Catastrophe~Harry Potter

Chapter XVII

The fluttering noise grew louder by the second as we advanced towards it. On reaching, we were met with the sight of hundreds of birds flying around in no particular order or direction.

"Curious." ,Hermione's says in awe raising her head, "I've never seen birds like this."

"They are not birds. They are keys." ,Harry explains. Looking closely we all realised that where the 'body' of the 'birds' were supposed to be, there were keys.

"I bet one of the them fits the door." ,I say indicating towards the lock of the doors ahead and look around again.

Suddenly, Harry first, catches sight of a broomstick hovering midair, and so did we.

"What is this all about?" ,Hermione wonders, her voice echoing through the room as just then Harry speaks up teaching his fingertips over the broom, "I don't know."

"Alohomora." ,Ron says frustrated pointing towards the lock. When realisation dawns upon him of us staring at him with a 'really?' expression, he shrugs and retorts, "It was worth a try."

"Ugh, what are we gonna do?" ,Hermione groans looking up the ceiling, "There must be a thousand keys up there."

"We are looking for a big old fashioned one, probably rusty at the handle." ,Harry says trying to minimise the number of possible keys.

"Geez, thanks Sherlock Holmes. That narrows it down a lot." ,I say putting my hands on my hips and look straight at him.

"There!" ,looking around a bit Harry shouts pointing upwards, "I see it, the one with the broken wing."

"Thanks Sherlock Holmes; and that was genuine."

"What's wrong Harry?" , Hermione ask as he struggles to come up with his decision.

"It's too simple." ,he answers back. This reminded me of one of  those maths problems which are just too easy to be true.

"Oh go on Harry. If Snape could catch it on that old broomstick , you can." ,Ron urges.

"C'mon young seeker, show us what you got there." ,I say raising an eyebrow.

Harry finally nods gripping the broom. But no sooner did he curl his fingers on it than the keys flittered around him, flying faster, "This complicated things a bit."

Harry mounts the broom swatting the keys and keeping his eye on the particular key, he goes behind it.

"C'mon Potter, if you can catch a freaking snitch and you certainly get hold of this." ,I say shouting as Harry swoops in an out, flying behind the rusted key. He leans forward and in a smooth motion clasps the key in his fist and keeps flying as the other keys chase him.

"Catch the key." ,Harry said throwing it towards me and swooping upwards keeping the keys away from us giving us a chance to join the door.

I run towards the door with the struggling key in my hand and put it into the lock and turn it until I heard a satisfying click. We scrambled through the door and hold it open, wide enough for Harry to fly in. Just as he came rocketing in, we slam shut the door and the sound of the keys clashing on the wooden door echoed throughout the dark room.

Turning around quietly we come to face dimly lit huge hall, which held our next obstacle of the mission.

"I don't like this. I don't like this at all." ,Hermione mumbles looking around.

"So, you confess that you liked the other obstacles?" ,I say spinning trying to decipher the shadows into substance.

"Oh please Annabeth. For tonight, just keep your sarcastic comments to yourself." ,Ronald says gesturing with his hands.

"What is this, a graveyard?" , enquires Harry who seemed not to pay any attention to my and Ron's immediate exchange.

"O the dead, rise and shine again. We shall forever bow down at your service." ,I say loudly bowing my head in mock courtesy.

"Shh Rosewood. This is no graveyard Harry." ,Ron advanced forward with a tone of surety, "This is chess board."

The moment these words leave Ron's lips the room lits up and in front of us indeed, was indeed, a huge chessboard with the giant edition chessboard pieces.