Harry Riddle || Harry potter

Chapter 29: It's a Plane! It's a Bird! It's a Key!

All they could hear apart from their footsteps was the gentle trickle of water down the walls. The passageway sloped downwards, and Harry was oddly reminded of Gringotts. All thoughts of defensive spells vanished from his mind with an unpleasant jolt of his heart, as he remembered clearly that dragons were said to be guarding vaults in the bank. Harry might not be very concerned about most creatures, but an adult dragon was a completely different story. A baby one was bad enough, but what if they encountered a fully-grown one?

"Can – can you hear something?" stuttered Neville quietly.

Pushing his worrisome thoughts to the back of his mind, Harry focused on listening. Sure enough, a soft rustling and clinking seemed to be coming from up ahead.

"Do you think it's a ghost?"

Harry shook his head slowly. "I don't think so . . . sounds like wings to me."

"There's a light ahead – I can see something moving."

They reached the end of the passageway and saw before them a brilliantly lit chamber, its ceiling arching high above them. The air was full of small, jewel-bright birds, fluttering and tumbling all around the room. On the opposite side of the chamber was a heavy wooden door.

"Do you think they'll attack us if we cross the room?" asked Draco, looking up at the birds.

"Probably," said Harry, wincing. "They don't look very vicious, but if they all swooped down at once they could probably, I don't know, rip off some skin and—"

"Harry!" snapped Draco, holding up a hand in a gesture that clearly said stop.

Harry rolled his eyes and abruptly reached out, shoving Draco into the middle of the room.

The boy lost his balance and fell to the ground, his hands automatically going to cover his face and his legs folding up in front of his chest. However, the feel of sharp beaks and claws tearing at him never came, as the birds didn't even seem to notice the blond boy.

By the time Draco deemed it safe enough to uncover his eyes, Harry was already over at the door, pulling at the handle, but it was locked. Hermione and Neville began to tug and heave at the door with him, but it wouldn't budge, not even when Hermione tried the Alohomora. Harry then tried the same spell, which still proved fruitless. Hermione and Harry then tried casting the spell at the same time to double the power, but nothing happened.

"Now what?" asked Harry impatiently.

Hermione looked up and narrowed her eyes. "These birds . . . they can't just be here for decoration."

They all turned their heads upward and watched the birds soaring overhead, glittering – glittering?

"Those aren't birds," said Harry slowly. "They're – keys. Winged keys – look carefully. So that must mean . . ." He looked around the chamber while the other three squinted up at the flock of keys.

". . . yes – look! Broomsticks! We've got to catch the key to the door!

"But there are hundreds of them!"

Draco leaned down and examined the lock on the door. "We're looking for a big, old-fashioned one – probably silver, like the handle."

Harry and Draco both seized broomsticks and kicked off into the air, soaring into the midst of the cloud of keys and leaving their two companions on the ground (as Hermione still insisted she was afraid of heights and Neville said he would probably end up falling off and breaking his neck – a statement with which Hermione adamantly agreed, having witnessed the boy's first flying lesson).

The two boys grabbed and snatched, but the bewitched keys darted and dived so quickly it was almost impossible to catch one – or spot any one of them in particular.

Harry, though, had proved over the years to have inherited his father's talent for observation. Both father and son had a knack for spotting things most other people didn't. After a minute's weaving about through the whirl of rainbow feathers, Harry noticed a large silver key that had a bent wing, as if it had already been caught and stuffed roughly into the keyhole.

"That one!" he called to Draco. "That big one – there – no, there – with bright blue wings – the feathers are all crumpled on one side!"

Draco went speeding in the direction that Harry was pointing, crashed into the ceiling, and nearly fell off his broom.

"We've got to close in on it!" shouted Harry, not taking his eyes off the key with the damaged wing. He glanced down at the ground. "Hermione! Neville! We could really use some bloody help up here!"

Neville and Hermione glanced at each other and back up at the two boys, both of whom had just collided with one another. The key zoomed out from in between them unscathed and darted upwards.

Hermione gulped and looked over at Neville, a question in her eyes.

Neville bit his lip but slowly nodded.

Hermione quickly grabbed two brooms, handing one to Neville and throwing her leg over the other one herself. Neville exhaled loudly but did the same. They both pushed off at the same time.

Neville tilted dangerously, while Hermione didn't seem to be able to open her eyes.

"Draco!" shouted Harry. "You come at it from above – Hermione, you come at it – HERMIONE! Open your eyes!"

The girl's eyes slowly opened. She willed her brain not to register how far off the ground she was.

"Hermione, stay below and stop it from going down – Neville, you come at it from the right! I'll try to catch it! Right, NOW!"

Draco dived, Hermione summoned her courage and flew upwards, while Neville – still teetering unstably – managed to close in on it from the right. The key dodged all of them, and Harry streaked after it.

It sped towards the wall. Harry leaned forward and with a nasty, crunching noise, pinned it against the stone with one hand. Draco cheered while Hermione immediately made her way to the ground. Neville's broom tipped a bit too much to the left during his descent and he fell off, but Hermione, still full of adrenaline, thought fast enough to cast a quick cushioning charm. Luckily, no bones were broken.

The two Slytherin boys landed quickly, and Harry ran to the door, the key struggling in his hand. He rammed it into the lock and turned – it worked. The moment the lock had clicked open, the key took flight again, looking very battered now that it had been caught twice.

"Ready?" asked Harry, trying not to show his dread at what they might find on the other side of the door.

Draco and Hermione nodded, but Neville's eyes grew wide and he shakily pointed upwards at the rest of the keys. "L-look!"

Harry glanced over his shoulder.

All the keys had formed a group and were flying straight at them.

"Great Merlin!"

The children quickly ran though the threshold and slammed the door, just before the keys reached them.

Draco winced at the sound of the keys slamming into the other side of the door.

Relieved that another obstacle had been successfully maneuvered through, Harry turned around, only to be met with a sight that sent a jolt of fear through his entire body.