VICTORY ♛ Sirius Black

Chapter 17: Riddle Me This

Sirius wasn't struck down by lighting, nor did he get cursed. So Beth thought it would be safe to peer into the room as well. There were doors there, six doors which were identical to the ones they left behind. 

Sirius eagerly stepped in, followed by Beth. There was no way to know what to do now. Their clue had only been effective for the first round of doors, or so it would seem.

"What do we do?" Beth asked Sirius, who was pacing between the doors. "Do we just start opening?"

"One is correct, one will have us eliminated and the other four are incorrect." He said. "I'm guessing the incorrect ones are the exact same looking as the correct one. There is no way of knowing."

"If it is like the last one then one door will point us to the correct door." Beth said. "There could be something. A sign. There is no way they'll let us go in blind."

"That's exactly what they're doing Beth." He rolled his eyes at her, only throwing fuel onto their discussion. "Might I remind you that we have one clue and that is it."

"So what do we do then?" She snapped back. "We can't go kicking open doors. It could-"

It had started as a faint noise. Something neither of them noticed in the midst of their discussion. However, when the knocking became louder, Beth immediately stopped talking. 

The far right door slowly opened, inch by inch. At first, all they could see was a claw-like hand that ushered the door open more. Sirius took a few steps closer to Beth, ushering her behind him. His hand was gripping his wand so tight it had started to shake. 

Beth placed her hand on top of his, to make sure he would not try and curse whatever came out of it. 'When the door starts knocking, you'll find it best to stop talking.' She doubted he was able to do a nonverbal spell.

The door was now only a quarter of the way open, but suddenly a head popped out of it. It was like the animal was wearing a mask, though it's piercing red eyes still remained prominent. The mask was made out of gold and silver, and had runes carved into it. Beth had never seen an animal like it before. Its body was like a snake, with great black claws as hands, and it seemed to be flying on a black smoke cloud.

"Hello." It greeted the unusual couple. Its voice was high-pitched and shrill. "To go to the end you must first answer my riddle." His eyes were completely focused on Sirius, without blinking, as he came closer to them. He twisted around his head, like a dog when they don't understand what you are saying. Sirius almost seemed like he was in a trance. 

Beth squeezed his hand, pulling him back down on earth. He glanced behind him to see the young Slytherin nearly shaking in fear. The creature realised the connection had been lost, and moved onto Beth, staring into her grey eyes with the same intensity as they had stared into Sirius'.

"Pretty lady," he said to her, his long claw tracing along her collarbone. "Answer my riddle pretty lady." 

Without the creature to distract him, Sirius felt his mind clear up. The creature was trying to get them to talk. If they did they would get eliminated. However, the creature had left the door open, the door Sirius was betting on being the right one. 

The creature started circling them, preparing to say his riddle out loud. Sirius tugged on Beth's cold hand, urging her to go with him. She glanced back at him and away from the creature. She, however, did not think it was the right door, she thought they must answer the riddle.

They could not speak, they could only silently stare each other down. The stare was only broken by the eruption of red sparks in the distance.

Either Cephas or Kaeley had given up. Though both of them hoped it to be Cephas, Kaeley was the likely culprit. The red sparks reminded Beth of the creature, what was it the riddle had said again? 

She could feel herself coming back to her own body again. The creature had infiltrated her mind, she had been so close to talking. She stopped struggling against Sirius and followed him into the new room.

The creature howled loudly, a sound like she had never heard before. It sounded like the cry of a werewolf, mixed with the hiss of a snake. It was deafening and only stopped when Sirius closed the door behind them. 

They stared at each other for some time, trying to get their heartbeats to slow down. The creature had been terrifying, to say the least, but they had found the correct door through it. 

"Three has got some nasty tricks." Beth finally said. "They were talking about... that thing. Not door three."