Chapter 5
Hermione hugged Harrison as Fred and George swooped Harley into a bear hug. "I can't wait to tell you all about Egypt!" Hermione exclaimed to Harrison, not noticing the long-suffering look Ron gave Blaise and Draco behind her back. Luna and Neville giggled, and Ginny rolled her eyes.
"And I can't wait to hear about it," Harrison replied, exchanging amused glances with Blaise. "Not right now, though; I'm sure most of our friends could care less."
"Thank Merlin," said Ron. "Happy birthday, you three."
Harrison had decided that the party would be for Neville as well, since the Hufflepuff's birthday was only one day before his and his brother's.
"What are we doing?" Blaise asked curiously. Harrison's response was to head down the front hall, beckoning for them to follow.
They were at Slytherin Manor, which was under the Fidelius Charm. Harrison was the Secret Keeper, even if the Manor technically belonged to Tom. The Potter-Blacks, Remus, Sirius, Severus, and Tom were all staying at the Manor.
Harrison led the group outside to the backyard, where a red brick building was waiting. The building looked incredibly small in the yard, which was fifty square miles, even if thirty square of those miles belonged to Serpent Sanctuary Woods. Sirius stood waiting outside, looking excited.
"Harrison asked Remus, Severus, Tom and I to build an escape room for your birthday party," Sirius told the kids. Most of them immediately perked up. Neville looked a mixture of nervous and intrigued. "There are lots of puzzles that cater to each of your talents. Usually, escape rooms have a time limit of an hour to complete, but these puzzles are pretty hard, and a time limit just makes everything more stressful. This is supposed to be fun!"
A muffled squeal escaped Hermione's lips, and she blushed when Fred, George, and Harley started snickering.
"If you do get stuck or frustrated," Sirius added, "we'll be watching, so all you have to do is ask for help. There's a speaker inside for Tom, Severus, or Remus to give you a hint or two."
"Not you?" Harley asked innocently. Sirius stuck his tongue out at the redhead, and Harley responded in kind.
Harrison rolled his eyes. "Can we start now? Honestly, you are almost as childish as Harley."
Sirius opened the door, revealing a black void. "Happy birthday, cubs." He ruffled Harley's hair as he passed, and tried to ruffle Harrison's, but jerked back his hand when Harrison gave him a sharp, warning look.
Blaise was next, followed quickly by an eager Hermione. The black doorway felt like a soft breeze. When she could see again, she found herself in a small, dim room, with eerie-green-striped silver-gray walls, off-white floors and ceiling, and a red door. There was a paper on the wall next to the door and ten chests on the back wall, each with a combination to open them. Otherwise, the room was empty.
Neville, Luna, and Ginny entered the room next, and Fred, George, and Draco took up the rear. "This looks a lot like the backrooms," Hermione said as she went over to the paper on the wall.
Ten keys reside inside these chests.
To escape the rooms, you need each one.
But each chest has a five digit code.
The first one is free, but to which does it belong?
84019
"What are the backrooms?" Ron asked as Harley grinned in delight.
"It's a Muggle video game, which is like an interactive memory, except it's fictional," Harley said when Hermione didn't answer. "This one is a horror game."
"Why would Muggles play a horror game?" Draco frowned.
"I don't know, it sounds fun to me," Blaise said dryly, as he and Harrison joined Hermione. "Hmm. Looks like we need a key from all of these chests, but we only have the code for one of them. It doesn't say which chest the code belongs to, though."
"There's stuff written on the chests, too," said Ron, who had wandered over to the chests with his twin brothers, Draco, and Harley. "This one says 'what is the square root of sixty-four, times eleven, minus seven, divided by twenty-seven, plus four, but nothing more?'"
Hermione calculated swiftly in her head and blurted out, "Seven!" at the same time that Draco did.
"Ugh, math?" Harley complained, and Ron made a face in agreement.
"Hermione, Draco, why don't you two figure out the answer to the math equations?" Harrison asked. "Then use your wands to write the answers in front of each chest."
"But we can't use magic outside of school," Hermione frowned as Draco obeyed.
"You can, but only if you're in a house that's already full of magic, and there are adult wixen nearby," Draco corrected, glancing over one of the chests before writing a glowing silver '8' above it.
"So Muggleborns and Muggle-raised wixen can't practice magic outside of school?" Hermione demanded in outrage.
"I agree, it gives those raised in magical houses an unfair advantage against those who weren't," Harrison said calmly. "That's one of the things Tom and I are going to fight for."
Hermione relaxed a little, even though she was still a bit miffed, and went to work. A few minutes later, each chest had a glowing number in front of it: 10, 7, 3, 8, 6, 4, 1, 5, 2, and 9.
"Should we try the code on chest number one?" Neville asked cautiously.
"Go ahead," Harrison agreed, and Neville glanced at the paper, then went over to the chest and entered the code. He beamed when the chest opened, revealing a small red key. It unlocked the door easily.
The group entered the next room. This one was bright gold and red, and had another life-size chess board. Unlike the one underneath Hogwarts, this game appeared to have already been started, and this one wasn't magical, because none of the pieces were moving. On the other side of the room was a pale blue door.
"Hang on a second," said Ron after he'd studied the game board. "How is it that both sides only need one move to win?"
"It depends on whose turn it is," Draco corrected.
"There's a paper next to this door, too," Ginny called. "It says, 'make the correct side win, and you'll find the path to the next room.'"
Hermione watched as Draco and Ron began whispering together, sometimes pointing at specific pieces, sometimes shaking or nodding their heads. Finally Ron said, "Black wins. Draco, help me move the bishop."
The two struggled to push the bishop forward three spaces. Once they did, the white king fell over. Luna, who was standing closest, looked at the bottom of the king's piece and said dreamily, "The next code is 74914."
Neville hurried back to the first room and came back a second later with a soft blue key.
The next room was a classroom, eerily similar to the History of Magic classroom, except the walls were blue and bronze. There was another riddle on the board, but it was written in Latin, so Hermione had no idea what it said.
Blaise raised an eyebrow. "I didn't know Remus knew Latin."
"Interesting," Harrison hummed, studying the riddle. "Who else can read Latin?"
Luna raised her hand, which only half surprised Hermione -- the girl had an odd array of talents -- but Fred and George also raised their hands, which did surprise her.
"We're not fluent," Fred explained, when Harrison was the only one not surprised, "but we learned Latin so George and I could create spells."
"For Harrikins or for chaos?" Harley asked.
"Yes," both boys smirked. Ron and Ginny rolled their eyes.
"Luna, Blaise, why don't you two read the riddle and see if you can solve it?" Harrison asked.
This room took a bit longer. Blaise and Luna did figure out the riddle quickly, and told the others what it was about -- each line spoke of something that had happened in magical history, and they had to find the year in common. Hermione was the one who finally cracked it: 1854.
"But that's only four numbers, and we need five," said Draco with a frown.
"Maybe we could put a zero in front of it?" Ginny suggested. "It would still be the year 1854."
Neville, who had apparently taken it upon himself to enter all the codes, rushed out of the room and came back a minute later with a yellow key and opened the also-yellow door. He let out an adorable squeal when he saw what was in the next room.
"What is it?" Draco asked, walking over. He made a face. "Lovely, I wanted to get dirty today."
"Herbology-themed?" Harrison guessed dryly as the group followed a very excited Neville into the next room.
The floor was made of soft dirt, and the walls were white and covered in bees. There were ten rows of plants, all different shapes, sizes, and colors. Blaise only recognized half of them.
"There's nothing in here that says how to figure out the code," said Fred.
"Half of these herbs are Muggle herbs, and the other half are ingredients used in potions," said Neville. "Give me a second." He carefully walked around the room, careful not to step on any of the plants, and studied every corner. Blaise noticed his eyes light up once or twice. About five minutes later, he'd finished searching the room. "The code is 24579," he said confidently.
"Good job, Nev," Blaise praised, pleased when the boy turned bright red at the compliment. He darted out of the room to snickers and giggles.
He came back a moment later with the next key.
The next room was a Quidditch field, which caused everyone except Harrison, Hermione, Neville, and Luna to look excited. There were eight brooms, four on each side of the room, and a box with a Quaffle, Bludger, and Snitch.
"Why's there only one Bludger?" asked Draco, eyes glittering.
"And why are there only eight brooms if there are eleven of us?" Ron added.
"Hermione, Neville and I don't fly," Harrison reminded them. "Well, I can, but I'm not planning on ever playing Quidditch."
"The three of us could keep score," Hermione suggested. Neville looked relieved that he wouldn't have to get on a broom.
"I don't think that's necessary," said Harrison. "I think the code will appear when someone wins."
"Who's good at what position?" Draco asked immediately, bouncing on his toes. Hermione smiled fondly at the boy.
A moment later, Fred, Ron, Blaise, and Draco were on one side, and George, Ginny, Luna, and Harley were on the other. Harrison let the balls go and threw the Quaffle into the air, and it was immediately snatched by Harley.
The game lasted five minutes, because the room was smaller than the Hogwarts pitch and the snitch didn't have a lot of places to hide. Ginny caught the ball one second before Draco did, and the teams landed.
"Oh!" Ginny exclaimed, staring at the ball in surprise. Numbers had appeared on the previously-blank golden sphere. "74928," she told Neville.
A moment later, the group was in the next room. The Weasley twins and Harley immediately loved this room, as the walls, floor, and ceiling were all iridescent colors with bananas and monkeys decorating the wall. A table sat in the center of the room, with two pieces of parchment, one of them very large and the other much smaller.
"Merlin's fucking balls," Fred breathed when he read the paper. "Georgie... we get to make our very own Marauder's Map."
"Can't call it that, though," George said, looking equally awed and delighted. "How about the Chaos Carta?"
"Harley, wanna help?" Fred grinned. Harley bounced over eagerly.
"This is going to take too long," Hermione frowned. The three looked indignant. "I'm sure you're very clever and powerful, but magic like this takes time."
"It won't take as long as you think it will, 'Mia," Harrison said calmly. "Did you forget that Harley can Apparate anywhere in the world, as long as it doesn't have powerful wards? Other than Hogwarts, as we own that."
It took about three hours for the boys to finish the map. To Hermione's surprise, they also managed to make a copy, which Harley pocketed.
"How the fuck!" Sirius' voice rang from the ceiling. "It took us five years!"
Harley, Fred, and George looked unbearably smug. Harrison rolled his eyes.
"The next code is 63019," came Severus' voice dryly.
Neville quickly stood up and headed back to the chest room. Hermione, Harrison, and Blaise were the only ones who hadn't been bored, as they'd been watching the map-making process with interest. Well, Luna looked as serene as ever, cuddling with Ginny, so Hermione couldn't tell if she was bored or not.
Once the door to the next room was unlocked, the group was about to enter, but Harrison and Blaise stopped them. The next room was completely white, with runes covering the walls, floor, and ceiling.
Blaise relaxed after a second. "There's no magic coming off of the runes, I think we're fine. Besides, most of these runes are harmless."
Ron looked intrigued, which startled Hermione. "Most of?"
"Those two on the ceiling-" Blaise pointed at the far left corner "-are the only dangerous runes, but all they do is shoot out fire. Best not to activate those."
"Which ones do we need to activate?" asked Ginny.
Blaise glanced back at them. "Ron, do you want me to teach you runes?"
Ron looked embarrassed but nodded.
Hermione watched with interest as Blaise led Ron through the room, pointing at each rune and whispering to the redhead. Harley began looking bored almost immediately and pulled his new map out of his pocket.
Ten minutes later, Blaise tapped five of the runes with his wand. Hermione noticed that they were the same runes, whereas all of the others were different.
They glowed, and a moment later, the rest of the runes disappeared. Five numbers glowed on the wall above the next door, and Neville quickly returned to the chest room.
"Maybe we should take turns getting the keys," Harrison said dryly when Neville came back five minutes later, gasping for breath. The boy nodded and handed the key to Ron, who unlocked the next door.
The next room was clearly familiar to Harrison and Harley, because the redheaded twin immediately grinned in delight and Harrison looked alert. It was a large chamber, with stone pillars holding up the ceiling, and rivers of what looked like sewage water on either side of them. On the other side of the room was a huge statue of a man's head.
"Is that Salazar Slytherin?" Draco asked. He perked up. "Is this the Chamber of Secrets?!"
"It's based on the Chamber," Harrison corrected, studying the stone walls. "The walls in the real Chamber don't have snakes painted on them. I assume this Chamber lacks a Basilisk, as well."
Most of Harrison's friends paled. Fred and George were intrigued, and Luna just smiled.
Harley bounced over to the wall that had the snakes on them and spoke in Parseltongue. The snake on the far left responded shortly, followed by the snake beside it, and so on, until all five snakes had spoken.
"64014!" Harley chirped, bouncing back over to them. Blaise snorted under his breath at the boy's antics.
Ron was the one chosen to retrieve the next key, as Neville was exhausted. A moment later, they were in the next room. It looked identical to the first room, except this one didn't have any chests in them.
"Another riddle," Ron complained when he saw the paper, which was a lot longer than the one in the first room.
Blaise read the riddle aloud.
"Close to the end ye children be,
"Solving these riddles is the final key:
"What is hard for some and easy for others,
"Combining, taking away, multiplying and dividing the scores?
"What is a game of strategy and cunning,
"That some consider fun and some consider boring?
"What is something that happened in times past,
"And what is important to a magical botanist?
"And finally, what brings people closer together,
"And brings joy, smiles and laughter?"
"Well, the first question is easy," said Ginny dryly. "That's math."
"Unless they mean calculus or-"
"It's math, 'Mia," Harrison said dryly. "Because a lot of branches of math require addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division."
Hermione nodded reluctantly.
"And chess is the answer to the second question," Ron added.
"History and herbology are the answers to the third question," said Neville.
"The answer to the last question is-" Draco began.
"PRANKS!" Harley bellowed, making Neville and Draco jump and almost fall over.
"Stop that," Draco complained.
"So, the last code is 45796," Hermione said, relieved. The escape room had been fun, but she was starving and exhausted.
Harley disappeared and reappeared almost instantly, the final key in his hands. Draco jumped again and glared at the boy, who stuck his tongue out in response.
"Unlock the door, brat," Harrison said with a sigh, causing laughter. Harley bounced over to the door.