending the boy a glare. "Don't you think he'd have escaped if he were an Animagus?"
"He could be stuck," Crabbe suggested. "Maybe the fancy collar's cursed."
"You can't just make an Animagus 'stick', Crabbe. You'd have to dam up their magic for that, and a temporary Squib can't maintain an animal form." He rolled his eyes. "Honestly. Our tutors taught us this ages ago. And besides, if Black were an Animagus, that fact would have been in the papers. Every Animagus has to register with the Ministry."
"Maybe the doggy's name is Sirius Black just because!" Though his voice was the same as the other Potters', only the yellow one could manage to sound five years younger than he was.
"It does kind of translate to 'Black Dog'," the muggleborn mused. "Someone could have gotten a little artsy when they named him."
"I'd rather call him 'Dog'," Draco sniffed. A basic, utilitarian name suited the animal just fine. It wasn't as though he were an owl. Those were smart enough to peck you if you gave them a stupid name. Besides, he didn't want to call Dog anything the Mudblood considered "artsy".
Potter and his living crutch finally reached the end of the corridor. "In that case, never mind. Crisis averted," Potter said with a shrug. "Have any of you seen a special key, then? All the normal ones are silver and simple. What we're looking for is a lot bigger, probably red or rust-colored."
"We passed this big door on the way over," the red Potter explained. "It was made of bronze, with a huge eye in the middle. Really cool-looking, to be honest. On the map, there's this skull symbol behind it."
Draco laid an arm over his bag. "What do you think this skull represents?" he asked, frowning.
"The biggest, baddest monster in this place," both Potters chimed. The green-eyed one went on to say, "We figure it's sitting in front of the exit, like Fluffy over the trap door."
Potter's friends and copies made sounds of acknowledgment, though the reference sailed over Draco's head. "All we need to do is find this key, beat the monster, and escape, then!" Weasley said excitedly. "No more tricks or traps or getting shot at by torches, just slaying the monster!"
Privately, Draco was relieved to be done with this place and its life-threatening tricks. He wasn't about to show that in front of the Weasel and his buck-toothed pet, however. "We'll be going right back to the Hogwarts puzzle-box after we escape, so I don't know what you're so happy about," he said, oozing condescension in the way only a Malfoy could. He pulled out the key he'd won from the ghostly knight and grinned at the look of surprise that appeared on every Gryffindor face around him. "You have a map, don't you? Lead the way, Potters."
Did I make everyone have a collective brain fart just to give Draco a literal morality pet? Yes, yes I did. Oh, and obligatory "I posted art, so go check the Tumblr" reminder. I'll be posting the boss of this dungeon during this week, since it's showing up in Chapter 7.