The Phoenix Prophecy

Chapter Eleven: The Well

Tuesday- July 15th

Ron

When I awoke, Gretchen’s back was pressed against my stomach. My arm, which was outside the covers, was draped over her stomach. I could tell that Gretchen had been awake for some time, exactly how long I had no way of knowing.

“Ron, I’m a little chilly. Would you please pull the covers up to my neck?” she asked me.

“No Ron, I want your hand inside the covers,” she said, as I pulled the covers up so that only her head as showing.

I placed my arm under the covers and pulled them up so that only our heads were showing. Gretchen took my hand and placed it on her chest. Her desires were about as subtle as being hit with a bludger. For several minutes, I caressed her as we lay there. I started to blow air on her neck and she scrunched up her shoulders, as it must have tickled. When I kissed the back of her neck, she rolled over to face me, still keeping the blanket up at her neck.

For several moments, we just looked into each other’s eyes. I brushed her hair from the side of her face and gently rubbed my fingers over her cheek and down her neck, pulling her face to mine and kissed her very deeply.

“I can’t wait until we are married, if we get to wake up like this every morning,” she said softly, kissing the tip of my nose.

“This is the only way to start the day,” I replied, placing an arm around her and hugging her to me.

“Ron, we may have to seriously rethink our plan of living here,” Gretchen said, a deep frown and trace of anguish on her face. “When I told Martha of our desire to live here, she broke down and cried when she told Hermione and me about all the things that her kids were missing because they were so isolated from other families.”

“Are you serious Gretchen? If Martha is so distressed over what her children are missing, then why are they living out here by themselves? I don’t understand.”

“Ron, neither do I. Nevertheless, we need to talk with Walt and Martha tonight after we get back from the Goblin caves. I would hate to make the decision to stay here, only to regret later how much our children were missing out on.”

“Ok Gretchen, maybe we could talk with them later in the evening when things quiet down. Since we aren’t going anywhere tomorrow we could stay up later and talk with them.”

Harry

I woke up to hear Hermione talking softly in her sleep. She must have been having a vivid dream as her facial expressions kept changing as she continued to talk almost in a whisper. While I was watching her sleep, thinking how beautiful she was, she suddenly moaned ‘Oh Harry’ quite loudly, in a tone of voice that plainly said she was enjoying intense physical pleasure in her dream.

I hoped that this would be my lucky day, that everyone else was asleep and didn’t hear her moan aloud. I very slowly turned my head to look over my pillow in the direction of Ron and Gretchen’s beds. Luck was nowhere to be found, Ron and Gretchen were both looking back at me with stupid grins plastered across their faces. Ron just wiggled his eyebrows and Gretchen gave me a small salute with her hand.

I just waved back and smiled rather weakly. Just as I was thinking that I had better wake Hermione before she could further embarrass the both of us she moaned ‘No, don’t stop’ very loudly and even more passionately than before, although I didn’t think that was possible. Ron and Gretchen immediately started snickering. Ron almost choked and Gretchen was biting the back of her hand to keep from laughing aloud. Both had tears running down their cheeks from holding back their laughter.

I didn’t feel at all like laughing. I wanted to crawl into a hole and pull a cover over me. I quickly started shaking Hermione, none too gently; trying to get her to wake up before this disaster could get any worse.

“Hun, wake up. You are dreaming and talking in your sleep,” I said several times until she was finally awake.

“Oh, sorry, what did you say Harry? Was I talking in my sleep?” she asked me, rubbing the sleep from her eyes.

“Well you weren’t exactly talking, it was more like moaning …” I knew instantly that those were the wrong words to say. I felt my face turn white-hot and my ears felt as if they were suddenly on fire. Hermione looked at me puzzled for a brief instant and then connected the look on my face to her dream that she had just recalled and turned redder that I could ever have thought possible.

“Oh my God,” she said, diving under her pillow and pulling the sheet over her.

By now, Ron and Gretchen could no longer contain themselves and were openly chuckling. I had to think of something to get Hermione out from under her pillow so she wouldn’t continue to feel embarrassed.

“Hun you don’t have anything to be embarrassed about. I’m sure your dream wasn’t anywhere near as erotic as it sounded.”

“Harry, just keep digging. At the rate you are going I won’t be able to see your head after your next statement,” Hermione said to me, lifting the sheet so she could shoot daggers at me from her eyes.

“Hermione, when you are bad, you must be very, very good,” Ron said to her, snickering at his own joke.

“Ron, can you read sign language?” Hermione asked him, shoving her arm out from under the sheet, making a universally well-known, but very rude gesture.

“Hermione!” I said, shocked that she would do such an un-ladylike thing.

“Watch it buster, or you just might get the same treatment,” she snapped at me.

“Hun, it was just a dream, a fantasy nothing more. You have nothing to be embarrassed about,” I said, trying to sound convincing.

“Yeah, if that’s so, then why are Ron and Gretchen laughing their butts off?”

“Well you have to admit it was kind of funny, with all the moaning and all.”

“I don’t have to admit anything,” Hermione said angrily to me, as she jumped out of bed, picked up her flying suit and disappeared into the bathroom.

“Thanks a lot, you two,” I said to Ron and Gretchen, feeling incredibly depressed.

“She’ll get over it quickly,” Gretchen said to me, trying to cheer me up, but not succeeding very well. “After she has a chance to think over what happened, Hermione will realize she is being silly. Just give her a little time Harry.”

“I wish I could share your optimism Gretchen,” I said, hoping that she was right about Hermione. I sat up on the edge of the bed; hoping that Hermione would decide that this was just a silly dream. As I was thinking, maybe Gretchen was right after all, Hermione came out of the bathroom and walked straight out the tent without even glancing in my direction.

“Well so much for your optimism,” I said to Gretchen, placing my face in my hands, with my elbows resting on my knees. Today was going to be tough enough without having to endure it with Hermione mad at me.

“Harry, Gretchen is right. Just give Hermione some time to cool down and then she will forget the whole thing.” Ron said to me, trying to shake me out of my depression.

“If you guys can’t be quiet, then why don’t you go outside?” Madelyn growled at us. “I’m trying to get some sleep.”

I told the others very quietly that we should get dressed and leave the tent, making as little noise as possible. We dressed in our flying suits and tiptoed out of the tent in record time without Madelyn yelling at us again. Once we were outside the tent, we were able to talk freely.

“Boy is she a grouch this morning,” Ron said, just after we were out of hearing range. “I wonder what’s eating her.”

“Ron, Madelyn is afraid of confined spaces, don’t you remember?” I asked him.

“Oh that’s right, I forgot. Well then, I guess I can understand why she is in such a tizzy this morning,” Ron said, with real compassion returning to his voice.

“We should do something to try and cheer her up,” Gretchen added.

“How about just trying to cheer me up,” I said to them, still feeling miserable.

When we came around the corner of the house, Walt and Martha were sitting on the porch, each with a twin, drinking their morning coffee. We climbed the porch steps and sat down with them. Before Gretchen sat down, she held out her hands to Martha for the twin she was holding.

“Gretchen, he’s all yours and good luck. Lazarus hasn’t settled since I fed him,” Martha said exasperatedly, handing Lazarus to Gretchen.

“You just know that I am going to be gone all day, don’t you?” Gretchen said very softly to Lazarus, who much to Martha’s amazement, settled right down as Gretchen cradled him in her arms.

“Keep it up smarty-pants and I just might give him to you as wedding present,” Martha said to Gretchen, shaking her head disgustedly. Gretchen stuck her tongue out at Martha and went right on cooing to Lazarus.

“Walt, are any of the animals behaving strangely again this morning?” Ron asked him.

“No, they all seem quite normal. Whatever it was that spooked them must have left,” Walt answered, looking relieved.

“Where’s Hermione?” Martha asked me.

“She’s having a bit of a tough time this morning,” Gretchen answered her.

“Is she worried about your journey to the Goblin caves?”

“No, she’s upset with me because I embarrassed her over a silly dream,” I answered.

“Actually Martha, Hermione is mad at all of us because we made fun of her,” Ron told her, sounding quite sorry for having upset Hermione.

Martha asked us if we had eaten anything. After learning that we hadn’t eaten, she said she would set out some breakfast food for us. Gretchen volunteered to help and went with Martha into the house.

“Walt, have you ever lost any livestock to predators before?” I asked him.

“About six years back we lost some chickens to a fox that I finally managed to trap. Other than that we have been lucky I guess,” Walt answered me.

“What kind of a predator would spook the horses? It would have to be something fairly large, wouldn’t it?” Ron asked.

“Bear or cougar are about the only two animals around here, that I know of, that would spook horses,” Walt answered Ron.

“Well let’s just hope you are right and whatever it was is gone,” I said.

Just as Annie came to the door to tell us that breakfast was ready, Sirius and Madelyn arrived at the steps to the porch.

“You have the timing of a cat,” Walt said to them, chuckling. “Come on, let’s all go in and get something to eat.”

I knew Hermione was sitting on the table under the oak tree. I decided that the sooner we could get past her being mad the better we were both going to feel. I hoped that if I apologized she would forgive me and forget about this morning’s fiasco. I swallowed hard and walked down to the table to try to persuade Hermione to forget what happened and come get something to eat.

“Hermione, I am very sorry for having embarrassed you this morning,” I said, looking at her, but she only looked down at her feet. “I truly did not mean to hurt your feelings. I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me.”

Hermione looked up at me and for the first time I saw something on her face I had never seen before, Hate.

“Harry, you humiliated me this morning in front of Ron and Gretchen. I don’t know if I will ever be able to forgive you for that.”

Hermione stepped down off the table and started for the house. She turned around, took my hand, placed the promise bracelet in it, and then abruptly walked back to the house without saying a single word.

I just stood there for several seconds. I was numb, I couldn’t believe what she had just said and done. As I looked down at the bracelet in my open hand, I felt a tear well up in my eye and run down my cheek. After several more seconds I just started walking towards the house, I didn’t know what else to do.

Sirius

Walt filled me in on the predator situation as we sat down to breakfast. I didn’t want to alarm him but I felt as if there was something lurking out there. Since he seemed concerned but not panicked, I felt that he had the situation under control as much as possible. I reminded myself that he and his family had been living here for the past fifteen years and knew better than I did the actual dangers that lurked in the shadows. Long years in Azkaban and then on the run had left me somewhat overcautious and suspicious.

We all had a hearty breakfast. I was going to have to give Marcus some more gold for additional supplies as we were going through more food now that we were staying here for the best part of two weeks. After we finished eating, I suggested that we get our backpacks and wait at the table under the oak tree for Marcus to arrive.

Walt wished us good luck, as he and his boys headed out to do their morning chores. We all said good-bye to him and the boys. Gretchen cuddled one of the twins for a few moments before handing it back to Martha. Katie insisted that Ron give her a kiss good bye before we left the house, which he did to her surprise.

Once we had our backpacks loaded with some water, food and other supplies we headed back to the table under the oak tree to wait for Marcus. Madelyn had been very quiet ever since we got up this morning. Last night she had just wanted me to hold her. I knew that today was going to be very rough on her. I hoped that once we were inside the caves she would become accustomed to the enclosed space and her nerves would settle down.

Thankfully, the kids didn’t seem to be the slightest bit edgy about our upcoming journey into the bowels of the Goblin caves. I knew that Harry, Ron and Hermione had used the tunnels that lead from Hogwarts to Hogsmeade many times in the past. Gretchen’s only real fear seemed to be water and I didn’t think we would be encountering any of that today.

Hermione was still moody from this mornings’ set to with the others. I hadn’t seen her and Harry talk to each other or even sit together. Oh well, I was sure whatever was bothering them would work itself out.

“Madelyn, we all know that going into the Goblin caves is not going to be easy for you,” Harry said to her sympathetically. “Just remember we will be there for you, just as you have been there for us since we started this journey.”

“Why thank you Harry, and the rest of you,” Madelyn said to them, her tensions relaxing a little and a small smile showing on her face.

Just as Madelyn finished thanking the kids for their support Marcus apparated in front of us with a small ‘pop.’

“Good morning to you all,” Marcus said to us cheerfully. We all bid him a good morning in return as he strode over to the table.

“You seem to be in excellent spirits today,” I said to him.

“Ah yes. Well that is because Iseult has just finished molting and was reborn from her ashes this morning,” he answered. “Normally I don’t like to leave her alone during the first day after she is reborn, as she is quite helpless. But I’m sure she will be fine until I return later this afternoon or early evening.”

“How often does a phoenix go through this dying and being reborn cycle?” Harry asked him.

“It varies, normally it’s about every twenty five years or so. I guess it depends on how active they are. Saving young Ron must have pushed her over the edge as she was getting past due by my recollection.”

“I see that you are all dressed and ready to go. Do you have the necessary gold to pay the Goblins for their services?” Marcus asked me.

“Yes, will 50 pieces be enough?” I asked.

“Oh yes, It shouldn’t require even half that amount. The Goblins are only providing transportation to the inner chambers of the caves and a locator that will point to the location of the Well-of-Light and the location from which you will start your search. You will have to use your ingenuity and resourcefulness to locate the Well and return. I do not know exactly how long this will take, but I have been told that it will require several hours.”

“What dangers can we expect to encounter in the caves?” Ron asked, sounding just a little nervous.

“Mind you, I have never been there personally, but I have heard others that survived the journey speak of many things,” Marcus said, his voice suddenly very serious and grave. “You will most likely encounter rats, bats, scorpions, lizards, dragonites, rogues, tunnels that are very treacherous and who knows what else.”

“What’s a dragonite?” Harry asked.

“A dragonite is a miniature dragon, about two feet long. It can fly and breathe fire, just like its big brothers,” Marcus answered.

“And rogues, Marcus what are they?” Ron asked.

“A Rogue is a Goblin that has left their society and preys on travelers that pass by. You would do well to avoid them if at all possible,” Marcus answered Ron.

“Are there any other questions?” Marcus asked us. “Since you have no other questions, we might as well get started. If you will all take hold of the portkey we will be on our way.”

We said good-bye to Martha and the girls who were standing beside the table to see us off.

“Try to come back healthy and all in one piece this time,” Martha said to us, only half joking.

“I can’t come back in worse shape than I did on our journey to the Sea,” Gretchen said, smiling weakly.

Katie ran to Ron and gave him a big hug as he picked her up off her feet returning the hug.

“Cheer up Hermione, you’re not going to a funeral,” Annie said to her. Hermione barely smiled back at her and didn’t say anything.

We moved away from the table and all grabbed a hold of the portkey. Instantly we were flying over fields, mountains and valleys. We landed at the edge of a dark and foreboding forest just moments after leaving the Blyth’s farm.

The entrance to the caves is at the end of the path that begins over by that large tree,” Marcus said to us. “The Goblins will be waiting for you at the caves. After you pay them, they will transport you into the deepest recesses of the cavernous mountain by rail. You must return to the point where they drop you off. It would take years to walk out of the cave, that’s assuming you could find your way at all. I will return here once each hour to check for your return. Once you have returned I will then transport you back to the Blyth’s.”

Gretchen

We bid farewell to Gawain and started towards the tree that marked the beginning of the path to the Goblin caves. Hermione still wasn’t talking to anyone and refused to walk beside Harry or even acknowledge his presence. I was starting to be a little ‘ticked’ at her. I know we had embarrassed her this morning, but that was no excuse for the way she was treating Harry. Besides the longer, she kept acting this way, the harder it was going to be to apologize for acting like such a jerk.

Once we reached the tree and started into the woods, I felt a cold shiver shoot down my spine. The trees were all twisted and gnarled; there wasn’t a single straight branch in any of them. They looked like hideous, multi armed monsters, which were hunched over with their arms dragging on the ground. Before we had gone fifty feet along the path, the trees towered over us blocking out the sky. The path was bathed in an eerie light that managed to find its way through the thick cover of trees overhead. Shadows were everywhere and I was expecting something vicious and ugly to jump out at us any moment.

This forest smelled rank and putrid, nothing like the sickly, overpowering sweet smell of the rain forest. Its smell just made you sick, period. There was not a single color, other than varying shades of gray, visible anywhere. It was the gloomiest, most depressing and wretched place I had ever been in.

The path was constantly winding around the trees and it gently sloped uphill. At several places, the path actually went beneath the larger trees. The path felt spongy and you made absolutely no sound as you walked. Come to think of it, the forest was deathly silent; no sounds of any kind could be heard. This place was spooky.

Sirius and Madelyn were in the lead, followed by Harry, then Ron and I, and finally Hermione. The few times I had looked back at her she was staring straight ahead and didn’t even acknowledge the fact that I was looking at her. Harry’s shoulders were slumped down as he walked. I could tell that he was really hurting emotionally. He loved Hermione and she was being a complete ass. I had all I could do to keep myself from turning around and really letting her have a piece of my mind.

After we had been walking for about twenty minutes, the path abruptly ended at the mouth of a large cave. Standing at the entrance were half a dozen Goblins, watching us as we emerged from the path and walked up to them.

The Goblins looked just like the ones I had seen back on earth. Then were about three feet tall and most unattractive by human standards. The leader of the Goblins approached Sirius.

“We are here to seek enlightenment at the Well-of-Light,” Sirius said to him, as Gawain had instructed him to say.

“Do you have the necessary payment for travel and supplies,” The Goblin asked.

“Yes we do. Exactly how much payment will be required?” Sirius asked.

“Three gold coins for each member of your party,” answered the Goblin.

Sirius gave the Goblin eighteen gold coins, which the Goblin immediately passed to the others for inspection. Once the Goblins were satisfied with the gold payment, they led us into the cave. When we had walked about five hundred feet into the cave, which continually closed around us, we came to a set of rails with two flat cars sitting on them. Each of the cars was about eight feet long, four feet wide and had four seats.

When we reached the cars, one of the Goblins gave each of us a tiny, clear sphere. Inside the sphere were two arrows that seemed to be fastened to the center of the sphere. One arrow was gold and the other silver. Imagine the hands on a clock that could move in three dimensions and you will have an idea of what the spheres were like.

“These orbs will be your guide,” the Goblin said to us, in a high-pitched voice. “The gold arrow will always point in the direction of the Well-of-light. The silver arrow will point to the location of the rail terminal where we will be waiting to bring you back here. Do not loose your orbs or you will be lost forever in the caverns below.”

The Goblin directed us to take seats in the flat cars. Two of the Goblins had already taken the right front seat of each car. Hermione joined Sirius and Madelyn as they headed for the lead car. Harry joined Ron and me as we climbed into the second car. Once we were all seated and buckled in the cars started to move forward.

We quickly built up speed as we headed downward into the depths of the caves. Within seconds, we were traveling very fast along the winding and twisting rails. The walls were rushing by and the wind in my face made it difficult to breath. My stomach was up in my throat several times during the descent. After twenty minutes of riding what amounted to an underground Roller Coaster, we quickly slowed to a halt in a large cavern. The top of the cavern was about twenty-five feet above our heads. It was hard to feel claustrophobic in a room this big.

The Goblin in the lead car showed Sirius a button located at the end of the track. When we were ready to return to the surface, we were to push that button and they would come back and pick us up. As soon as we were all out of the cars, the Goblins reversed the seats and the cars disappeared up the tracks.

Harry

The cavern we were in was quite large, at least fifty feet across and the ceiling was more that twenty-five feet high. The walls glowed with a pale iridescence that cast soft shadows around the room. Here and there, stalactites projected down from the ceiling to meet stalagmites growing up from the floor. Pools of phosphorescent liquid were scattered around the cavern. Several tunnels led off in different directions, all of them looked very uninviting.

The temperature was chilly but not cold. The air smelled as if it were a thousand years old, which it probably was. There was a faint acid smell in the air, but nothing foul or decaying. The eeriest thing about the place was the complete lack of sound, other than the sounds we were making ourselves. One day alone in this place would be enough to make anyone mad. I shivered involuntarily.

I looked over at Hermione, hoping that at least she would look at me. As soon as our eyes met, she turned away and my heart sank even lower that it already was. This was turning into the worst day of my life. I didn’t have the slightest idea of how to get her to talk to me. I wanted desperately to wrap my arms around her and hold her.

Sirius interrupted my misery when he asked us all to get out our direction finders that the Goblins had given us. They were all pointing the same direction. I don’t know what we would have done if they all been pointing in different directions.

“I suggest that Madelyn and I go first,” Sirius said to us. “Then Gretchen and Hermione, followed by Ron and Harry. You guys be sure to keep an eye out behind us. We don’t want anything to sneak up on us from the rear.”

We all got out our wands and followed Sirius into the tunnel that the finders had indicated that we should follow to reach the Well-of-Light.

The tunnel was relatively narrow, only about six feet wide and just tall enough to stand up in. I saw Madelyn shiver as she entered the tunnel. She stayed very close to Sirius. The walls of the tunnel glowed with the same phosphorescence as the cavern. This made it possible to see reasonably well without having to use our wands as torches.

We followed the tunnel for several minutes, while Gretchen kept checking her direction finder to make sure we were still heading in the right direction. I could feel a slight draft on my face, which meant that the end of the tunnel couldn’t be a dead end. The tunnel sloped continuously downhill until we came to our first fork.

“Which fork does the direction finder indicate we should take?” Sirius asked Gretchen.

“I make it out to be the one on the right,” she replied. ”But I would feel better if someone else would check their finder.”

Hermione consulted her finder and said it also pointed to the right.

We started down the right fork. The tunnel continuously narrowed and became dimmer as we moved along its path. After we had walked about one hundred yards, Sirius lit his wand for light. Gretchen and Ron did likewise.

All of a sudden, Sirius stopped and told us to shush. For several seconds none of us moved a muscle or hardly dared to breathe.

“I thought I heard something,” he said very quietly to us, almost whispering but in the noiseless tunnel, it felt more as if he was talking normally.

Just as he was about to add something, he looked over my shoulder back up the tunnel. He held up his hand to hold off any questions we might have. After several seconds, I began to hear faint scratching noises coming from behind us.

Just as I was about to ask him what he thought the noise was; Madelyn said ‘Rats’. “That sounds like a large number of rats headed our way,” she said, pushing her way past Ron and I.

“We better move fast. We don’t want to be trapped in this narrow tunnel if there is a pack of rats coming up behind us,” Sirius said worriedly.

Madelyn told us to get moving, she would guard our rear in case the rats attacked. We began walking as fast as we could without actually breaking into a run. The sounds from behind us were getting louder and louder with each passing minute. We could now hear the incessant squeaking of the rats as they continued to pursue us through the tunnel. They couldn’t be very far behind now. We all kept glancing back over our shoulders. I was expecting to see a wave of rats come into view at any moment.

All of sudden Sirius let out a yelp and stopped dead in his tracks. We crashed into him nearly sending him over the edge of a sinkhole that covered the width of the tunnel and was about six feet across. The hole was pitch black, you couldn’t see any bottom. The only way to get past the sinkhole was to jump over it. The increasing sounds of the rats meant that we had no other choice but to jump over the hole, the rats blocked our retreat back up the tunnel.

Sirius said that he would go first so that he could help the rest of us if we didn’t make a clean jump across the sinkhole. He backed up about ten feet from the edge, sprinted to the edge of the hole and jumped safely across to the other side.

“Just get a good running start and it’s not too much of a leap,” he called back. Since he had his wand lit, we could see the other side of the hole and wouldn’t be jumping into total darkness.

Gretchen went next and cleared the sinkhole without any trouble. Hermione followed her, but Sirius had to grab her just as she landed and started to fall back into the hole. Ron quickly followed Hermione and made it safely across. By now, I could hear and smell the rats. They couldn’t have been more than a dozen feet away.

I ran to the edge and leaped as hard as I could and just cleared the edge on the other side. Just as I leaped, I heard Madelyn shout some curse that caused a flame to shoot back up the tunnel. The moment I landed, I turned around to see Madelyn sprinting for the edge of the sinkhole.

The rats had caught up with her. Just as she went to leap, she tripped over the rats at her feet and fell headlong down the sinkhole. We listened in unbelievable horror to her shrill, terrified scream as she fell down and down until at last we couldn’t hear her voice any longer.

It seemed as if we had been listening to her scream for several minutes, but in reality was probably only ten seconds. We all just stood there totally stunned by what had just happened before our very eyes.

Hundreds and hundreds of rats were on the other side of the sinkhole trying to figure out a way across. Their blood red eyes glowed in the dull light from Sirius and Gretchen’s wands. They were screeching and frenzied trying to find some way of getting at us.

Sirius was standing still, in total shock, not believing that Madelyn had just fallen to certain death moments ago. Hermione was just starting to shake, while Gretchen buried her face in Ron’s chest. As the realization of what had just happened to Madelyn set in, I felt dizzy and I thought I was going to be sick.

Just as I felt that I was going to collapse, Sirius collapsed to his knees while crying out in agony at the loss of the woman he loved. At the sound of Sirius’s heart breaking, I felt as though my own heart had just been ripped from my body and shredded right in front of me.

We all collapsed to the floor of the tunnel beside Sirius. None of us could stand on our feet. It felt as though I had been punched in the gut and had all the wind knocked out of me. Sirius was racked with sobs of grief that can only come from despair so intense that it leaves the person totally incapacitated.

We all just sat there and cried in agony for several minutes. Hermione let me put my arms around her but she was mostly a zombie, totally unaware that anyone was even holding her. None of us, except Sirius and me had ever seen someone die right in front of them. I felt even worse as I realized that this is how Sirius must have felt the night my parents were murdered.

After we had been crying for several minutes Sirius managed to get hold of himself and tried to get us to do the same.

“There .. is .. nothing .. we can do for Ma.a..delyn now,” he managed to say. “We have to get up and keep going. She wouldn’t want us to just lie down and die here.”

“We can’t just leave her down there,” Gretchen said, still crying.

“Gretchen, I don’t want to leave her body down there either. But we have no choice. The hole could be thousands of feet deep and we don’t have the ropes or equipment to go down and retrieve her body. On top of that we need to find our way out of here by some other path than the one we just came down.”

Hermione had regained enough of her self-control so that she realized I was holding her. She looked up at me as though she was going to say something, but instead she just got to her feet without saying anything.

We all got slowly to our feet, wiping tears from our eyes and trying to make our legs function. Sirius took one last look in the direction of the sinkhole.

“Goodbye my love. I will never forget the joy you brought to me since we first met. May your spirit rest in peace wherever it may be,” Sirius managed to say, with his voice cracking at every word.

Ron

I let go of Gretchen. Rage was replacing the unfathomable grief I had been feeling ever since Madelyn fell into the sinkhole. I walked to the edge of the hole, pointed my wand at the rats that were still trying to get to us, and said ‘Ingnitshus’. A powerful flame shot from the end of my wand setting dozens of rats ablaze. The shrieking, flaming rats started jumping around as they burned to death. Several fell into the sinkhole. I watched them fall until I could no longer see the light from their flaming bodies.

“Ron, I wish we could stay here and kill every one of those vile, filthy creatures that took Madelyn’s life. But it wouldn’t bring her back and we really must be going if we are to have any chance of getting out of here alive,” Sirius said to me.

“I know killing them won’t bring Madelyn back,” I answered. “I am ready to explode with rage. I just didn’t think I could walk away without killing as many of them as I could.”

We continued on down the tunnel with Sirius in the lead and Harry and I guarding our rear. We all walked along without saying a single word. Every once and a while one someone would let out a sob or moan. I felt as though I had just left part of me back in that sinkhole. The longer we walked the madder I got. Someone or something was going to pay for Madelyn’s death.

The tunnel came to an end in a large cavern after we had been walking for another thirty minutes. There in the middle of the cavern was a huge pool of bubbling phosphorescent liquid that spilled over the rim of the pool and flowed through a crack in the cavern wall. I took out my direction finder. The gold arrow was pointing directly at the pool of liquid.

The cavern was almost circular and at least a hundred yards across. The ceiling was so high it was lost in the shadows. There were three other tunnels leading from the cavern besides the one we were standing in. The tunnels were equally spaced around the perimeter of the cavern. This cavern, like the one we started from, had numerous stalagmites and stalactites scattered around the room.

As I was gazing around the room, I felt Gretchen’s grip on my arm suddenly tighten. When I looked at her face, she was staring at the floor of the cavern with a look of revolting disgust. I followed her gaze and noticed that the floor of the cavern was rippling, like water in a puddle. As I looked at the floor closer to where we were standing I suddenly realized why the floor was in constant motion. It was covered with millions of scorpions, all scurrying around fighting each other.

“Gretchen, which way does your direction finder indicate for us to take to return to where we started,” Sirius asked her.

“The silver arrow is pointing straight across the cavern to the tunnel on the opposite side,” she answered, her voice cracking as she was still gazing at the floor covered with scorpions.

“Sirius, my direction finder points to that tunnel as well,” I added.

Harry was still keeping his eyes peeled down the tunnel we just emerged from in case the rats found a way past the sinkhole. I was trying to concentrate on how we were going to make it to the well and then to the other side of the cavern so I wouldn’t be constantly thinking about Madelyn. I was sure the others were trying to do the same.

“Using our wands as flame throwers is the only way for us to get to the Well and then into the tunnel across the cavern,” Sirius explained to us. “Unless of course, any of you has a better idea, if so please speak up?”

No one had any other ideas. Sirius said that he would lead, followed by Gretchen and Hermione who were to keep the scorpions away from our sides. Harry and I would bring up the rear and keep the scorpions from attacking us from behind. Sirius had me get the cup, to hold the liquid from the well, from his backpack and hand it to him.

“Is everyone ready?” he asked. “Light your wands and be careful not to burn each other.”

It was probably a good thing we were all still a little numb from Madelyn’s death, otherwise we wouldn’t have stepped foot on the cavern floor. Sirius lit his wand and started clearing the scorpions from in front of him. Gretchen and Hermione lit their wands as they followed Sirius onto the floor, pushing the scorpions away from their sides. I swallowed a large lump in my throat and lit my wand as Harry and I followed the girls out onto the floor.

Sirius started making a path for the well in the center of the cavern. Harry and I had to walk backward so we could keep the scorpions at bay. The stench from char broiled scorpions was horrid. Our flames kept them about six feet from us. I was astounded that new scorpions kept trying to attack us, with all the carnage we were doing to their brothers and sisters. The scorpions would explode as the flame hit them. It was almost like popping corn jumping out of a hot skillet.

It took us about ten minutes to reach the Well. Sirius very carefully dipped the container into the well and sealed it after it was full of phosphorescent liquid. We all kept the scorpions at bay while he collected the liquid. I took the container from him and secured it in his backpack while he took my place holding off the scorpions.

“Ron, check you direction finder again. Just to make sure we should be heading for the tunnel on the far side of the cavern,” Sirius said to me.

“Yes it still points to that tunnel,” I answered, after checking my finder and securing it in my pocket.

Harry

 â€œOk, same formation as before,” Sirius told us, and started for the tunnel on the far side of the room.

We were about half way to the tunnel when suddenly dozens of flying creatures entered the cavern from small holes about twenty feet above the floor. At first, they didn’t see us and we started moving as fast as the flame could push the scorpions out of the way. We were about fifty feet from the tunnel entrance when the first creature struck.

The creature, which turned out to be a dragonite, hit Hermione in the middle of her back sending her crashing to the floor just inches from the deadly scorpions.

“HERMIONE!” I screamed, trying to get to her before the scorpions did. I grabbed her hand as she turned and reached for me. Just as I started to pull her to her feet, dozens of scorpions jumped on her. Most were on her legs and body, which thankfully, was protected by her flying suit. However, about six of them had landed in her hair.

“HERMIONE, COVER YOUR FACE WITH YOUR HANDS AND TURN AROUND,” I quickly screamed at her. Thankfully, I didn’t have to tell her twice. She did exactly as I said. As she turned, I quickly engulfed her in flames. I kept the flame on her for about two seconds and then began brushing the dead scorpions from her body and smoldering hair while still trying to keep my wand pointed at the scorpions on the floor. Between the two of us, we quickly extinguished any burning hair. The smell would have been awful, if it were not for the fact that the room already stunk of roasted scorpion.

As soon as Hermione recovered her balance and her hair was no longer burning, she started sweeping the floor with flames from her wand. By now, my heart was pounding so hard in my chest it felt like it was going to burst. I was breathing in gasps, but still felt as though I couldn’t breathe.

Before we had taken another half dozen steps, a dragonite clamped itself to Gretchen’s shoulder, its rear claws puncturing her suit and shoulder muscles. Gretchen screamed in agony as the dragonite kept trying to bit into her neck as she fought to protect herself. Ron grabbed the dragonite by the tail and torched the animals behind. The dragonite screeched and let go of its grip on Gretchen’s shoulder as Ron flung it with all his might across the room. The dragonite landed in the well and exploded in a shower of sparks. Gretchen was holding her ear, which was bleeding heavily, but she managed to keep her wand trained on the floor as we continued to move towards the tunnel.

When we were within twenty feet of the entrance to the tunnel, another dragonite slashed Sirius’s thigh with its tail. Blood began to gush from the wound as Sirius stumbled and went down on one knee. Just as Ron reached out with his left hand to try to help Sirius stand up a dragonite clamped its jaws on Ron’s hand. Ron howled with pain and roasted the dragonite, but not before it managed to bit off several fingers and part of his hand. Ron lost his footing and fell to the floor.

We were totally surrounded by deadly scorpions and dragonites. It was twenty feet to the tunnel and I could see the dragonites getting ready for another wave of attacks. I could hear the girls screaming, ‘Do something Harry, please do something’. I had no idea what to do. I started to feel very cold and then it hit me. I didn’t know if it was going to work or not. I extinguished my flame and yelled ‘EXPECTO PATRONUM’.

The white stag erupted from my wand and a silver mist radiated from it in all directions. The scorpions and dragonites retreated before the advancing mist. Gretchen helped Ron to his feet as Hermione and I helped Sirius up from his knees. Sirius placed his arms around our shoulders and we started dragging him towards the tunnel as fast as we could with Sirius hobbling along on one foot. Ron was clutching his left hand with his right to slow the bleeding while Gretchen supported him as they followed closely behind us.

We reached the entrance to the tunnel and hobbled another twenty or so feet inside before stopping. Hermione and I gently lowered Sirius to the floor and turned to face the tunnel entrance with our wands ready to flame anything that tried to attack us. Gretchen quickly got her backpack off and handed some bandages to Sirius and Ron to apply to their wounds.

Both Ron and Sirius were in considerable pain, from the looks on their faces. While Hermione kept guard, I asked Gretchen if there was anything she could do for either of them.

“I should be able to fix Sirius up so the he can walk, but the best I can do for Ron is cauterize the wounds so he won’t lose any more blood,” She said to me, her voice sounding as if she was just about to lose it.

“Do the best you can and then we have to get out of here as quickly as possible,” I told her, turning back to help Hermione in case anything tried to follow us.

Gretchen

I applied some antiseptic and ‘QuickHeal’ to the laceration in Sirius’s thigh. Luckily, it wasn’t very deep and hadn’t damaged the muscle. After I finished bandaging the wound, I gave Sirius some painkiller to dull the pain in his leg.

“Thanks Gretchen. My leg is already starting to feel better,” he said to me, wincing as he moved his leg.

“Yeah, right,” I said. “Sirius, just sit there until I have Ron ready to travel, please?”

“Ok nurse, I’ll do as you say. Now go do what you can for Ron,” Sirius answered.

I turned to face Ron. His face was almost white from the loss of blood and pain.

“Nighty night Ron,” I said to him as I quickly put him out with a sleeping charm. I knew that cauterizing the wound would be so painful that he would have passed out anyway.

I cauterized the wounds so that the blood stopped flowing. More than once, I almost threw up. I am not a field nurse; I don’t have the stomach for it. After I made sure the bleeding was completely stopped, I applied antiseptic to the wound and tightly bandaged Ron’s hand.

I had Harry apply some antiseptic to the puncture wounds in my shoulder. That would have to do until we got out of the caves. I hoped Gawain would be able to fix us up properly now that Madelyn was gone.

I woke Ron from the sleeping spell and gave him some elixir to drink. He looked at his hand and then back at me. I could feel the tears running down my cheeks.

“Don’t cry Gretchen,” he said, reaching out to touch my cheek with his good hand.

I helped Ron to his feet and made a sling from some of the bandages to cradle his injured arm. After I was sure Ron wasn’t going to collapse, I helped Sirius to his feet.

“Do you two think you can walk?” I asked them.

“We’ll damn well walk out of this hell-hole,” Ron said, as Sirius voiced his agreement.

“Harry, we are as ready as we will ever be,” I told him. “Do you want me to lead or guard our rear?”

“Gretchen, why don’t you and Hermione lead,” he answered me. “Between the two of you, you can keep a lookout and make sure we are going in the right direction. Remember to watch out for more sinkholes.”

Hermione and I both lit our wands with light and started following the tunnel. We let Ron and Sirius set the pace by telling us to go faster or slower. After we had been walking for about twenty minutes we reached a fork in the tunnel. Sirius said he needed to rest for a few minutes. While Sirius was relaxing, the rest of us drank some water and I gave Ron and Sirius some more elixir.

The direction finder pointed to the fork on the left and we started down that tunnel ten minutes later. As we walked, the tunnel began to get steadily larger and brighter. After we had been walking for another thirty minutes we could see light up ahead. We reached the end of the tunnel as quickly as Sirius could walk.

“Oh my God,” I cried out in sheer joy, as we entered the cavern with the rail that would take us back to the surface. “We’ve made it, we made it.”

I couldn’t keep the tears from flooding down my face as I hurried to help Ron, and Harry and Hermione went to support Sirius. The end of the tracks was about two hundred feet from the tunnel we had just exited. We started hobbling in that direction as fast as we could manage.

We had to wind our way around several stalagmites. As we got nearer the rails, we started hobbling faster. We were all starting to feel relieved, and then without any warning, the ground beneath our feet gave way and we were falling and screaming all at the same time.

Hermione

When the ground gave way beneath my feet, I felt as though my stomach was suddenly in the back of my throat. But that didn’t keep me from screaming. I was terrified that we had fallen into another sinkhole and would plummet to our deaths.

Just as the thought of dying flashed across my mind, we hit the ground. Somehow, I managed to hang on to Sirius and not go tumbling head over heels. The ground sloped steeply downhill and we slid another ten feet once we hit the ground. When we finally stopped sliding Harry, Sirius and I were sitting on our butts. Ron and Gretchen were sprawled at our feet and were getting up slowly. I was dazed and confused for several seconds.

When I finally managed to push the shock of suddenly falling from my mind I looked up, to see that we were in a hole about thirty feet deep. The opening at the top was maybe ten feet in diameter. The bottom of the hole, where we were now sitting, was shaped like a cone. The sides of the hole were soft dirt, thankfully, as it broke our fall, but would make it impossible to climb out.

“Is everyone ok?” Sirius asked us, sounding very shaky.

“I’m afraid that I may have broken my ankle,” Harry answered, his voice showing that he was in considerable pain.

“My butt and back ache from the rough landing, but other than that I feel ok,” I told him.

“My hand is throbbing and my sides hurt, but I think I’ll live,” Ron replied. “How about you dear?”

“Ron, I think I must have banged my head. I feel a little dizzy and my vision is blurry,” Gretchen answered.

We were a God-awful mess. Five nearly crippled people trapped at the bottom of a thirty-foot deep hole with no way to get ourselves out or even call for help. Things couldn’t get any worse.

Me and my big mouth, I thought to myself, as we all looked up to the top of the hole when we heard voices, to see several raggedly dressed Goblins staring down at us.

“Can you help us?” Sirius quickly called to them.

They never answered him. Instead, they pulled a net over the top of the hole. We were caged like wild animals. My heart sank as I heard the Goblins driving stakes into the ground to secure the net.

I glanced at Ron and Gretchen sitting across from us. Gretchen had her arms wrapped around Ron and he had is good arm over her shoulder, while is damaged arm still hung in the sling. Gretchen wasn’t openly crying, but tears were running down her face. I turned to look at Harry, who was looking at me with a mixture of anguish and puzzlement in his face.

I felt a moment of guilt and longing, but quickly looked away. I was still furious with the three of them, especially Harry, for having humiliated me this morning. I still couldn’t believe that I had woken up from the most beautiful dream, of making love with Harry, to hear and see them all laughing at me. How could they take that moment of pure ecstasy and turn it into a joke. I went from feeling exhilarated to being humiliated and ashamed in the blink of an eye. I wouldn’t have hurt any worse if they had cut my heart out with a dull knife.

Thinking about this morning’s events brought all of the pain and agony back. I felt the tears welling up in my eyes and running down my cheeks. I didn’t want anyone taking pity on me so I just rested my face on my knees and looked the other way.

“Does anyone have any idea on how we might get out of this mess?” Sirius asked, sounding very tired.

“If we could get a rope looped through the net we might be able to pull ourselves up and cut our way out,” Ron offered weakly.

“Ron, I don’t think any of us is strong enough to climb a rope,” Sirius answered.

“Sirius, do you know any spells or curses that might destroy the net,” Harry asked hopefully.

“No, I’m sorry Harry I don’t. In addition, by the looks of the faint glow around the net I would bet it’s protected by a spell.

“Well we can’t just sit here and wait to die,” Gretchen half shouted, sounding totally frustrated with our situation.

“Under the circumstances, we don’t have any other choice,” Sirius answered her, trying to sound calm and reassuring.

“What time is it now?” Ron asked.

“It’s about one o’clock,” Harry answered.

No one said anymore for a long time. We just sat there, each lost in his or her own thoughts. I couldn’t stop reliving the events of the day, starting with being humiliated, Madelyn’s death and now being trapped in this pit. I was continuously cycling between grief and anger. If this didn’t end soon I was going to go completely mad.

Several times over the next couple of hours, we heard the Goblins talking at the top of the pit. We had no way of knowing what they were planning on doing with us. I could feel fear starting to build in the pit of my stomach. The longer we sat there the stronger the fear became.

I began to feel that I couldn’t breathe; the walls of the pit were closing in on me. All I could think of was that I had to get out of here, now! I jumped up and tried to climb out of the pit, clawing at the walls with my hands trying to force my way out.

I just kept pushing with my feet and clawing with my hands. I just had to get out of this pit. After several minutes of frantic, fruitless progress, I collapsed and slid back down to the bottom of the pit. I just laid there sobbing in despair.

Suddenly I realized I was being lifted from the ground. Arms were cradling me and I could hear a rhythmic heart beating in my ear as a hand was very gently stroking the back of my head. I felt the fear and panic start to subside and my breathing and heart slowed as the seconds ticked by. When I felt that I could breathe normally, I opened my eyes to see that my head was resting against someone’s chest. I slowly tilted my head up to see Harry looking down at me. His face was streaked with tears, but in his beautiful green eyes, I saw nothing but infinite love and compassion.

I felt my jaw start to quiver and my throat was suddenly starting to ache. Before I could blink, I started crying uncontrollably. I wrapped my arms around Harry’s chest and just sobbed while he held me, rubbed my back and kissed the top of my head. For an immeasurable length of time, we just sat there, Harry cradling me in his arms and me crying on his chest. When at last I felt that I couldn’t cry another tear, I raised my head from his chest and looked into his eyes.

“Oh, Harry,” I cried. “I’m so sorry… I Love … you. Please … forgive me …”

Harry placed his hand under my chin and very gently turned my face up to his and kissed me tenderly. When he stopped kissing me, he looked at me and smiled so compassionately that I felt as if my heart would break.

“I love you more that words will ever be able to express,” he said to me, his voice warm and gentle and then he kissed me again.

“Hun, I have something that is crying out for you,” he said to me, holding up the promise bracelet for me to see.

“Are you sure I’m worthy enough to wear it?” I asked, feeling ashamed of the anguish I had put him through. “Oh Harry, I’m so sorry.”

“Hun, love means never having to say ‘I’m sorry’,” he said as he slid the bracelet over my hand and onto my wrist.

I rested my head against his chest, hugging him with every ounce of strength I had.

“Hun, could I ask you for a small favor without you getting upset?” he asked me tentatively.

“Sure Harry, anything for you,” I said as I sat up and looked at him.

“Would you wash your hair when we get back? It smells awful from my having torched it,” he said nervously.

“Oh Harry,” I cried, wrapping my arms around his neck and kissing him hungrily, as the others managed to laugh at Harry’s request.

“I would like nothing better that to cut and wash my hair. It smells just as bad to me, maybe worse,” I said sniffing my hair and grimacing from the smell. “But there is just one little problem; how are we going to get out of this Hell-hole?”

My question was immediately answered by a rope that dropped right in front of my face. I looked at the rope in disbelief and then I looked to the top of the pit to see Madelyn looking down at us.

……

The next thing I remembered was Harry gently patting my cheeks saying ‘Wake up Hun, wake up.”

I suddenly remembered the last thing I had been looking at and looked back to the top of the pit. There was Madelyn just staring down at us.

“We have to hurry,” she said quietly. “The rogue Goblins have gone but they could come back at any time.”

Madelyn helped me climb out first so that I could help with the others. Once I was out I started to ask how she was still alive but she told me ‘Later’ and we continued getting the others out of the pit. Ron came up next, followed by Gretchen, Harry and lastly Sirius.

Once we were all out of the pit Madelyn led the way over to the end of the tracks.

“I signaled for the rail cars to get us out of here just before I went to the pit after the rogues left,” she told us. “They should be here fairly soon.”

True to her word, the two rail cars that had brought us here returned and slowed to a stop. After the Goblin drivers reversed the seats, we climbed aboard. Ron sat with Madelyn and Sirius in the first car, while I sat with Harry and Gretchen in the last car. Once we were seated and belted in; the cars started their journey back to the entrance of the caves.