This is the last segment of the Dark Cave dungeon, featuring Drakkus the Keese-Dragon! If you want pics, they've been posted. If you don't, I hope my written description suffices :)

"—being awfully chummy, aren't they?" Harry faintly heard Ron mutter to Hermione. He bit his lower lip and fought the temptation to glance back. He knew he and Malfoy hadn't acted half as antagonistic as they'd been a week ago. After a few days of civil conversation with the young aristocrat, Harry had come to understand that he was nasty by upbringing, not at heart. There were moments when the spoiled prick stepped aside and someone almost decent peered out. He still thought Malfoy was an arrogant prat with bullying tendencies, but he was no longer on the same tier of bratty awfulness as Dudley. Maybe a peg or two below him.

"Malfoy's got the key," Blue said to Ron in an undertone. "He'll be sure to take back his offer and then dangle it in front of us like a deal with the Devil if we give him half a chance. Better to be nice to the little dragon than stuck here forever."

Harry's spirits lifted a bit when Ron swallowed this explanation. Thank Merlin for his buried Slytherin talents!

His hand brushed against something cold and wet. Harry nearly jumped out of his skin before realizing he'd touched the nose of Draco's dog. "Oh! Er, hello, Dog," he greeted uncertainly. The only prior experience he'd had with dogs was when Aunt Marge had brought Ripper over on her visits. Forever burned into young Harry's mind was the image of that ferocious animal's bared teeth. This dog, though wore a loose, slobbery grin and butted his head against Harry's hand in hopes of pets. Harry smiled and obliged him. For someone Malfoy had found chained up and starving in a dungeon, he was a friendly fellow.

'Rather unfortunate name he's got, though,' Harry mused. 'I'd hate to be named after a mass-murderer. Maybe "Dog" isn't exactly creative, but it's better than "Sirius Black".'

With the map to guide them, they quickly reached the imposing door Harry and Red had come across. Three meters tall and nearly as wide, the solid slab of bronze shone under the yellow light of their lanterns. The metal eye that dominated the middle of the door seemed almost alive as it gleamed above their heads.

"Key, if you please, Malfoy," Red said cheerily, holding his hand out to the uneasy-looking blond.

Malfoy seemed unable to pull his gaze away from the giant eye. He dug in his schoolbag and tossed the key in Red's direction without a single glance at him. "Get us out of here, Potter," he said in a quiet, strained voice.

Red caught the key without comment, appearing unnerved by Malfoy's lack of attitude. He reached up and fitted it into the oversized keyhole that formed the pupil of the door's eye. Several clicks were heard after it turned, and then the eye spun around and split down the middle. Harry felt a chill wash over him as the door slid aside. Whatever was in there, it was powerful and reeked of the same evil as the dark smoke he'd found in the Chamber of Secrets.

They entered the room beyond, which was so dark it seemed to swallow the light of their lamps. As soon as the last person cleared the door, it slammed shut behind him.

"Hello again, kiddo."

Harry's eyes went wide at the voice. That had sounded exactly like him, but neither he nor his clones had spoken.

Orbs of grayish yellow appeared in the darkness, bobbing as their owner walked toward them. When the wavering hem of a set of smoky robes could be seen at the edge of the halo of lamplight that surrounded the group, the figure halted his approach. "I see you've brought friends," Harry's shadow remarked. His teeth glinted as he grinned. "Interesting idea." He reached out, one grey hand emerging from the shadows. When he snapped his fingers, the sound went off like a gunshot in the silent room. "Let's see if you're worth the boss's time. Good luck, Hero," Shadow Harry said with a chuckle. There was a bubbling sound and a gust of unnatural wind, and then he was gone.

Tic-tic-tic-tic.

The back of Harry's neck prickled at the sound of something tapping above their heads.

Tic-tic-tic.

Footsteps. That's what those were. Like the clicking sound of a dog's nails on tile. Or razor-sharp talons on rough-hewn stone.

Tic-tic. A quartet of huge, bulbous orange eyes appeared overhead. "SCREEE!"

The pain in Harry's head, which had quietened to a dull roar, flared into pounding agony at the monster's organ-rattling shriek. He clamped his teeth shut and swallowed hard against the nausea that roiled in his gut.

Ron's voice filled his ears. "Harry, come on! You have to move!" A hand gripped Harry's wrist and yanked. Harry staggered in the direction he'd been pulled, but was still clipped by the monster's attack. The glancing blow knocked him sideways and Harry fell. At least, he thought he'd fallen down; the world tilted crazily around him and gravity couldn't seem to decide on a direction.

"Watch out for its wings!" he heard someone shout. "It attacks with its—" There was a whoosh, a thud, and a groan.

Harry gripped the nearest ledge he could find and hauled himself into a sitting position. Ohhh, his aching head. He blinked blearily, only half-aware of the chaos around him. People were running—he could see their lanterns bouncing as they sprinted—and something was making angry, shrill squawking noises.

Lolling his head to the right, Harry distantly observed that he was leaning against an unlit fire-bin. A sense of detached curiosity niggled at him. Hadn't they been lighting these things throughout the cave? A dark fire-bin was probably part of a puzzle, he'd learned, but what puzzle was this one a part of?

The giant creature that had been attacking his fellow students crawled over him then, intent on flinging Dog into a wall. Harry stared up at its large, shadowed figure as it passed overhead. Those eyes were awfully big, weren't they? Probably sensitive, too. Was that why it was so hard to see in here? It was almost as if the room was specifically designed to be dark for the monster's comfort…

Harry sat up, snapping out of his stupor. This thing kept shrieking, had wings, and liked the dark! It was a bat!

Struggling to his feet, Harry grabbed his lantern and tipped it over the fire-bin he'd been using for support. It instantly burst into flame. "Light the torches!" he bellowed. The volume made his head spin, but he desperately clung to what clarity he'd managed to scrounge up. "It's a giant bat monster! Light will blind it!" Not long after he said this, another fire-bin flared to life some meters away. Ron's face glowed in its orange-tinted light.

Malfoy went flying past Harry, propelled by one of the beast's attacks. He landed in a roll and staggered back to his feet. "Bloody flying rodent!" the boy spat, running off. A third torch soon lit up.

"That's the spirit, Malfoy!" The fourth fire-bin was set aflame, this time by a grinning Red.

With the room now fully lit, the monster screeched in pain and fell to the ground with a mighty thud. Harry pulled his sword from its sheath and barreled at it. His run slowed as he took in the sheer size of the thing. Ten meters from wingtip to wingtip, the creature resembled a cross between a shadow-bat and a dragon. Its fur was shaggy and patchy, bursting from its pebbly skin in black tufts. Between spots of fur and skin, it was armored in dark scales that shone like an iridescent oil slick. When Harry neared its head, his confidence wavered at the sight of its saber-like fangs and the wicked talons at the main joint of each wing. If that thing recovered its senses while he was anywhere near it, he was dead.

'Don't look at its teeth or claws. Focus on the eyes; those are what's important,' Harry thought, setting his jaw. He couldn't kill this thing if he was too busy cowering from it.

Harry hacked madly at a pair of glowing orange eyes. The monster twitched and roared in pain, but when it didn't make any move to strike back, he kept swinging away. Only dimly did he notice the other Harrys doing the same.

After a few seconds, the monster stood back up and shook itself. A shower of what felt like rocks pelted Harry. He snatched one out of the air and was dumbstruck to find that it was a glittering red triangle. Why did the monsters keep dropping these things?

"Pick them up!" Blue barked at Harry as he ran by with Dog at his heels. "If it's giving us this stuff, it's important!"

Harry bobbed his head in confused agreement and then scrabbled around to absorb as many gems as possible into his weapon. He'd never collected so many of them at once before, and became aware of a subtle buzz of energy running through his sword once he'd picked up all the jewels nearby. Was that the crystals at work?

He didn't get any time to contemplate this, since the bat-monster had recovered and was now hopping mad. It screamed, causing Harry to sink dizzily to his knees. With a mighty flap of its wings, it extinguished the four torches and plunged the room back into darkness.

"Well, at least we know how to beat it now," Hermione said from the other side of the room. "Maybe—"

With an enraged shriek, the bat burst into flames. A wave of heat hit them all like a slap to the face.

Malfoy's crackling glare cut through the gloom. "Oh, wonderful jinx there, Granger!"

"I-I didn't think it would—EEK!" She squealed and ducked a fiery wing. Once it had swept overhead, she ran with impressive speed for someone who spent most of her free time in the library. "Impedimenta! Petrificus Totalus!" she fired over her shoulder. Her spells managed to delay the monster's determined charge for a few seconds.

"Hermione and I can distract it!" Yellow declared as he dashed over to join the sprinting girl. "Everyone else, light stuff on fire!"

Now that the bat's flames lent a small amount of ambient light to the room, it was easier to find the torches than before. Harry made a beeline for one, despite the lack of strength in his legs. He couldn't just sit aside uselessly when everyone else was fighting, even if his head injury was slowing him down. If Malfoy could set aside his prejudices to work alongside Hermione, Ron, and a troupe of Harrys, then Harry could power through a measly concussion!

Harry's wobbly walk suddenly stabilized as someone ducked under his shoulder to support him. "Remind me later to give you a Hermione lecture for self-endangerment or something," Red's gruff voice said in his ear. "I thought I was the super-Gryffindor one."

"You had to get it from somewhere," Harry said with a loopy grin.

Between the seven people (and one dog) on torch-lighting duty, it wasn't long before the room was lit and the bat was down. All of the Harrys dove on the beast with wild abandon. They slashed and stabbed as quickly as their arms could manage, and then the bat was back on its feet and angrier than ever. Harry only managed to scoop up a few of the jewels it shed before a flaming wing knocked him into a backwards tumble.

With the monster's fury came a burst of speed; it moved too fast for them to outrun it now, and wing-strikes came with almost double the frequency. The room echoed with screams, curses, and canine yelps as the bat mercilessly smacked down everyone too slow to get out of range. Harry only managed to avoid getting hit again by lying flat on the floor and refusing to move. Given that his head felt like it would explode and his eyes kept crossing, it wasn't too difficult to lie still.

When he heard Ron insult the bat's mother from the opposite side of the room, Harry jumped up, lit two torches, and then toppled over. He lay prone on his back, waiting for the dizziness to pass and the bat to get far enough away for him to move again. Crabbe's and Goyle's twin grunts of pain were his signal to light the last two torches. He dropped to the floor after this, too, and waved Red on when the boy paused to look at him in concern.

"Go kill the bat. I'm fine here," he said, though the words might have come out slurred.

Red nodded and ran toward the screeching monster, only to be replaced by Malfoy and Dog. "What's wrong with you, Potter?" Malfoy asked, one eyebrow raised. "Your eyes are rolling like marbles."

"Got a knock on the head a while ago. We were headed toward the Hopsit…the Hospital Wing when we got lost," Harry explained. "Been concussed for the whole dungeon."

"Really?" The blond's other eyebrow rose. Had he been anyone else, Harry might have said he looked impressed.

A terrible, dying screech filled the air as the bat was finally vanquished. Harry flopped onto his side in time to see it rise, twitching, into the air and disintegrate into white ash. The greyish white powder then disappeared in the usual puff of dark smoke, leaving behind a scroll that hovered over the floor. The door at the back of the room, behind where the monster had first appeared, slid open to reveal a dark hallway beyond.

"Ha-HA! Beat you, you ugly rat!" Red crowed triumphantly. With a joyful skip in his step, he went around picking up the jewels left in the monster's wake.

"A scroll?" Hermione approached the floating object with curiosity shining in her chocolate-brown eyes. "Is it another map?"

"It could be," Blue said as he walked up to inspect it. "I doubt this dungeon is the only one around. This could be a map to lead us in the right direction."

"Or to show us where not to go," Ron said with a shudder. "I don't know about you, but I'd rather not spend my next weekend fighting flaming bats."

"Ooh, what if it's a present?" Yellow skipped up to the scroll and plucked it out of the air. "I mean, the dungeon gave us lanterns and Draco got a dog, so what if…?" He trailed off as he opened the scroll, his face going blank.

No one else noticed, for their faces had gone slack as well. For several seconds, no one moved or breathed. Had anyone else walked in at that moment, they would have thought the room to be filled with silent, living statues.

This sudden peace was not caused by some spell of relaxation or sleep, but by the chaos now swirling within the minds of nine children and one dog. When Yellow had opened the scroll, something akin to a bomb of pure knowledge had gone off.

Harry lay on the floor with his mouth open in a soundless scream as information far too advanced for his years was shoved into his head with the subtlety of an icepick to the skull. Magical theory and Arithmancy equations he hadn't had the slightest inkling of swirled within his befuddled brain, all circling around the same concept. Despite the volume of knowledge, its breadth was minimal; his mind had been pried open and flooded for one very specific lesson to be taught, and that lesson was—

"I can conjure a lantern?" Harry said in confusion. He sat up—too discombobulated to notice that his headache was gone—and waved his hand. A fiery red lamp, identical to the one he'd used to fight the bat, appeared in the air. He caught it by the handle before it could fall. The boy frowned at it, unsure of what this signified.

"We can wandlessly and wordlessly conjure a magical object?!" Hermione gasped. She, too, had called up a lantern, and held it up like it had told her the secrets of the universe. "That scroll just taught us magic beyond what we'd ever learn at Hogwarts," she said reverently. "I don't even know when or where I would ever need a lamp like this again, but thank you, whoever wrote that wonderful, wonderful scroll."

Malfoy studied his lantern. His eyes were suspiciously bright and the remnants of a real smile could be seen on his lips. At the edge of his hearing, Harry heard him murmur, "Father will be pleased."

"Setting things on fire sounds like fun," Red said as he rattled his lantern. Drops of liquid flame spilled out and sizzled on the floor. "If we ever wind up in another place like this, having a lamp on-call would be nice, too." He tossed the lantern into the air and vanished it with a dismissive wave. "Well, that was cool! Why don't we go see whether the bat was really sitting in front of the exit? It'd suck if we went through all that and still have more of this cave to work through."

Everyone took a moment to mentally right themselves and then walked through what they hoped was the dungeon's exit. The corridor it led to wasn't long, and they soon stepped into a well-lit room made of clean-cut white and cream stone.

The air was slightly hazy, filled with the stink of ozone and burnt hair. Crackling electricity could be heard and energy seemed to buzz around them. The reason for this stood at the back of the otherwise innocuous room: four large spheres of black shadow, each bearing a familiar swollen eye and bat-like wings, were lined up against the wall. Between them danced colorful tongues of something that looked like electricity, but wasn't quite the same. It inspired the same unpleasant, heavy feeling as the dark smoke that had filled the Chamber of Secrets.

"Those look evil," Crabbe commented.

"The eyes resemble the one on that door, too," Hermione said. "Does whoever that crafted this curse have some fondness for them? Are they a symbol, of sorts?"

"Yes, absolutely," Blue told her, "which means these things are probably an important part of the curse. Does anyone have any ideas for destroying them?"

"Hey, does anyone else notice the floating crystal just sitting there?" Ron asked. When everyone looked at him, he jerked his thumb toward a giant, glowing, square-cut yellow jewel that hovered over the floor in a way similar to the scroll. "We should probably grab that."

Yellow, who apparently had the fewest reservations about touching mysterious floating things, trotted over to the gem and picked it up. The others braced themselves. When no painful burst of knowledge attacked their minds, they relaxed with a sigh of relief. "I don't know what this is for," Yellow said with a frown. "I'm pretty sure it isn't evil, but—"

The jewel popped out of existence, startling the boy. At the same time, the yellow gem on Dog's collar glowed and then disappeared. Dog noticed the light coming from his neck and stifled a surprised yelp. While the children were busy staring at the larger golden crystal, Dog pawed confusedly at his collar. He couldn't remember a time when he hadn't been wearing it, but in the time he'd had it on, it had never done that before.

"…Okay, that was odd," Blue said. "Still, can anyone think of a way to get rid of these eyes? They're sitting in front of a staircase, which might just be the real exit."

"We could hit 'em with our swords," Red suggested. "That seems to work on everything else."

"Those eyes are visibly electrified. If you're wrong, you could be electrocuted."

Red shrugged. "I've gotten a shock before. I hit one of those stupid electric-jelly monsters on the grounds, remember?"

Blue snorted at the memory, as did the other three Harrys and Ron. The die-hard Gryffindor had gone into one of his usual reckless charges and wound up flat on his back with the ends of his hair smoking. "Be my guest, then," the boy said with a slight smirk.

Red stuck his tongue out at him. "You'll get shocked too, you know, if I screw up." He stepped up to the eyes and raised his sword in preparation to strike.

"Wait!" Malfoy called.

Red halted mid-swing, then looked over his shoulder at the aristocrat. "Er, why?"

"Because we found something that might help you and I'd rather get out than see you 'electrocuted', whatever that is. You're useful, and I need you to stay that way." Malfoy replied. He snapped his fingers at Goyle. "Give him the blue rock, will you?"

Goyle nodded and dug around in his schoolbag. He pulled out a large, blue triangular crystal that he tossed to Red.

"Thanks!" Red held out his sword to collect the crystal. When it vanished into the blade, Harry felt his sword vibrate on his back. He gripped the hilt to unsheathe it and felt a wave of power travel up his arm. Marveling at the strength that seemed to flow from it and into him, Harry removed the sword from its sheath and examined it.

The blade glowed with a pulsing golden light. Something—a memory not remembered, or perhaps a foreign familiarity—stirred within him as he gazed upon it. He felt reassured, though he couldn't explain why. Harry moved the blade around experimentally, mesmerized by the flickering after-image it left in its wake.

"So this is what the gems do," Blue mused. The boy slowly swung his sword in a wide figure-eight. "This warrants further study."

Harry walked toward the shadowy, electrified eyes and clamped a hand onto Blue's arm as he went. "Sure. After we get rid of these eyes," he said as he dragged his blue clone with him. Fierce determination burned in his chest. He'd just been given a power-boost and he knew exactly what to do with it. "Yellow, come on!"

"You plan to have us all get fried instead of just Red?" Blue complained. "You're not exactly a compassionate leader, are you?"

"We won't get fried," Harry said with firm certainty. "Our swords are fully powered up, now. They were meant for this, and now they're strong enough to do it."

"And you know this how?"

"Because…" Harry blinked in confusion when he drew a blank. He knew the swords would work because he knew. There was no explaining the phenomenon because the fact that it had happened was its only explanation. "Er, the sword told me," he said lamely, "with…er, with its connection to me, and all. Anyway, let's get back to Hogwarts!" He pulled a frowning Blue over to the set of eyes, where Red and Yellow were waiting.

"Ready?" Red asked, raising his sword.

"Ready to punch Green if we wake up in the Hospital Wing," Blue muttered with an annoyed glare at Harry.

"Ready!" Harry and Yellow chimed brightly.

The four Harrys brought up their swords and, in one simultaneous motion, slashed through the constricted pupil of each eye. Upon being struck, the eyes snapped shut. The dazzling energy crackling around them vanished, and the eyes exploded into black shards.

After an ecstatic cheer (or, in Malfoy's case, a half-restrained smile), everyone charged up the steps that had been guarded by the eyes. They were happy to be done with the whole ordeal and eager to fall into their warm, safe beds.

Everyone but Harry, that was.

The green-eyed boy hung back, frowning at where the eyes had stood. He had the sense that they were missing something. A foreboding feeling weighed down on his chest. Harry knew breaking the eyes ought to have caused something to happen—other than what had already happened, anyway. Though he didn't have a clue what was wrong, the glaring lack of whatever-it-was rubbed him the wrong way.

'Whatever it is, no point in fretting about it,' Harry thought with a mental shrug after a minute of thought. 'Either it'll come to me or it won't. I'll be fine either way, I'm sure.' With the matter temporarily resolved, he hurried up the steps after his classmates.

To ward off any conspiracies it may inspire (because this isn't a plot point), the bad feeling that Harry had at the end there was just a lack of Force Fairies. For anyone who hasn't played Four Swords Adventures, Force Fairies are the equivalent of lives. There aren't any continues in this fanfic, no siree~