New rift, who this?
Thanks to his little game TAG, Grian knew almost all of the secret passageways Hogwarts contained. It was amazing really, knowing just where to hide when he encountered Mrs Norris or even Filch when he was taking a nightly stroll. But almost knowing them all, he kept finding a new one every once in a while.
The dungeons passageway being one of them.
It usually was an accident, finding them, but sometimes he was searching for them deliberately. Just like he was doing now. He had been suspecting a hidden passageway in this part of the dungeons for a while now and today was the day that he would find it.
He was pressing every stone on the walls and checking every split and crack for a hidden button or something. He was very good at finding buttons. But this hidden passageway could not be entered through a button, it would probably have to be some kind of spell to do so.
He went back to the library and delved into Hogwarts: A History once more. Every single line about the Founders could be the spell, he just had to look hard enough and connect the dots.
That was another thing he was good at; connecting dots and seeing the bigger picture. It is why he excelled at potions and transfiguration, because they both required logical thinking.
He was scanning the lines about Helga Hufflepuff and her affinity for greenery. By Merlin’s pants, that was it! How did he not think of this earlier?!
Grian sprinted back towards the dungeons and began investigating the algae and moss growing on the stones he had been investigating before. And indeed, when he pushed some moss to the side, it revealed two words written in Latin; plantae secreto.
He made sure that there was no one around him and tapped his wand against the moss. “Plantae secreto,” he whispered and he began to hear rumbling in the walls. It kept getting louder and louder until it suddenly stopped. It was the only warning he got for the floor disappearing beneath him, dropping him on some sort of cushion.
Only a cushion was not supposed to start hugging you, was it?
He quickly looked down and saw that he was ensnared in a Devil’s Snare. Okay, that seemed easy enough, just relax while the plant is trying to hug you to death, no? He could do that!
It took a minute or five, but eventually the Devil’s Snare relented and dropped him again. This time on actual cushions.
The room he was dropped in was dark at first, but his presence lighted up the torches surrounding him, basking the room in a yellowish light. Grian got up and took a look around, where in the world was he?!
The room was Hufflepuff themed, yellow and black being its most prominent colours, but those quickly faded into stone. There were tubes in three different colours next to one of the walls, giving off an aerie vibe.
But by far the most eye catching feature was a gigantic purple rift at the opposite end of the room. It was pulsing and admitting purple sparks.
Where in the world did he end up? He must have been far beneath Hogwarts if the stone was anything to go by.
He had to tell Mumbo and Scar!
The following day, the young Slytherin dragged the two older students along to show what he had found. Grian was basically bouncing around with excitement and to be honest, it was kind of worrying the two. The last time they had seen Grian this excited was when they tried to food poison Doc (which failed because of the man’s apparently fast metabolism).
He tapped his wand on the moss again and whispered, “Plantae secreto.” The walls rumbled again and Mumbo took a step backwards while Scar rolled backwards. Then the ground below them disappeared making the two shout in surprise and Grian with glee.
Mumbo and Grian had fallen into the Devil’s Snare, while Scar was still floating down. Him floating gave him a chance to look at what was happening and so he quickly casted a “Lumos solum,” upon seeing the Devil’s Snare. Mumbo and Grian fell onto the cushions and Scar floated down with them.
“Grian! What in Merlin’s name was that!” Mumbo shouted angrily at the Slytherin but Grian beamed. “I introduce you to Helga Hufflepuff’s secret chamber!” Their mouths fell open at the sight of the room they had ended up in.
“Oh my goodness…” Scar trailed off at the sight of the gigantic purple rift in front of them, “What is that?”
“I have no clue!” Grian answered proudly, as they stared at it, “Could be a portal to another dimension for all I know.”
“Shouldn’t we, ya know, tell a teacher about a potential portal beneath Hogwarts?” Mumbo asked as white as a sheet, but Grian shrugged it off.
“Nahhh, I’m sure it’s fine! After all, it’s been here for hundreds of years right?”
“Yeah, hundreds of years of this chamber not being opened you mean,” Mumbo countered, “You have no idea what could happen!”
“Don’t worry Mumbo,” Scar assured the taller, “I’m sure it will all be fine. Besides, look at the architecture of this room, isn’t it amazing!” Mumbo sighed deeply.
“Look, I don’t know about you guys, but I don’t really like this place. It’s freaking me out,” Scar patted him on the back.
“If you don’t feel comfortable we can go back. Just say the word,” he reassured him.
“Yeah, I’d like to leave please,” and with that the three of them left.
That did not mean that that was the end of it!
No, Grian was fascinated by the strange room and was determined to uncover its secrets. So he enlisted the help of his cousin Pearl and his ghost hunting buddy Impulse. He led them to the chamber, where Impulse began investigating for ghosts but finding nothing. He too was interested in the strange purple rift, but advised them not to come any closer as they did not know what it was exactly.
Upon coming back up, they met up with Scar and Mumbo to share their information, which was nothing but it could not hurt. As they walked back towards the library Impulse looked outside.
“Hey guys?” he started, “Is the moon big?” Grian turned to him, not having properly heard the third year.
“What? Oh Mumbo! Is the moon big?!” he exclaimed when he saw the moon and Impulse facepalmed. “Oh, was that what you were saying, sorry,” Grian apologised with a grin.
“Well that’s peculiar,” Mumbo mused, “I’d almost say that that would be the cause of something meddling with time.”
Impulse turned as white as a sheet before mumbling something about important business he had to attend to and ran away.
“That’s even more peculiar,” Grian remarked, “Oh well, we’ll leave that to the professors,” he shrugged.
In the meantime Impulse ran towards ZIT’s hidey hole turned ghost hunting room.
“Guys!” he yelled and Tango and Zed looked up from the couch. “I think we messed up big time!”
“What’s up buddy?” Tango asked concerned as Impulse took a breather.
“Remember that one time prank we did at the start of the year?” the other two nodded, “Well, the moon is big and Mumbo remarked that it could be the cause of something meddling with time!”
“But that prank was ages ago,” Zed frowned, “Why would the moon be big now?” Impulse turned even whiter than he already was.
“Oh no, that’s not good…” he trailed off.
“What? What's wrong?!” Tango asked again.
“We need to reverse that spell we did,” Impulse looked up with his eyes widened, “We may be in serious trouble. Be right back!” And with that he ran away again, leaving behind a very confused Tango and Zed.
“Guysss!” Impulse yelled again as he caught up to Grian, Mumbo and Scar. “I’ve figured it out, I think,” ran had to stop himself from barreling into Scar but Mumbo luckily steadied him.
“Calm down,” Mumbo said, “Now tell us, what did you find?”
“You said that the moon was probably a cause of something meddling with time right?” Impulse started and Mumbo nodded, “Yeah well, at the start of the year me, Tango and Zed charmed the clocks to go one hour back. So I ran to them and Zed then told me that it would have caused the moon to be big a long time ago. And then I thought about what else there could have been during the last few days for the moon to go big.”
“The rift,” Grian caught on and Impulse nodded.
“Yeah, I’m suspecting that the rift is amplifying what we did and actively turning back the clocks. Because we left it at two hours, it’s 4 o’clock right now and it’s spring. The sun would be down at eight or something, that’s not two hours,”
“Oh shit-,” they realised.
“We need to set the clocks back to where they’re supposed to be, that should counter it,” Impulse reasoned and ran back to the ZIT room, the others following closely behind.
“Let me guess,” Tango started, “You’re setting back the clocks to their original time?” Impulse nodded and Tango handed him the notes they made at the start of the year.
“Have I ever told you how much I love you!” Impulse exclaimed and he, the Buttercups and the rest of ZIT ran towards the Great Clocks of Hogwarts.
It took thirty minutes and the six of them to turn them back to their original state, but they managed to succeed in the end.
It was a lesson well learned for both groups; never mess with time and strange purple rifts beneath Hogwarts!