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Chapter - 62 : Under the Trap-Door

Ava told them to meet her near the portrait of the five year old boy in pale blue and brown clothes, in the fifth floor.

When she reached, it was apparent that something had held them back - Neville!

All Ava had was her wand and her mind - constantly trying to pick us some kind of thought, lurking in her direction.

But the three joined her soon after. It was a little cramped for four to be under the cloak but they managed.

When they reached the third floor, Peeves came swooping down on them.

"Who's there?" He continued to persist to know who was there when Ava finally revealed herself.

"Oi! Be quiet! The ultimate prank is being pulled here. If you get us caught, you'd never be able to see Hogwarts the way it is!" Ava called out to him.

"Ah! Mistress Ava!" he saluted her, much to the surprise of the Gryffindors. "Anything for you, Miss! Peeves hasn't seen anything here at all!"

Saying that, he drifted away.

"Not now!" Ava said when the others gave her a knowing look and then, they all moved along silently.

The third floor corridor was ajar.
"Well, there you are," Harry said quietly. "Snape's already got past Fluffy."

Harry offered them a return ticket but they refused. Someone had bewitched a harp near Fluffy's paw.

But Harry picked up his flute (Hagrid had given him a flute for Christmas, too), and began playing without any particular tune in mind.

Slowly, the dog's growls ceased - it tottered on its paws and fell to its knees, then it slumped to the ground.

Harry was instructed by Ron to keep playing. They opened the trapdoor by its ring and Ava offered to jump in first.

"If anything happens to me, don't follow. Go straight to the owlery and send Nessie or Hedwig to Professor Dumbledore, okay?" Ava said as she hung by her fingertips for the trapdoor had no stairs.

She let go.

Cold, damp air rushed past her as she fell down, down, down and -

FLUMP.

With a funny, muffled sort of thump, she landed in something soft. It took a long second for her eyes to adjust to the darkness. It seemed as though, she was sitting on a plant.

"It's ok!" she called up to the light the size of a postage stamp which was the opening of the trapdoor. "It's a soft landing, you can jump!"

Ron, Hermione and Harry jumped with just a fraction of a second's gap between them.

"What's this stuff?" Ron said.
"Dunno, sort of plant thing, I reckon." Harry replied.

"We must be miles under the school," Hermione said.

"Lucky this plant thing is here, really," said Ron.

"Lucky?" shrieked Ava. "Look at the two of you!"

The plant had started to twist snake-like tendrils around the boys' ankles but Ava and Hermione had jumped towards the wall - towards safety.

"Stop moving!" Hermione ordered them. "I know what this is - it's Devil's Snare!"

"Oh, I'm so glad we know what it's called, that's a great help!" Ron snarled, fighting the plant from grabbing his neck.

"Well, hurry up! I can't breathe!" Harry gasped.

"Hermione! Fire! It hates it!" Ava shouted to her. She would've fought it herself but she stood in a position where she would've hit Ron or Harry in an attempt to save them.

"Yes - of course - but there's no wood!" Hermione cried, wringing her hands.

"HAVE YOU GONE MAD?" Ava bellowed. "ARE YOU A WITCH OR NOT?"

"Oh right!" Hermione said, and she whipped out her wand and sent her specialty - bluebell flames - towards the plant.

In a matter of seconds, the two boys felt it loosening its grip as it cringed away from the light and warmth for it grew in the dark and damp.

"Lucky you two pay attention in Herbology," Harry said as the two boys freed themselves.

"Yeah," said Ron, "and lucky Ava reminded her in the time, of the world's biggest crisis - 'there's no wood', honestly!"

"This way," said Harry, pointing down a stone passageway which was the only way on.

All they could hear other than their own footsteps was the gentle trickle of water down the stone walls.

At a distance, Ava could hear something - wings!

"There's light ahead - I can see something moving." said Harry.

They reached the end of the passageway and saw before them a brilliantly lit chamber, its ceiling arching high above them. It 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.

"They're not birds!" Ava exclaimed suddenly as they'd made their way across the room. "They're winged keys! Look carefully!"

"So that must mean...." Harry looked carefully around the chamber while Ron and Hermione squinted up at the flock of keys. "...Yes - look! Broomsticks! We've got to catch the key to the door!"

"But there's hundreds of them!" exclaimed Hermione.

Ron examined the lock on the door.

"We're looking for a big, old-fashioned one - probably sliver, like the handle."

They seized a broomstick each and kicked off into the air, soaring into the midst of the cloud of keys. They grabbed and snatched but the bewitched keys darted and dived so quickly that it was almost impossible to catch on.

"That one!" Ava called out to the others - she'd spotted the a large silver key that had a bent wing, as if it has already been caught and stuffed roughly into the keyhole. "That big one - there - no, there - with the bright blue wings - the feathers are all crumpled in one side!"

"We won't be able to catching it so easily. We've got to close in on it!" Harry called, not taking his eyes off the key with the damaged wing. "Ron, you come at it from above - Hermione, below - and Ava, right. I'll try and catch it. Right, NOW!"

His plan worked. The key had no where to run off to. Harry grabbed it in his hand and rammed it into the lock and turned - it worked! The moment the lock had clicked open, the key took flight once again, looking very battered now that it had been caught twice.

"Ready?" Harry asked the others, his hand on the door handle. They nodded. He pulled open the door.

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