Chapter 9
"I don't believe it," Professor Fig said as he looked around the room in disbelief.
Hallie couldn't believe it either. The room she had seen in the enchanted stone was real! Not only that but they stood in it now!
The only thing was that Hallie wasn't exactly sure where this room was, or what it was. And she was really having a hard time understanding why she kept seeing things today that Professor Fig seemingly couldn't see.
Hallie could hear a soft snoring coming from a goblin seated at a desk ahead of them. She stepped forward tentatively, "H-Hello?"
Professor Fig stepped ahead of her, holding a hand up in her direction to quiet her. He cleared his throat, which still earned them no response from the goblin.
"Ahem," Professor Fig said, loudly this time, which startled the goblin awake with a yelp.
The goblin slid backwards in his chair in surprise, dropping the quill that he had held in his sleep to the floor. He sat forward and leaned over the desk's edge to look at them curiously.
"It can't be," he said, his eyes widening at them. A broad smile spread across his face.
"Just a moment," he mumbled, climbing down from his seat to walk around the desk to face them on foot.
"Welcome to Gringotts Wizarding Bank," he said cheerfully, stooping into a deep bow in front of them.
Hallie looked around the room at that. Now that made sense she thought as she looked at the marbled pillars that she now recognized as matching the ones she had seen before at the bank. She hadn't realized before that they bore any resemblance.
"Vault number twelve, I presume," the goblin said questioningly.
"Precisely," Professor Fig replied with a nod, hardly missing a beat before playing along to the banker's words.
There was a short awkward silence as the goblin looked at them expectantly for a moment and then reached out his hand and said, "the key?"
"Hmm?" Professor Fig said, looking very much like he had just been caught in a lie that he wasn't sure how to get out of.
"Your wife's portkey," Hallie whispered immediately, having connected that the portkey and vault key might be one and the same almost as soon as the goblin mentioned a key.
A mixture of relief and surprise crossed Professor Fig's face, "Oh! Yes, of course."
He pulled the portkey from his pocket and handed it to the goblin who, thankfully, took the key and didn't seem to question their brief confusion.
"This way, then," he said happily and set off towards a set of rails to their side with a perky step.
He seemed so happy to be helping them, Hallie thought. He was downright cheerful and friendly, completely opposite to the goblin she had met when they went to Diagon Alley. She quite liked his sweet personality.
Professor Fig turned to her with a very serious look on his face once the goblin had gotten a few steps ahead of them.
"Stay close," he said firmly to her before they followed behind the goblin. He looked much more worried now than he had earlier. Hallie wasn't sure exactly how being at Gringotts was any worse than where they had been before, but she followed closely behind him as he had asked her to anyway. His own wariness of the situation making her feel a bit nervous about it as well.
"After you," the goblin said after he whistled and a little cart rolled to a stop in front of them. They all clamored into the cart and set off along the tracks.
"How many vaults are there in Gringotts, "Hallie asked, looking at all the vault doors they were whizzing past. Gringotts seemed much larger now than she had initially thought it to be. She hadn't realized there were other entrances to the bank or this many vaults.
Their banker friend seemed happy enough to answer her question. "Hundreds. In fact, you'll see quite a few on our way to vault number twelve. As we speak, we're just below the main lobby. The vaults you see now are the newest."
"Are private entrances to the bank common at Gringotts," Professor Fig asked.
"They are most uncommon. Only one with great wealth or power- or both- could have arranged for such a service."
The tracks started downwards into a deep dive through a tunneled space. The goblin spoke to them over his shoulder and said, "You'll want to take a breath."
"A what," Professor Fig asked only moments before they rode directly through a waterfall, drenching them all in water.
"That waterfall washes away all enchantments. It's a security measure," Professor Fig explained to Hallie as she wiped the water from her face, feeling a bit shocked from the sudden dousing in cold water.
"Experienced the Thief's Downfall before, have you," the goblin asked, sounding amused.
"Heard of it," Professor Fig replied as he waved his wand and dried them with a spell.
"These are the lower vaults that we're passing now," the goblin informed them.
"How deep are we going," Hallie asked. She was quickly realizing they might be in for a much longer ride than they had been on the last time they came to Gringotts.
'Vault number twelve was commissioned shortly after Gringotts was founded over four centuries ago. It resides in the deepest part of the bank. Settle in. We've quite a long distance to go," he replied.
Four centuries!? This must be very old. It made Hallie wonder just how long all of this had sat waiting to be discovered by someone. Had no one come across this at all in all this time?
Sure enough, as the goblin had said, it was quite some time before the cart began to slow and came to a stop outside a cluster of vaults. A uniformed goblin stood at the entrance, flagging them down to stop.
"Vault number," He asked them.
"Vault twelve! Momentous day," their driver replied excitedly. As impressed as their escort seemed, the guard did not seem to share his enthusiasm.
"On your way then," the guard said, dismissing them to continue on their way with a wave of his arm. Hallie couldn't help but notice the little armband he was wearing on his upper arm. It had a dark red glow to it.
It seemed oddly familiar but she couldn't quite place where she had seen it before. Something about it gave her an ominous feeling. She watched him board another cart and take off along the rails in another direction as they too set off along the tracks again.
She wracked her brain trying to figure out where she recognized it from as they continued along the rails.
Suddenly it hit her. A flash of something red behind the greyed skin of the dragon's jaw. The dragon that attacked them earlier had been wearing a collar of some sort! A collar with that same red glow to it!
"Professor-," she muttered, leaning over to him so that their driver wouldn't hear.
"Hmm," he answered, leaned over to hear her.
"-the arm band that guard was wearing was glowing."
He knit his brows together, "Like the glow you saw on the portkey container?"
She shook her head, "No, darker. I saw that same glow on the dragon's collar."
"What was that," their driver asked curiously.
"We were just wondering about that goblin back there," Professor Fig replied, tactfully concealing their conversation.
"He watches over the oldest section of the bank. Rare anyone goes there anymore," the goblin explained.
They started to see fewer and fewer vaults at a time as they traveled along the tracks. A little while later they slowed along the tracks and came to a halt before a very isolated vault door.
"Here we are," their driver said as he climbed down from the cart.
"When was the last time this vault was accessed," Professor Fig asked as he brushed a cobweb out of his way that had hung on the metal step rails.
"A goblin has been stationed at my desk for hundreds of years. In that time, no one has visited vault twelve- until today," he replied.
Now his very excited behavior made sense to Hallie. He must have never expected anyone to ever come along and see him during his time stationed there.
Hallie couldn't imagine how lonely and boring that must have been. Although she was sure he must have a life outside of his work, she couldn't help but think that would be a terrible place to be stationed at within Gringotts- it just seemed- sad. It's no wonder he was having himself a nap when they got there. He likely had little else to do.
Their goblin escort approached the door and stuck the key in it. Lock by lock, the door unsealed and swung open. A puff of dust and cobweb floated to the ground as the door creaked open, disturbed by the motion.
"Vault twelve," he said, stepping aside politely so that they could enter the vault.
"Thank you for your help," Professor Fig said kindly with an inclination of his head.
Hallie followed suit, thanking their escort as well and following Professor Fig inside the vault.
The inside of the vault seemed- very empty. She'd expected to see more stuff inside. Hallie couldn't spot anything right away that seemed important.
'What do you suppose we should be looking for," she asked.
'I'm not sure," Professor Fig replied. He turned behind them to face their escort, who still stood by the entrance. "Sir, I wonder if you might-"
The goblin cut him off with a reply immediately.
"The instructions for vault twelve indicate that I am to grant access to the holder of the key- and then close the door," he said all too cheerfully.
And then with a smile still on his face, he waved his hand and the vault door slammed shut.
"Wait," Professor Fig cried out, making a dive for the door. Hallie watched with a sickening feeling in her stomach as the locks surrounding the door clicked back into place and sealed the door.
"Best of luck!" She could faintly hear the muffled reply of the goblin to them through the locked door. He still sounded so sweet and cheerful, but now it only left her with a sinister feeling.
Professor Fig took a deep, shaky breath beside her and turned to look behind them into the vault.
"That was certainly unexpected," he said, sounding far too much like he was making a conscious effort to sound calm.
Hallie remembered what the first goblin to escort her through Gringotts had told her about people being sealed inside of Gringotts vaults until they die. Had all of this been an elaborate trap all along? She felt shaky and ill. There was no way to open that door from the inside. She was trapped inside, just like the cellar.
All of those times that Charlie had locked her in the cellar, sometimes for hours, and sometimes for days. She could never get out when the door was sealed.
Her breath shook as she stared at the vault door.
She felt like a tight band had been wrapped around her chest- squeezing her air out and she couldn't breathe.
...
The leather belt cracked harshly against Hallie's back. She wheezed as the sting of it spread across her skin.
By now she'd been here four days. The bruising from Charlie's earlier interrogations made drawing breaths ache.
"Answer me, Hallie," Charles demanded.
"I told you I don't know," she replied hoarsely. At this point her voice had become frail from lack of water and food.
This time Charlie opted for a swift kick to her ribs instead. The force of it sending her crashing onto her side on the floor.
"I know that's not true! I know that you know how you did it! Explain yourself!"
"I didn't do it! The glass just broke- I don't know how," she cried out desperately.
Charlie's foot struck her again, this time in the stomach, leaving her speechless from the deep ache in her midsection. She curled in around herself, clutching her stomach.
"That's not true Hallie! It can't be just a coincidence. If you ever pull something like that again, I'll make sure you never leave this cellar again," he seethed. "Do you understand?"
Hallie couldn't answer. The pain was still too much for her to find words. What would she say anyway? SHE hadn't made the glass break. It was impossible. Charlie glared down at her, awaiting her answer.
"Hallie!" Charlie's voice demanded an answer impatiently.
....
"Hallie?"
Hallie blinked. Professor Fig stood before her, gripping her shoulders with both hands and looking very much concerned. She took a deep shaky breath.
She wasn't in a cellar here. She knew that.
"I-I'm sorry, I-," her voice faltered. She looked at the floor, ashamed that she had let herself lose focus again, especially at a moment like this.
"It's alright. I understand. Just- don't panic. It's going to be fine. Let me think. There must be something here," Professor Fig said, releasing her and peering around the vault. "Hmm. Revelio, perhaps."
"R-Revelio?"
Hallie's panic subsided somewhat at seeing that Professor Fig did not see their circumstances as hopeless. Of course Professor Fig would know what to do.
"Yes. A revealing charm," Professor Fig replied and gave her a scheming look. "No time like the present. Let's see what we're missing shall we? Ready your wand and focus," he said as he raised his wand.
Hallie wasn't sure how her professor's mind could be on teaching at a time like this, but to have something to do was a welcome distraction from the unsettling feeling she had of being trapped, so she raised her wand and followed his guidance on how to perform the spell.
"Revelio," Hallie performed the incantation. There was a brief flicker of light on the wall opposite to them.
"There! I saw something," She cried out excitedly pointing to the wall.
"Perhaps we're not close enough. Move a bit closer and try again," Professor Fig encouraged.
They both took a few steps deeper into the room and Hallie raised her wand and performed the spell again.
"Revelio!" This time a large ornate door bloomed across the wall that she had seen flicker the first time she had cast the spell. At its center was the now familiar glowing symbol that Hallie had seen on the portkey container and enchanted stone earlier.
"A door," She said with a soft sigh of relief. Where there was another door, there was another potential exit.
"Well, that's a start," Professor Fig said as they both approached the door. He leaned over to examine the door, touching the symbol. "There's that symbol again. I don't suppose you see a way to-"
"I do, professor! That symbol has the same glow as the one I saw on the Portkey container," Hallie responded.
'If what you can see reveals the way forward, then I daresay we are about to discover the secret of this vault," Professor Fig said.
Hallie knit her brows together. She was now more confused than ever at how she seemed to be continually seeing things that Professor Fig apparently couldn't see. This was unnerving.
"You can't see the glow to it?" She asked him, to confirm she wasn't simply losing her mind.
'No," he confirmed.
"I don't understand. Why can I see it, but you can't? It doesn't make any sense," she said feeling at a loss.
'I don't know. But it's obvious that you ARE seeing something considering you've been able to interact with what you've seen. Perhaps we will discover why in time, but for now, lead the way," Professor Fig said.
Hallie reached to the symbol tentatively and touched its surface lightly, anxiously anticipating how it might react this time to her touch. The moment her fingers touched it, the symbol blazed with a blindingly bright light. It was so bright, in fact, that all of the rest of their surroundings went dark and all Hallie could see was the bright symbol and a surrounding darkness.
The symbol slowly faded into a pale blue and vanished. Hallie then realized that the symbol hadn't simply made everything else seem dark, they WERE in the dark. Total, pitch black, darkness. She couldn't see a thing in front of her or even Professor Fig at her side.
For a moment, a hand briefly grasped her wrist at her side and then released her and she heard Professor Fig's voice call out beside her.
"Lumos!" Professor Fig's wand illuminated their surroundings at his word. They both peered around them. They weren't in the little vault room anymore.
Now they stood in a large and dark room. There were very tall white pillars in rows, spreading out in all directions from them as far as Hallie could see, which wasn't very far in the overwhelming darkness of the place. The light of Professor Fig's wand felt like the tiniest little beacon of light in such a large space. Despite not being able to see for far, Hallie could tell that the space was enormous by the cold draft of the air around them.
She had never been afraid of the dark, but this space made her hairs stand on end and her skin prickle uncomfortably. It had an ominous feel to it that she did not like in the slightest.
"This is no ordinary vault. I suspect we will need to earn our way out of here," Professor Fig said at her side as he turned on the spot to look around the empty space.
Hallie did not like the sound of that. "What do you mean, 'earn' our way out? Do you think this is some sort of test?"
"I do. But to what end I can't say," he said.
The two of them began walking tentatively ahead. "Stay close," Professor Fig said, "there will be no disapparating if things go poorly- not out of Gringotts."
Hallie made sure to do just that and follow closely behind within reach of him. She had no desire to stray far from her professor in this place.
It seemed like they had been walking ages when Hallie saw a flicker of white-blue light ahead of them, somewhat off to the side of their current tragectory.
She grabbed Professor Fig's arm and said, "I see something up ahead!"
"What is it," he asked her unseeingly as she began to guide him in the direction of the glow, which appeared larger the closer they got to it.
"That glow again," Hallie explained as they approached it. "But- on the floor."
Hallie released Professor Fig as they drew near it and walked over to stand over the light. As soon as her foot touched the ground on which it was, the light burst outward in a bright and swirling show that danced dizzyingly around her feet.
Hallie had the strangest sensation she had ever felt as she stood over it. It was as if the light was reverberating through her body. She felt a pull to it. A pull to act. Drawn in by the sensation, Hallie drew her wand without much thought to what she was doing. She simply followed what the magic seemed to be calling her to do.
She lowered her wand to the floor and then quickly raised it high over her head. As her wand raised upwards, she felt as if a chord had been struck within her. The light followed the path of her wand, spiraling upwards in a brilliant flash of light as it trailed behind it. She could feel the magic pass through her as it went.
There was a great flash of light and then the light pulsed outwards from them in a rippling pattern on the floor, fading to a pale blue as it went.
Hallie stumbled to her hands and knees as they were engulphed in darkness once more, overwhelming by the intense sensation she had just experienced. She took a deep breath.
"Lumos!" Professor Fig's wand lit up their surroundings again. The floor beneath them, which had once been simple stone, now had a slick glassy and reflective look to it, like thin ice over a frozen lake.
"What happened," he asked in shock as he rushed over to Hallie's side.
"When I moved towards the glow, it suddenly seemed as if the ground was swirling about," Hallie answered.
"Are you all right," he asked her worriedly.
'Yes, sir. I'm fine. It only surprised me is all," she said, sitting up onto her knees and looking around.
Professor Fig looked around them too. "You seem to have caused the floor to change."
"That statue-," Hallie began to say as she pointed at the statue of a stone man, who knelt over upside down on one knee with his sword aimed at the sky, reflected in the floor.
"What statue," Professor Fig asked as he moved towards where she pointed. He stood directly beside the reflection with his wand shining over it, but his eyes scanned the floor unseeingly.
Great. Yet another thing that she could see that Professor Fig evidently couldn't. Hallie found this phenomenon to be very unsettling. She wondered if it was common for people to see things that others couldn't in the wizarding world. She felt now probably wasn't the best time to ask that though.
"I see some sort of statue, but only as a reflection in the floor," She explained, standing up and walking over to stand beside it and Professor Fig.
"There must be something to the reflection you're seeing, then," Professor Fig said thoughtfully, gripping his chin with his hand, deep in thought.
Hallie stared down at the reflection of the statue, unsure of what to do about it. She couldn't touch it as she had with the things she had seen earlier as it was underneath the floor. She glanced down at her own reflection in the floor beside it briefly.
Wait- It's a reflection! What's reflected on a surface has to be there above it to reflect in the first place. For that statue to appear as a reflection on the floor, there must be a statue above the ground as well.
"Revelio!" Hallie cried out the spell excitedly. She was impressed to see a statue materialize in front of them in response to her spell. That actually worked, she thought with a surprised sense of satisfaction.
'I presume this is what you saw reflected in the floor," Professor Fig said.
"It is," Hallie said circling around the statue only to notice that something wasn't quite right with it. "The reflection's still there. But the statues' positions don't match."
Professor Fig moved to walk around to the front of the statue, whose sword pointed down at its reflection's back. As he moved, the reflection of the statue shifted, its front turning to face him.
"Wait! When you moved, the reflection turned in the direction of the light," Hallie said.
"Hm. Perhaps you should cast Lumos, then," he said. He then showed her how to cast the spell.
"Lumos," Hallie said, copying his wand movement and casting the spell. The tip of her wand glowed brightly.
"Well done," Professor Fig praised as he extinguished his own wand with the counter spell. "Nox."
Hallie stepped to the side, holding her wand away from herself and watching the statue closely. Sure enough, the statue's reflection shifted again.
"Now the reflection is turning towards me. It does follow the light," she said curiously.
She moved around to the face of the statue, carefully aligning its reflection to match the statue on the surface. When the points of the swords aligned to meet at the ground, a light shone along the floor from the tip of the sword to her- and then the statue stood, raised its sword, and slammed it back into the ground.
A burst of white-blue light flashed outwards from the ground and showered out around them. It spread out in a circle around them and an intense wind picked up around them, creating a circular barrier of rushing air between them and the rest of the room.
Hallie's heart dropped. A sense of dread spread through her. This couldn't be good.
She felt the ground around them shake. She stumbled back a step as she watched five more statues drop to the floor from above them. Each landing with a heavy, ground shaking thud and rising to its feet.
The statue in front of her raised its sword over its head to swing.
Hallie flinched back. She could hear Professor Fig yell for her-
"Hallie! Look out!"
"Protego!"
The statue's sword bounced harmlessly off of Hallie's shield. For the briefest of moments, she breathed a sigh of surprised relief.
Her shield had held. Weeks of dueling practice with Professor Fig had kicked in and she had managed to successfully cast the spell on instinct. For what was probably the first time in her life, she had had the power to protect herself from a genuine attack.
The statue stumbled backwards a bit from the force of his sword rebounding off of Hallie's shield. Professor Fig wasted no time.
"Accio," he called, pulling the statue towards himself and away from Hallie.
He held his wand high over his head and in a bright flash of magic he brought it back down sharply curving it behind him, "Descendo!"
The statue slammed roughly into the ground in a shower of broken rubble. Hallie watched in amazement as the entire row of statues behind Professor Fig were demolished into rubble as well. All destroyed by the same single cast.
Only one statue remained standing, only just far enough away to have evaded Professor Fig's cast. But it didn't have long to survive.
"Levioso," Professor Fig called, raising the statue high in the air and then quickly swinging his wand back around he cast, "Depulso!"
The statue was sent careening over into a nearby pillar- shattering it into pieces and leaving a chunk of pillar missing.
Hallie had hardly had a need to lift a finger, she thought with her mouth agape. Pity the poor fool that ever chose to pick a fight with Professor Fig.
Her time for wonder was short lived however- five more statues came crashing down to the floor around them.
Professor Fig destroyed one almost the instant it hit the floor.
Hallie couldn't just stand here, she had to help, she thought, raising her wand. She flung a quick succession of basic casts at one of the statues. Her own casts seemed like mere chinks to the statues compared to Professor Fig's casts.
"Depulso!" Professor Fig's cast sent two statues sliding across the floor. They broke into pieces as they slid to a stop and collided with one another.
Hallie blocked the third statue with protego before Professor Fig lifted it upwards, "Levioso!"
She turned on the fourth statue as Professor Fig dealt with the third.
"Locomotor mortis!"
Hallie watched her spell snap the statue's legs together with satisfaction. He wouldn't get far like that she thought as she flung a series of basic casts at it.
"Bombarda," Professor Fig cast as he turned on the statue, giving a swift, explosive end to it.
"Hallie! Come here," Professor Fig called to her over the howling wind as she rushed over to him. "Stay close!"
He reached out to her, almost grabbing ahold of her just as the wind and light ceased, engulfing them in an earie dark silence that felt deafening after so much noise.
Hallie peered around in the darkness for a moment, expecting her professor to grab ahold of her again or to cast lumos- but no such thing happened.
"Professor?"
Hallie's nervous call into the darkness echoed loudly with no reply.
****
Eleazar's hand caught only empty air where Hallie had been just moments ago.
He blinked. Peering around him at the sudden change in his surroundings and the sudden silence.
He was back in the small vault room again. He turned, expecting to find Hallie standing behind him, but she wasn't there.
Eleazar spun rapidly on the spot. Hallie wasn't here at all. He was alone.
His heart sank. A sickening feeling filled him. Where was she? Was she back in that room?
He rushed over to the door that they had gone through before, desperate to open it.
He had to find her and quickly.
He pressed on the symbol on the door as Hallie had done earlier but that did nothing.
He looked for a way to open it. It had no handle. He pushed at the door and pulled on it to no avail.
"Hallie? Can you hear me," he called at the door. Maybe she would hear him through it? There was no response.
As the minutes began to drag on by he felt worse and worse. Panic quickly beginning to take over reason as he combed the vault for a way to open the door, any way to open it at all. There had to be something, he though desperately.
Fifteen minutes had gone by. He had started combing the shelves for anything at all. Closely observing dusty old, abandoned goblets and silver bowls for hidden keys.
Thirty minutes had gone by. Revelio provided him with nothing. He had stood at every point in the vault and cast the spell and had not seen a thing.
He stood at the center of the vault, staring hard at the walls and doors for anything at all that might stand out- some hidden way forward. Hallie could be dead by now, he thought with a horrible feeling in the pit of his stomach. He didn't have time to waste sitting in this vault. He had to find her.
He drew his wand, resorting at last to throwing every spell he could think of at the door. Perhaps he could force the door down or open.
"Bombarda!"
****
"Lumos!"
Hallie peered around herself in the dim light of her wand. She was alone?
"Professor Fig!"
She turned slowly on the spot, hoping faintly that Professor Fig might appear out of the darkness from behind a pillar.
"Professor... where are you?"
Her voice echoed into the silence around her. She got no reply. She felt the edge of panic rising in her chest and drew a shaky breathe.
She tried to take slow- even breaths as Professor Fig had often told her to do. She had to keep her head together now.
"This isn't good," she muttered softly to herself. "Where am I supposed to go?"
She took a tentative step forward. A light bounced up from her feet out of the corner of her eye. She looked down quizzically at her feet in the dim light but saw nothing there. Maybe she had imagined it.
She took another step, but this time she kept her eyes on her feet as she did. A small light rippled from the ground around her foot. Sparks of it danced upwards and out to her side, bouncing along the ground.
She hadn't imagined it at all! What's happening? She took a few more tentative steps in the direction that the lights had bounced off to. Each of her steps earned more little pools of light. Little puffs of magic bouncing up off of it and away from her.
It almost reminded her of the legendary wisps from muggle stories. Wisps that would lead careless wanderers to their great fates- or to their deaths. She wondered if those were a real thing in the wizarding world and if that's what they really did- if that's what these were. She would have to ask Professor Fig- if she lived long enough to ever see him again.
She sighed anxiously. The wisps of magic seem to be leading her- somewhere. She had no other leads, so she followed them through the darkness, gripping her wand tightly and carefully watching her surroundings.
Her footsteps echoed eerily in her ears now that she was alone. She hoped she found Professor Fig soon.
There was a soft blue-white glow in the distance ahead of her. It was on the ground like before. The little wisps bounced merrily along to it and landed at its center with her every step.
Ah, she thought. That's where they're leading her. To that glow again.
She stepped out onto it. The light swirling out around her as she did. She knew what to do this time. She aimed her wand down and arched it up over her head. The magic pulsed through her again, bursting outwards in a bright circle around her.
She remained standing this time. She had been prepared for the sensation of the magic this time around. She looked at the floor around her. Everywhere the light had reached on the floor had turned reflective again. Three statues reflected in the floor. Her heart sank.
"Revelio," she cast into the dim space. Three statues appeared, kneeling on the floor over their mismatched reflections.
She paced backwards, lining herself up with them.
"I suppose I'm on my own this time," she said to herself, hoping the feeling of necessity would give her some much-needed courage.
She readied herself for a fight and took a deep breath. "Lumos."
Three chords of light shone across the floor and the statues stood, their swords piercing the floor in unison in a burst of light and wind.
"Circumrota!"
Hallie wasted no time moving in to cast before the statues could make the first move. Her spell caused the statue to spin for a moment, giving her a brief amount of time to focus on the other two.
"Protego," Hallie defended as one of them made to swing at her. She countered, "stupefy!'
She quickly had to shield herself again as the statue's companion swung at her. She countered with another stupefy and a few basic casts.
"Protego!" This was proving much harder on her own. Three statues against one very unprepared girl. She took advantage of the other two statues being stunned and used the moment to focus on shattering the third with a few basic casts.
This made handling the other two somewhat easier now. She was able to repeatedly stun them in alternating goes and wear them down with basic casts. One of them stumbled at last and she blew it apart with a well-placed cast.
The last statue arched it sword down over her and she rolled away from it, spinning on her heel with a basic cast that cracked the statue at last.
Her sigh of relief was cut short by four thundering thuds behind her.
She spun on her heel, transfiguring one into a matchbox right away,. "Flintifors!"
"Fumos!" Hallie cast a cloud of smoke around them. Maybe this would be easier if they couldn't see her?
She realized her mistake almost immediately when it became apparent to her than now she couldn't see them either. A stone sword sliced through the smokescreen over her head and she narrowly shielded herself in time. She skidded back from the force and retaliated. "Stupefy!"
She rapidly fired basic casts in the direction of the stunned statue until she heard the sound of it breaking. The smoke from her earlier cast cleared slightly just as one of the remaining statues charged at her.
"Immobulus," Hallie cast, freezing the statue in place and then showering it in more casts where it stood. Cracks began to form across its chest.
Hallie felt something hard strike her from behind, knocking her roughly to the floor. She scrambled to her feet, firing casts over her shoulder as she rose. She'd foolishly forgotten about the fourth statue.
"Levioso!" She lifted him and her basic cast sent him crashing into the floor, breaking him into pieces.
His companion had recovered from her attacks and moved to swing his sword at her. Hallie ducked and a few well-placed casts finished him off as well.
Hallie was plunged into darkness again- the wind and light dying out instantaneously. She took a few deep breaths, trying to calm her racing heart. Her back hurt where the statue had struck her, but her hand came away with no blood from it. Perhaps she would just bruise.
She was okay. She had survived the battle- and on her own at that.
"Lumos!"
Her wand light lit the space surrounding her. The floor was plain stone again. She took a step ahead and little wisps of light bounded up and onward.
Just how far did this place go? How long was she going to be stuck here, chasing after wisps of magic and fighting stone men? She had to find Professor Fig. She had to get out of this place.
She set off at a run, chasing the wisps through the darkness on shaky legs.
After a while, she spotted the glow of something ahead from behind a pillar. As she got closer, she could see that it was a statue of some kind. A glowing spiral that twirled upwards to a point- something reminiscent of the symbol she had seen on the door.
She was almost to it when she skidded to a sudden halt- the floor in front of the statue was glowing. Here we go again.
Hallie stepped forward onto the glow. It burst into a spiral of light and she repeated the motion from before with her wand.
This time, when the magic burst forth, the floor didn't change. Instead, the statue before her glowed softly and liquefied- collapsing in a splash of glowing liquid puddle on the floor.
The moment it hit the floor, it splashed back up- reforming back into a solid in the shape of an arch. Drops of sparkling liquid splashed down from its center and when the last drip fell, the space inside the arch formed a blue hazy glow.
Hallie could see another room through it. One that didn't match the room she stood in. She peered around. How odd.
She approached the arch, circling around the outside of it to observe it. She could only see the other room through one side of the arch. And could only seemingly reach it through the center.
She looked through it nervously.
Hallie remembered Professor Fig's warning from earlier about touching things she didn't understand. It didn't seem safe to simply... walk through.
Hallie looked around her and spotted a piece of broken stone from a nearby pillar. She took it and tossed it through the arch. It clattered harmlessly into the room through the archway.
She looked at the stone skeptically. It's not like a stone could be killed. All that had served to do was tell her the room COULD be reached. The only way to truly test it would be to pass through it herself.
She reached a cautious hand forward- please, don't let this be a mistake- her finger passed through the blue haze unharmed. She breathed a soft sigh, she'd felt nothing. She drew her hand back to herself.
She supposed it was safe to walk through. She closed her eyes and stepped through the arch.
She opened her eyes again. She stood in a very large and ornate circular room. It was actually rather beautiful and strange, she thought, looking at the golden trims accenting the space.
Behind her, she could still see the room she had been in before through a red haze in the arch.
Her footsteps echoed as she walked deeper into the room.
Hallie jolted at a sudden thundering bang from the opposite end of the room. It had come from the door on the other side of the room.
She walked tentatively over to it. She could hear a shuffle on the other side of it.
"H-Hello?" Hallie called out to the door cautiously. There was a clank from the other side and then a familiar voice replied.
"Hello! Hallie!? Are you there?"
Hallie felt all of her fear deflate out of her. "Professor Fig!?"
"Yes! Godric's heart- I'm glad you're all right. I'm somehow back in the entry room to the vault," he replied.
Hallie shoved on the door. It had no glow to it this time. She stared it up and down for a way to open it.
"I don't see a way to open the door," she called to him.
"There must be something. I'll keep looking over here. Look on your side for any way to open it too," Professor Fig said.
Hallie turned to face the room. It was largely empty aside from a small basin in the center of the room. She walked over to it and circled around it.
Inside the basin was a dark cloudy liquid. Floating above it was a strange teardrop amulet- with a familiar glow to it.
She observed it closely and looked around. That glow had always guided her to the way forward and opened doors so far...
She reached out and took it, pulling it in towards her to look closely at it.
The door to the room swung open. A frazzled looking Professor Fig dashed through the doorway and over to her.
****
Eleazar doubted that he had ever felt more relieved in his life.
"There you are! Are you all right," he asked, looking over his student with a careful eye- she seemed largely unharmed bar a few minor cuts.
"Yes, sir," she replied with a small nod.
He looked around the room they were in, astonished by the change in environment. "How did you- ? What is this place?"
"I don't know. But, I found this floating above that- basin," Hallie said softly, looking down at a locket in her hand.
"That is no mere basin. That is a pensieve- for viewing memories," he said as he looked at the pensieve.
"Like- what they used at the hearing?"
"Yes, exactly."
Hallie leaned over the peniseve as they looked over it. "Are there memories in it now?'
"No," he answered, looking between the pensieve and locket in Hallie's hand. "I wonder- "
He reached out a hand for the locket and Hallie handed it to him to scrutinize.
Sure enough, the top of it could be twisted off. He opened it and tipped it over the pensieve. The hair-thin silvery substance of memories poured out into the pensieve.
"Follow my lead," he said to Hallie and dipped his head over into the pensieve.
For a moment his vision went cloudy and he plummeted through the icy darkness into the memory. When it cleared, he and Hallie stood in what was obviously the same room, but it was unfinished.
Two men stood in the room with them. Both of the men were focused on transfiguring the room around them, their magic quickly building the ornate room in brilliant spiral showers of glowing white-blue magic.
Just like the glow Hallie had been describing to him all day. Eleazar had never seen anything quite like it before.
As the last pillar rose into place, the shorter, heavier set of the two men turned to the other. "All is in place."
The taller man responded, "The portkey is well hidden?"
Eleazar noticed that this man bore some resemblance to the man depicted in the mural and statue they'd seen earlier. Perhaps they were one and the same.
"Perhaps too well, I wonder if the path we've created-"
"May be impossible to follow? It will only be impossible for one who cannot see traces of ancient magic- as I can."
"Your ability to see what others cannot will not be enough, Percival," the shorter man said with a hint of annoyance laced in his voice. "We are entrusting the one who embarks on this path with powerful secrets- with knowledge others will do anything to obtain.
"Yes," the taller man, who had now been identified as Percival, replied calmly, "and if we are correct, Charles, the witch or wizard who completes the trials will have proven themselves worthy of that knowledge and the responsibility that accompanies it."
Charles sighed, relenting. "We've done all that we can."
Pervical nodded softly and raised his wand to his temple. As he pulled his wand from his head, the memory around them faded back into a cloudy mist.
Eleazar lifted his head from the pensieve, staring down at it, stunned.
"That's what you're seeing? The glow that surrounded them?"
"Yes, sir."
He couldn't believe it. After all these years of searching- here it was. "Astonishing."
"Can I see... magic," Hallie asked, sounding very at a loss.
"Traces of an ancient magic, to be precise. The magic that Miriam had always believed existed, but could never-," his voice trailed off, overwhelmed for a moment by grief.
The gravity of it all hit him with intensity. Miriam and George would never have a chance to know just how close they had come to true proof of ancient magic. And here he was, so close to unraveling the mystery that Miriam had spent her life on.
He turned to Hallie, rallied with a newfound determination to finish this.
"Miriam- and perhaps George- died in pursuit of knowledge that has been dormant for centuries-," he said. "And you, it seems, are the key to understanding why. We would-"
Eleazar was cut off by the distinct sound of the vault entrance door unsealing.
"It all looks rather different than it did a moment ago," came a muffled voice from the entry vault.
"Someone's coming," Eleazar said to Hallie, cautioning her to stay back.
He could hear several sets of footsteps inside the vault.
'Who were they," a harsh voice asked.
'I don't know. But, sir- you shouldn't be in here," the first voice said as the door to the room they were in banged open, revealing the banker that had escorted the down to the vault. He was accompanied by the guard they had seen earlier, an armed goblin that Eleazar didn't recognize, and none other than Ranrok himself.
"I was right," Ranrok said.
Eleazar's blood boiled. This could not just be a coincidence- if he had anything to do with Miriam's or George's death, he thought angrily. He paced forward with a glare. "Ranrok."
"Seems my reputation precedes me," Ranrok said arrogantly. "I was beginning to think no one was ever going to visit Rackham's vault."
Eleazar drew his wand with a hard look. "And why are you here?"
He could see Hallie draw her own wand out of the corner of his eye, but kept his focus trained on Ranrok.
Ranrok held a hand up defensively, "No need for that. Just give me whatever it is you found here, and we can let bygones be bygones."
Eleazar narrowed his eyes. There was absolutely no way he would be handing over Miriam's life's work to Ranrok.
And there was no telling what twisted use Ranrok intended for it to forward his own motives, which were well-known by now to be dark and violent. He had no intentions of aiding Ranrok in his violent tirade.
The banker, who had been standing to the side of Ranrok with his hands raised fearfully, reached over and tapped Ranrok's shoulder and spoke up awkwardly, "Sir, THEY had the key to the vault."
Ranrok glared over his shoulder at the banker with a dangerous look.
"Chose your next words wisely," he said coldly.
"I- I only meant that the instructions for vault twelve were quite clear," he said, clearly attempting to gather his courage up as he spoke. "Sir, I must insist. I was to grant access only to one with the key. And you didn't have-"
Ranrok's scowl deepened further the more the banker spoke. He drew and angry breath and without so much as a look at the banker, he gave a ruthless grunt and raised his arm at the banker, sending the poor fellow flying upwards into the air with a powerful blast of magic.
The banker swung his limbs helplessly in the air as Ranrok's magic lifted him. And then Ranrok slung his arm down- flinging the banker to the ground with a thud that cracked the ground.
There was an audible and sickening crunch of bones as the banker hit the floor and lay, quite unmoving, where he landed. His eyes still remained open and blood began to trickle from his mouth, eliminating any hope that he might have survived.
"I have no patience for traitors," Ranrok said with malice. "Now, where were we?"
"I'm not giving you anything," Eleazar said forcefully. He squared himself, prepared to need to defend himself. But Ranrok didn't attack as he had expected. Instead, he turned his cold eyes on Hallie.
"Hmm, well- perhaps your young friend here will be more helpful," Ranrok said with a sinister smile pulling at his lips.
Eleazar spared a brief glance over his shoulder at Hallie. She looked unsure and frightened, but she didn't move or back down.
He shifted, positioning himself between Hallie and Ranrok, a sense of rage filling him. He would not allow Ranrok to harm her. He wasn't going to give him the chance to.
He cast at Ranrok with as much force as he could muster, holding his cast in a steady stream that Ranrok held at bay with a shielded fist.
Grunting from the effort, Ranrok swung his other hand around from behind him, sending a shockwave of magic in Eleazar's directing.
It sent Eleazar and Hallie both careening backwards through the air to the opposite end of the room. He slammed into the ground and rolled- winded from the impact.
The room darkened and there was an ominous rumble from the center of the room behind him.
Eleazar coughed as the air returned to his lungs.
"Professor! Are you all right?" Hallie's hands seized his arm, practically dragging him to his feet.
She tugged on his arm, trying to pull him across the room, but his steps faltered as he took in the massive stone and metal statue that now battled Ranrok and his companions.
"I know a way out," Hallie's voice called behind him.
The statue stumbled backwards and gave a great swing of its sword- Eleazar ducked as it swung over his head and connected with the pillar beside it.
He could hear Hallie's terrified and desperate scream behind him. "Professor!"
The pillar crumbled where the sword struck it, collapsing and falling to its side- right in their direction.
Eleazar turned, running towards Hallie, who stood by the wall with her hand outstretched to him.
She grabbed his arm as he reached her and both of them ducked, pressing their hands to the wall in front of them as the pillar loomed over them.
"Whoop- Oh!" Eleazar blinked. No pillar came crashing down over them.
There was grass at his feet and cool night air blew softly around him.
He looked up, quickly followed by Hallie, to see the night sky.
Hallie released the tight grip she had on his arm and they straightened.
"Are you all right," he asked her.
"Fine, sir," she answered , sounding winded.
He looked around at the quiet open forest around them.
"I've never seen so powerful a goblin. He seemed wholly unaffected by my magic," he said in disbelief as he put his wand away.
Hallie looked around them. "Where ARE we?"
Eleazar took a closer look at the forest around them this time. Hold on- he recognized this place.
"It can't be," he said with a chuckle, placing his hands on his hips. What an incredible turn of events, he thought. "It seems those who set up the pensieve, the locket- and the path to both- wanted someone with your ability to end up here."
Halli still looked incredibly perplexed. "But, professor. Where is here?"
He chuckled, "Hogwarts Valley, Hallie. Come. We've got a Sorting Ceremony to get to."
They set off down the path through the woods. They were not far here from Hogsmeade Station.
They walked in relative silence. Eleazar was deep in thought after the extreme turn of events they had experienced today. It had not nearly been the day he had been expecting. They were both quite fortunate to still be breathing.
He glanced briefly at Hallie. He felt terribly guilty for allowing them to explore those ruins further when they should have just apparated away to safety. Their choice to explore had led them to far greater danger than he could have anticipated. And he also couldn't help but recall the look on her face when they had been sealed in that vault. The poor child had been through enough in her life without him leading her straight into danger.
Even though their journey had led them to an incredible breakthrough in Miriam's research, it would not have been worth exchanging yet another innocent life in pursuit of it. Especially not the life of Hallie, who fully deserves the chance to live a happier and safer life than she had thus far.
He had no qualms with risking his own life to complete Miriam's work. He owed at least that much to her. But after today, no one else should be allowed to get caught in this crossfire. Certainly not now that it was clear Ranrok was also involved somehow in all of this. This was clearly very dangerous.
"Hallie, I am so sorry for what happened today," he said remorsefully.
Hallie gave him the strangest look. "For what? It wasn't your fault."
Eleazar felt taken aback- 'not his fault'- it absolutely had been. "Hallie, I put you in grave danger today by allowing you to accompany me through those ruins. It was a terrible decision- I shouldn't have allowed you to be there."
Hallie appeared to consider his words for a moment before replying. She still wore an expression that said she didn't fully understand. "Professor, I don't think you could have gotten far had I not been there. N-Not that I doubt you, but- how could you have gotten through the ruins without seeing what you were interacting with- or even gotten to the key?"
Hallie did have a point, but Eleazar was not ready to accept that the only way to pursue this was to involve the girl further. Even if her ability had accelerated their discovery and might reveal more to them more quickly, it didn't mean he couldn't continue this without putting her, or anyone else, in further harm's way.
"Be that as it may, I don't want you to be put in any further danger. What happened today was more than enough," he said.
Hallie seemed to accept his implications that he had no intentions of bringing her to any more dangerous journeys in the future. "Will you be looking further into it?"
"I'll study the locket further as soon as I can, but first I must contact the Ministry. They need to know what happened to George- and be warned of Ranrok," he explained. "For the moment, I ask that you keep all that's happened this evening between you and me."
Hallie's response came immediately with an insistent nod, "Of course, sir."
He couldn't help his expression softening at her reply. He had a feeling that she would be true to her word. "Thank you."
She was quiet for a moment before asking in a hopeful voice, "will you at least keep me posted on what you find? I'm terribly curious after all of that."
He chuckled. Sharing what he found in his research with her would be no problem. "Of course, whatever I discover, I will tell you all about."
She gave him a bright smile- a smile that very quickly transformed into awe as they passed the point in the road where they could catch their first proper glimpse of Hogwarts.
She may not be eleven as many of the students are who first see the school, but she wore the same childlike wonder and shine on her face that they all wore when they first see it. There was nothing quite like setting eyes on Hogwarts for the very first time.
"Its amazing," she exclaimed in complete awe, beaming from ear to ear.
"Welcome to Hogwarts," he told her with a bemused smile of his own.