Safe with You- Sondam Hogwarts AU

Chapter 5

          TW// bl**d

          Gundham and I entered the castle again a and started making our way through the halls to the Great Hall, our way lit by large torches on the walls that painted everything with a warm orange glow. The only sounds and smells were the crackling and smoke of the torches, our footsteps, and quiet chatting with one another... until I noticed the ever so faint sound of running water, and... well, I couldn't really put my finger on the new smell. But it wasn't good.
          I was about to point this out to Gundham when he left my side to look at something on the ground next to a small crack in the wall.
          "Gundham? What is it?" I asked, walking over to him.
          "Look, spiders. Those aren't usually there, and see, there's so many..." he replied, pointing to them. There was a long line of spiders coming from far down the hall and running into the wall.
           "Wow.. do you know if that means anything?" I asked. He bent down to get a closer look.
           "No, I have never seen this type of behavior in spiders before." He said.
          "Um.. did you notice that smell and the sound? Prehaps it is related to that somehow?" I suggested.
          "I did notice that. I am curious, and the sound seems to be coming from where we need to go to get to the Great Hall. Are you comfortable with going further, and perhaps investigating?"
          "I would love to! I enjoy mysteries!" I said excitedly.
          "Excellent! An adventure it shall be!!" He said, jumping up and confusing down the hall, me following by his side.
          As the sound of running water grew louder, the scent became more foul, and the number and speed of the spiders in the line increased. Eventually, we came to a pool of water on the ground. It absolutely reeked, and the  line of scrambling spiders had moved up to the wall as to stay dry.
           "My goodness, what a-" I coughed on the smell. It was like a mix of dirt, metal, and some smelly animal. "What a waste of water!" The whole floor in front of us was covered in water.
          "Ugh, I agree. We should try to shut off whatever's doing this as soon as we can." Gundham said. I nodded, and we continued on, the sound, smell, and spiders growing with every wet step. I felt a chill down my spine. I had had a weird feeling as soon as we got close to the spiders at first, but now it was much stronger.
          "I have a bad feeling.. something is wrong, Gundham..." I said, inching a bit closer to him.
          "I feel it too... do not worry." He said, giving me a reassuring smile. I could still see concern behind his eyes.
          My heart sped up along with our footsteps, as we got closer and closer and my fear grew and grew, until we rounded another corner and-
          "AAAAAH!! What- what is that??!!?" I shrieked. Before us was... well, I don't even know. On the wall, was...
          "The-the Chamber of Secrets has been opened... enemies of the heir, beware... what does that mean??" Gundham said shakily.
           "It's- its written in blood... what-what is th-this???" I looked around the area, and just below the bloody, drippy writing on the wall was Kazuichi. He had a terrified expression on his face, but didn't seem to regard Gundham and I's presence. "Kazuichi!! Are you ok?" We ran up to him, but he still didn't acknowledge us. He just stared, unblinking, at the ground.
          "...Kazuichi? Hello?" Gundham put a hand on his shoulder, but quickly pulled it away. "Ack- wh-what..?"
          "What is it?"
          "He's.. he's cold as ice. And hard as rock. I don't understand..."
           "Huh? Kazuichi, hey, snap out of it! What happened?" I shook his shoulder a bit, only to feel the same thing Gundham felt. And instead of just Kazuichi's shoulder moving, his whole body teetered on its feet like a statue. He still didn't blink or move an inch. My heart, on the other hand, was racing a mile a minute.
          "Is he- is he dead??" Gundham asked hesitantly.
          No, he wasn't. If he was dead, he'd be lying on the floor and.. feel like a regular human. Instead, he was like a block of ice. I put my finger under his nose to see if he was breathing, and sure enough, he was.
          "He's.. he's petrified. Frozen and unconscious." I said.
          "..What? How??"
          "I don't know.. I don't know, I don't know what any of this is!!"
          "Hey, take a deep breath. I haven't a clue what any of this is, either." Gundham said. "He doesn't seem to have any injuries, so thankfully I don't believe that is his blood." He looked back up at the wall.
          "But.. but then who's blood is it..?!" I looked away from the bloody writing on the wall to see the source of the water, which was spewing out from underneath a door across the hall from the writing. I'm not sure why the water scared me so much, but it was enough for me to suddenly yelp and cling to Gundham's arm. "I'm- I'm scared, what do we do, what do we do?! What happened to him??" I cried, my eyes starting to sting and my legs and arms feeling shaky.
           Gundham jumped a bit at the sudden contact, then paused, and hugged me. "We need to tell a professor, they will know what to do. Don't be scared, I will keep you safe!" After a moment, he let go of me and slid his hand down my arm to hold my hand. "Are you ready to go?" He asked, nodding his head down the hall. I sniffled and nodded, and we each took one last look at the scene before running to the Great Hall, where we hoped the professors would still be.
          Thankfully, when we got there, they were all still at their table, along with a couple other students.
"PROFESSOR DUMBLEDORE! PROFESSOR DUMBLEDORE!!" Gundham yelled as we ran through the room up to their table.
"What is it?" Dumbledore asked, looking up attentively.
"Down the hall! Kazuichi!! He's petrified, and- and blood! On the wall! Writing! Water and spiders o-on the ground!!" I said, completely out of breath.
"WHAT?!" Snape yelled, bolting out of his seat and up to Gundham and I.
"I shall handle this, no worries~-"
"Silence, Lockhart! Come on everyone, let's go." McGonagall hissed, striding up to us as well. The other teachers did the same.
"Would you two lead the way, please?" Asked Dumbledore. Gundham nodded, then looked to me, and I nodded as well, and we took off down the hall once more.