~ Home for the Summer~
Chapter Twenty- The Tunnel
Harry ran back to where he had left Ron, who didn't seem to have moved a step since he left.
" You know you can get back the same way you left" he said.
Harry leaned over onto his knees, breathless, " the wand, is gone".
" So is Olivia".
They continued staring at the wall, like it had some unique characteristic, when really it looked the same as anything else in the corridor. To their unfortunate luck, it wasn't.
" It's all starting to make sense" Harry said, breathing normally, " except, how do we get through?".
Ron nodded, " the whole point of stone is that we don't go through".
Harry kept examining every brick in detail, " there has to be a way".
" Maybe, if we killed ourselves, then we'd be ghost, and could fly through".
He gave him a look saying it was never going to happen, " why don't we leave that to the last resort?".
Ron shrugged, trying to think of a new, and unique, plan. He never failed at that. " The whole point of it is that we don't go through!" he repeated, with much more meaning this time.
Harry snarled at him, signaling for him to make some sort of sense, even if it was Ron.
But instead of saying anything. Ron strolled across the corridor, with Harry watching. " Thanks to Dobby and platform nine and three- quarters". That got his eyes to bulge.
Ron went rampaging towards the wall, like it was the way to the Hogwarts Express. Harry closed his eyes, not wanting to see a repeat before their second year. There was no sound, no thud, no Ron wincing in pain. He wasn't even there when Harry looked.
" R-Ron?" he gaped.
" Bloody hell" Ron's voice boomed in an echo, " I think I found a way in. If I made it through, you will. Mind you, it's rather dark".
Harry took a running start, same way Ron did, though hit dead on, the impact knocking him backwards.
" It's not working!". What if he wasn't able to get through? How come Ron was and he wasn't? Panic rushed through his mind.
" Oh, my bad, I was standing in the way" Ron said, discouraging Harry, " try again".
Keeping his eyes tightly shut as he ran, he felt no obstacle in his path. Pure darkness coated around him after opening his eyes. He had made it through.
" Ron?".
" Right here" the voice was not far.
" Which way do we go?" Harry asked.
He could hear Ron walk being him, " I don't know, I didn't know this passage existed" he stopped, then screaming, " Hermione!".
Harry jerked away.
" Ron, it was a faint scream, very faint, coming from the..
" Left!" Harry exclaimed.
While in that direction, the darkness began to fade with each step, a deep glow was forming. Tiny lanterns, those smaller than the ones in the regular corridors, led down another tunnel at the end of the one they had run into.
" I don't think we should do this" Ron's voice went into it's scared and panicking pitch, " maybe we should go get the Headmaster".
Harry gave Ron a simple stare.
" Oh right, I really have to start getting use to that".
The tunnel was taken with great caution, causing them to bend in the narrow space.
" See, the only person that is meant to fit in here is a little person, maybe a little girl!" Ron accused. Harry didn't respond. " Hey, what's that?".
Not fifteen feet ahead, white light streaked from the crack under a closed door. They approached it at a faster speed.
" Should we go in?" Ron asked, hoping Harry would say no.
But he knew better. " It ends here".
Ron grabbed his shoulder just as he had his hand on the door's rusted handle. Behind them, on the left, almost drilled through the cement, was a hole, about the size of a half dollar coin. Leading into the Headmasters office.
" That must be how they know I had the wand", without really knowing who ' they' was.
Harry placed his hand back where it was. Successfully opening it without any interruptions.
The open areas resembled the Chamber of Secrets quiet frankly, but few precise details indicated that it was not possible. It was smaller, no larger than one of the classrooms. Slowly, Ron and Harry walked inside, the door slamming itself shut with a loud crack. Looking around, the last thing Harry saw was, Hermione.
" Hermione" they both went running, Harry was ahead. She was curled p in the far corner, with her head resting on her knees, looking up when hearing her name.
" No!" she warned sharply, " don't!".
An extreme shot of mind-bending pain bolted to the right side of Harry's forehead (that's where it is in the movies). His scar. The pain was so intense, that he dropped the floor, his fingers over that area.
Ron noticed when he was only a step in front. " That's never good" he said, coming to his side. Hermione didn't move, she seemed strangely distance from him.
A snapping sound took all three attentions to the other side of the chamber, another door. It had been opened, two figures had walked in, but the door did not close like it had done for Harry and Ron. They walked into the lighted area.
Olivia and Adrianna.
" They can't be Lord Voldie" Ron said, " they're kids. He's here I know he is, why else is your scar hurting?".
" We are not Lord Voldermort" Olivia said sharply. It did sound odd, someone as grown as Ron using a name you'd expect form a child, and someone as young as Olivia using the full, horrid name.
" No, we're not" Adrianna added, standing next, though shorter, than her sister.
Footsteps emerged behind the two girls, and they were soon enough joined.