A Marauder's Guide to Falling Forever

Chapter Twenty Two

The room was enormous. If Marlene could wager a guess she would say that it was at least the size of two Great Halls combined. It was cold, dimly lit, and smelled damp and musty. She wrinkled her nose with disgust at the intrusive smell, and wondered if they might be far underground.

They stood at the top level looking down into a sunken stone pit to where rows of stone benches ran around the perimeter of the long, rectangular auditorium style chamber. In the center of the room a raised dais bore nothing but a simple stone archway.

"What do you think that bloody thing is?" Sirius murmured. The threateningly large stone arch stood tall, draped in tattered black curtains that billowed ever so slightly despite the fact that there was no wind blowing it.

"I'm not sure that I want to know," she whispered. Sirius had already started descending the stone steps towards it though, and Marlene scrambled to keep pace with him. "What are you doing?"

"Can't you hear it?" Marlene couldn't hear anything apart from their heavy footsteps bouncing off the chamber walls.

But as they neared closer a faint whisper of voices blew into her ear and she stilled. A chill ran the length of her spine and she let out a barely audible gasp of surprise. She threw him a get-me-out-of-here expression.  "Sirius, can we leave please?!"

"I just want to look," he said calmly. The eeriness of the chamber didn't seem to bother him one bit. He stalled at the bottom of the dais and turned to look at her. His beautiful face was half illuminated by the light still omitting from the tip of his wand. His glorious, reassuring smile made her heart flutter.

She watched him climb the steps and admire the arch. Only when he reached out to touch the battered drapes did she yell at him, "Don't touch that!"

"They're just curtains, Mar," he laughed.

"Curtains don't whisper," she chided him. "Besides, this isn't the room we are looking for. We need to keep moving."

Back out into the circular chamber the door closed behind them and the doors began to revolve, shifting so quickly that she was unable to keep track of the one from which they had come. After they settled once more, she surveyed the puzzled look on Sirius's face as his eyes flickered around the room, analyzing the doors. It appeared that he hadn't been able to keep track either.

"Okay so which one looks good this time?" she asked humorously and Sirius rewarded her with a smirk. He pointed to one across the room and they made their way towards it.

The next room was even darker than the last. At the far end of the room of unknown size was a white figure that appeared to glow somehow. Her wand had been hanging limply at her side but she clenched her hand around it tighter and raised it protectively in front of her, also lighting the tip of the wand to add extra light into the darkness that surrounded them.

And then they were standing in front of what appeared to be a large mirror running the length of the wall and she relaxed. She was looking at herself; the girl staring back at her widened her eyes and reached down with her fingertips to press against her abdomen.

Marlene's scar suddenly let off a sharp twinge of pain, and she dipped her head downwards to confirm that she hadn't touched it. Her arms continued to dangle at her sides, not at all performing the actions that her reflection seemed to be. She realized instantly that it was not herself she was looking at.

"Marlene – "

She looked back up and the girl across from her was still firmly holding her hands to her abdomen, blood soaking through her clothing like spilled milk absorbing paper. Slowly at first, and then the blood was everywhere; pools of dark copper liquid spilling down her legs and into a puddle at her feet.