Sweet Revenge

Finding the Stone

Walking down the narrow stone hall was very dissimilar to walking through the Slytherin dorms-unlike what most would think. From the outset, the two actions would be nearly identical. The same pace. The same stone floors. The same grey walls. The same torches. But if you looked closer, you would note that the flickering of those same torches were different. In the Slytherin dorms, the lights were natural. They flickered with no definitive-might I say-motive. The passageway's lights were unnatural. They flickered like the tongues of a thousand snakes licking futilely at the walls. Like a desperate attempt at getting the thing this place hid for, obviously, this room was a rather pathetic attempt (on Dumbledore's part) at subtly hiding a dangerous object. Said Headmaster was being very subtle, yes. Announcing it to the whole school, uh huh. Or perhaps it was all orchestrated.... However, at the moment, we must not dwell on that last revelation. For now, we must return, my dear readers, to the two boys who found this object rather prematurely. 

Harry and Draco were currently walking down said ominous passageway. It was then that they chanced upon the door to the first obstacle. 

The room was literally scintillating as tiny keys flew about lethargically. Draco was the first to walk in. Hair glistening gold as his footsteps echoed around the high-ceilinged room. The keys made a sort of whispering, squeaking noise. Almost like a breeze had...well...breezed through the room and made the tinkling get just the slightest bit louder. 

Harry soon followed suit. Looking in barely concealed awe (though Harry, ironically, was doing a much better job at it than Draco was), they wandered across the room. They knew that it wouldn't be easy to get out of the room. It was quite obvious what they had to do. On the far end of the room, there was a large, heavy oak door. The glittering objects flying about were quite obviously keys that had somehow sprouted wings. There was a broom floating in the center of the room. Connect the dots and boom: One of them had to get the right key and then, they could insert it into the keyhole to keep going. 

Harry didn't actually know what spurred him to keep at it. He and Draco could, theoretically, of course, just go back the way they came and leave. However, that meant that they would have to climb up the walls to get into the Devil's Snare nest and then pass a seriously insane Cerberus. The passage they were following, though, could lead to an outside entrance. Meaning that they could leave. 

So, they continued. 

          "Who should get the key?" Draco asked. 

          "Uh....Well, I'm Seeker and you're Chaser.....I think since you're trained to catch things, I'll get the key, break its wings, and then throw it down to you. You'll need to catch it so you can open the door while I land the broom."

He nods. 

Draco takes his position by the door and Harry goes over the broom. 

Harry's hand is drawn like some sort of magnet to the broom's handle and he allows said force to work. When his skin first makes contact with the broom, all the keys instantly stop flying. But only for a moment. Less than a second later, an angry chirping fills the room as every key turns and makes a beeline for Harry. He lifts off into the air, only the get viciously attacked by angry flying keys.  

Not the most pleasant way to start the flight, might I say. And I'm sure you'll agree with me once you are on the receiving end of those attacks. 

Draco was watching, highly amused at the advanced charms placed on the keys from a safe distance across the room. Harry, on the other hand, scowled. 

          "This is so not funny."

Draco hid his chuckles behind his hand as he tried valiantly-and failed spectacularly-to keep Harry's attention off of him. Harry mock-glared at him. Like I said, failing spectacularly.

Flicking his wrist, he shot a silent Impedimenta at the keys and they spontaneously stopped in midair. 

Harry easily maneuvered around the floating keys to find the large silver one that looked big enough to fit the enormous door. He was confused. If this passage was made to hide something, whoever made it was doing a horrendous job of it. I mean, a simple Impediment Jinx and a super obvious key....what else? Surely, though, it would get harder from here. 

The second "obstacle" was a snoring troll. If you cast a Bubble Head Charm, then you could block out the stench. Harry was severely disappointed. They hadn't even needed to fight the troll (not that he wished to do so) as it was out cold already. 

The third was a giant chess set which Harry easily commanded to take each other out in less than five minutes (He had, after all learned from Rodolphus, who had been one of the top three chess players in Slytherin in his time). They just had to walk over the rubble to the opposite door.

The last one was also easy-for Draco, that is. It involved a series of potions and a riddle. Draco didn't even need to read the riddle; He just uncorked each potion, took a sniff, contemplated, then proceeded to knock nearly all of them off except for one. Standing among the shattered glass and potions residue, Draco held up the last one and inspected it. 

          "It's this one! We go through the black flame here," he announced triumphantly. 

Harry really hoped that no one would be checking this place any time soon for if they did, they would find a lot of damaged potions. It was only fortunate for them that Draco was an aspiring Potions Master and that he had had special tutoring from Uncle Sev ever since he was five years old. 

Finally, they came to the top of what appeared to be a grand staircase leading into a stone room. The room had ancient-looking gothic chandeliers as light sources and was completely bare safe one odd object in its center. It appeared to be a floor length mirror whose glass side looked more to be made of trapped liquid mercury. It seemed to be labeled in what looked like Runes. However, Harry, despite having learned runes from Uncle Rodo, had never seen them before. They looked vaguely familiar...

Just then, Draco burst out laughing. 

         "What?" Harry asked indignantly. 

         "T-the mirror," he gasped through giggles (though he would deny it to the end of his days because Malfoys don't giggle).

Harry allowed his friend to catch his breath. 

          "Can you speak coherently now?" He asked, throwing Draco his best unimpressed look. 

          "Yes. The inscription above the mirror is literally 'I show not your face but your heart's desire' just backwards. It's obvious what the mirror does: It shows your deepest desire. Honestly, can it get more pronounced than that?!"

A slow smile crept up Harry's face. 

          "You're brilliant, you know that, Draco?" he breathed. Said blond puffed out his chest, looking every bit as proud (if not prouder) than those albino peacocks his father keeps.

Who in the name of Merlin's ridiculously long staff decided the nature of the traps?!

Must have been one hell of a fool. 

          "Draco, I'm going to go up to that mirror to see it for myself. I wonder if something will happen when I cross some sort of invisible barrier. You'll act as my defense, okay?"

Draco nodded and took out his wand. Harry slowly made his way down the staircase until he stood directly in front of the mirror. He opened his eyes and the suspense in the room was literally tangible. 

Nothing happened. 

To be truthful with himself, Harry was incredibly disappointed. It was only from the blatant look of shock and disapproval that he got from Draco that he assuaged his own emotions. He made a mental note to find the person responsible for all these supposedly clever traps and beat them around the head with a wooden stick. 

He took a step back and it was only then that he became aware of a heavy presence in his pocket. Draco had obviously also noted the bulge on the side of Harry's right leg and gave him a pointed look that quite evidently said, We're talking about that later. For now, we escape this godforsaken place.

Harry would have been a liar to say he did not thoroughly agree.

They made their way down a side corridor with a light shining from someplace down it.