Chapter 13
“I can’t believe your sibling is missing Halloween!” Ron groaned as they headed out of the Charms classroom, crossing his arms. “And Granger! She’s such a showoff! It’s no wonder no one likes her. She’s a nightmare honestly.”
As Harry went to retort someone shoved past him, his heart sinking as Hermione rushed past, audibly sobbing.
“I think she heard you.” He glared slightly, sighing softly as they headed towards the great hall.
“So?” Despite how much Ron was trying to brush it off, there was clear discomfort in his eyes. “She’s got to realize that she hasn’t got any friends since she shoved your sibling away.”
“Alyssa’s technically not my sibling but I know what you mean; we might as well be. But Alyssa’s managed to kind of form friends and they are just as smart as Hermione.” He nodded.
“And I’m not going to pretend that I understand how anyone could be friends with them either.” He rolled his eyes, crossing his arms as harry shot him a frosty glare. “What? It was their fault that… that… Thing! Attacked!”
“They sensed something Ron. Was that a great response? No. But they were trying to avoid something, and I have a feeling this was it!”
“So you believe in prophecies and that bull shit?”
“When it comes from someone like Alyssa? Absolutely, yes Ronald. You’ve seen them. They are scary like that. You saw their blood combusted.” Harry nodded, glaring softly. “Let’s just hope nothing happened, because that got bad.”
“What was that thing?”
“They call them En-Point, and I’m not sure that they mean.” He shook his head.
As the Halloween feast rolled around, Harry found himself growing more concerned about Hermione. She hadn’t shown up for their afternoon class, and she remained missing. He had overheard Lavender and the twins talking about her, how she had been sobbing in the woman’s toilet, and wanted too just be alone.
Despite his concern Harry had to admit that the Great Hall looked beautiful and slightly haunting. There were swarms of live bats fluttering through the air, causing the candles that were glowing in jack o’ lanterns to flutter brilliantly.
“Where’s the freak and the know it all?” Draco taunted, sneering as he headed to them. “Expected your freak of a friend to be here at least be celebrating this. Seems like their holiday.”
Before Harry could even respond Quirrell came barreling into the room, Draco just stepping out of the way as he rushed up to the head table. He stopped at Dumbledor’s seat, bracing against the table before wheezing.
“Troll… Troll in the Dungeon… Thought you ought to know.” And with that he fell into a dead feint.
Quickly chaos erupted and Harry took advantage of the situation, quickly slipping out of the room, rushing to the abandoned classroom that Alyssa had suggested he kept his things in. It was out of the way, and he quickly changed into his costume. He knew that it was probably dead obvious that it was him, but he didn’t care as he slung his quiver over his shoulder.
His outfit was fairly simple, a very dark green hoodie with black patches on the lower half of the sleeves. The inside of the hood was black as well as two patches on the shoulders, the bottom of the jacket was black, with a v that led into the zipper which had an arrowhead. The choker around his neck now held an olive-green arrowhead, that Alyssa admitted was an attempt to mix one with a bat. He hadn’t seen it at first, but it was definitely growing to like it as he typically wore it on a silver tinted chain.
As he pulled on his gloves, he couldn’t help wondering why he was so focused on himself. He knew his friend was in danger. It was typically Alyssa that got into their own mind with these things, but now he couldn’t help it as he put on his mask. Black with ice blue fogging out his eyes.
It was a distraction; a way of separating himself from the inherent danger Hermione was in. His nigh-sibling’s first friend apart from him. Quickly slipping around the halls he faltered as he heard a scream, then somewhat disjointed shouting. Rushing forward he had a moment of dread as he wondered how many of his trick arrows would work in a magical environment, hardening his nerves as he took in Hermione’s frozen form, both Draco and Ron throwing random shit at it and shouting to try and distract it.
“If you have to take another’s life you should first consider it’s level of consciousness…” Oliver’s words echoed in his head, and he let out a sharp whistle to get the lumbering beast’s attention. It frankly looked better than something from the other world; it at least had features, but it was lumbering. Massive, slate grey with long arms, and stump like legs. “If it has life, there will be a spark. You’ll know if it’s not there, you can see it. The emptiness.”
As it turned, he met its face; its tiny, beady eyes and prepared the shot. They were empty.
“Then aim for them. For the socket, it’ll be a sure kill.”
Taking a few deep breaths, he let go arrow flying forward, shooting through the skill right as its own club slammed down on its head.
“Bloody hell!” Ron gasped, eyes going wide as the troll fell. Without thinking Draco shot Harry a look before the two rushed up to the girl in front of them.
“Are you okay?”
“Y-yeah.” Hermione gasped.
“You wouldn’t happen to know any air freshening spell IQ?” Draco teased softly before glancing at Harry. “You should go before the professors get here.”
“Right.” Harry gave a nod, heading out of the room. Quickly he headed back for the classroom, keeping to the shadows as he did. He hadn’t expected Draco to go to rescue Hermione, and honestly part of him hadn’t even expected Ron to. Perhaps it was him taking off, and he would have to ask about it, but it was good seeing the two.
“Queen.”
Turning quickly Harry paused as Snape headed up to him, mind reeling for something to say.
“Don’t bother to try and hide it. I know where you and Mx. Wayne are from, and I am not ignorant to the muggle world.” He drawled, crossing his arms. “Now I would like to know what really happened. Ms. Granger is confident, but she is not incompetent enough to go after a troll on her own. Not that I expected Mr. Malfoy to go after a troll either.”
“I half expected Ron not to, so were three for three.” Harry sighed tossing his hoodie to the side gently, leaning back against the table before putting his mask down as well. “And you followed me because?”
“I wanted to know why Ms. Granger was in that bathroom.”
“Ron. He said it was no wonder no one liked her and called her a nightmare. She ran off crying after charms.” Harry sighed. “So are you going to report me to Albus or not?”
“No, I don’t see the need for the time being.” He shook his head. “Besides, Albus already knows. I just wonder where this is going. And why did you take the time go get changed knowing your friend could have been hurt. That seems really impractical.”
“It’s not that hard when you are already in your casuals. And when you practice it enough times, you can get changed impressively fast.” Harry gave a nod. “Look, I’m going to be looking around, and Alyssa seems to trust you but we both know that we’re going to have issues. So, we are going to need to talk. Also, Draco challenged me to a duel a couple days ago, and tricked us into nearly being caught out after hours. I’m taking today into account but he’s not turning around that fast. Especially with the situation Alyssa caused.”
“What have they done?” Snape let out a heavy sigh.
“They showed him hell visions.”
“What?”
“And put pins in their cloak just to see how long it would take for them to get shoved.”
“They truly are trouble. Bot of you are. But now is no time to speak. You will find your things moved to the dungeons, I will play my role and you yours.” He said turning to leave. “I do not expect you to trust me, or to ever truly like me Queen. Today is an exception to all current standing, but it will forge the paths to come.”
“I agree Professor, thank you.”
“Harry, where were you!” Ron demanded as he made his way into the dormitory. “I saw you take off and I thought you were going to help Hermione, but instead you left me to deal with Malfoy.”
“Deal with?”
“Yeah, he went with me for whatever reason. And then this hooded kid showed up and killed the Troll right as I was having my heroic moment.”
“Really?” Alyssa’s voice sounded amused as they headed into the dorm. As they did Hermione stood making her way up to the group. “Hey.”
“You look a lot better. Surprised your out already. You- really do run on hit points eh?”
“Yeah, thanks. I was mostly held due to the feint, and that fucker got me deep. Just wanted to make sure I could take a magical transplant of blood, let that take effect and just ran some screening to make sure I was okay.” They nodded, rubbing the back of their neck. “Sorry I couldn’t help with the Troll. En Point got me deep enough to scar, makes them three for three.”
“It’s alright, you have your own things to work through.” She gave a nod. “So what do you know about the archer?”
“I want to know who the fuck Ron thinks it was considering situation.” They laughed.
“It was a man in green, were the house of Red.”
“So. Slytherin?”
“Or something. It’s not like we wear green.”
Alyssa went to start speaking a few times as they glanced between Ron and Harry who just looked dumbfounded. He was in a green long-sleeved shirt and the exact same black pants, his arrow-bat hanging on a silver chain on his pants. A few nearby students were also kind of giving looks of just baffled, speechlessness.
“Yeah, I don’t know how to- I’m gonna find the twins. Hermione if you want to join us I’m going to let Harry deal with that one.”
“Honestly I think I’d rather not be more a part of that.” She nodded, the two heading off to join the rest of the house.
“Even I have one question. What color do you think I’m wearing Ron?”
“I guess you are in green, but still.”
“Okay, yeah. Let’s just go and eat.” Harry nodded, leading the way to the table, getting some food and smiling. It was clear Alyssa was enjoying themself, vanishing as this look came over them before they returned, rushing up to the prefects and heads of house before bolting off again.
“Percy, are they planning what I think they are?”
“Yeah, and I don’t doubt they’ll manage something somewhere.” He shook his head chuckling softly. “I just wonder who and what they will get involved.”
“It’s Alyssa. They will pull through.”
“I know. And somehow that worries me.”
“Percy, when they are in control, they are in CONTROL. They can make things listen; this is going to be baler.”
“I trust them, Harry. I just worry about them.”
“They have zero self-preservation skills and have not learned to fear much outside of literal monsters. And yeah, they are mentally ill and will more than likely be diagnosed with a personality disorder when they are older. But they mean well, and they will do what they can for this house. They don’t get the system; but they care about family, they won’t outright sabotage unless they lose trust. And at that point they’ve managed a transfer.”
Percy paused then chuckled slightly, turning as Alyssa returned.
“Okay, I got things sorted out, found a safe path, so groups of five blindfolds then follow Professor McGonigall, I will meet everyone there.”
“Sure.” Harry gave a nod turning to Percy. “Hermione, Nevil, Ron, why don’t you take us.”
“Alright.” He gave a nod, heading out with the group. Harry smiled, putting himself between Hermione and Ron, swinging an arm around each of their shoulders as he allowed himself to be blind folded before starting after the professor.
“So what is this?”
“Do… Wizards not have haunted houses?” Hermione asked, tilting her head. “You know a place for spooks and scares.”
“Wait! It’s going to be scary!” Nevil whimpered, fleeing back before they had gotten very far.
“Yeah, that probably should have been expected. He’s not that kind of a Gryffindor. He’s brave but not that kind of, intentionally scare yourself brave.”
“Alyssa’s energy is something else.” Percy chuckled. “Where are we going?”
“I… Genuinely have no idea.” Harry admitted. “But it should be good.”
“Welcome to the house of terror!” The voice echoed through the room, as a sudden chill hit, and the four remaining removed their masks. It was dark; cold stone like the dungeon, though Harry was certain they hadn’t gone that far down. There were spider webs and a very thin layer of fog that hung in the air. “Once you have entered, you may never go back.”
“What?” Percy faltered slightly. “We- we didn’t discuss this.”
“The darkness discusses with none.” The voice responded, clearly a bit annoyed that Percy was breaking the immersion.
“Play along.” Harry whispered as he went to argue again. “It’s a haunted house, don’t break immersion.”
“I will guide you through nightmares, past the face of death itself.”
Hermione’s hand quickly tangled itself with Harry’s as they headed forward, though his heart was racing as much as he figured hers would be. Alyssa always had a way with ambiance, and this was no different. The dead silence that hit the moment they hesitated to be enough to push them down the hallway.
It was long, winding, and Harry again had to wonder where they were. He didn’t know the school by heart; not nearly as much as Alyssa clearly did, but there was nowhere in even the magical school that it could have fit.
“This isn’t so-“ Ron’s retort fell silent as a swarm of spiders scurried out of a crack in the wall, turning the wall black as they rushed deeper in. The hall quickly became thick with webbing, and I suddenly felt minorly sick myself as I realized what was coming.
Alyssa had read up on creatures of this world. They knew monsters, and beasts, and things that should be of pure nightmare.
They had visited Hagrid, Harry had over heard them talking about all of the man’s ‘pets’.
As they reached a massive dungeon, Harry noted the massive nest of webbing. He could hear Percy cussing under his breath, and Ron looked about ready to cry. No one dared move, staying in the dead silence like it would be able to protect them from what was coming.
Forward or back, the cocoon was splitting.
Swallowing down his fear, Harry headed forward; still yelling a bit as the massive Acromantula barreled out, hissing a single word.
“Food.”
Scrambling back a bit, Harry didn’t really think as he quickly located the exit, motioning for the others to follow. As they left the room he heard the spider banging against what he could only assume was a warding spell, the path sealing behind them.
“Fear in the face of an enemy is only natural when you know there is no winning.”
“Bloody hell.” Ron panted, tears running down his face. “It doesn’t- It can’t.”
Harry shook his head as his eyes landed on a flashlight and a radio, holding them both up as he worked to catch his breath.
“It can and it will.” He panted, the group taking a moment to collect themselves as best as they could. “Nothing more than what they can control, but they are very in control right now, And they are smart.”
“This is making Bogarts look like a joke.” Percy half whimpered, accepting the flashlight, taking the lead. “Your sibling is- Terrifying.”
“If I didn’t know any better, I wouldn’t believe you if you said they could have nightmares.” Hermione noted and Ron shook his head.
“I wouldn’t believe you if you told me they didn’t.”
As the group headed down, fog swirled at their feat, climbing into the air as the radio went off, feint but there. Soon the sound of baby-crying hit the air and Percy paled, yelping as he pulled his hand away from the wall.
“Careful, they do bite.”
“Why are these things out then?”
“Not an active threat, and they are horrifying are they not. You saw it. Their heads. The baby faces they have.” Alyssa taunted, letting out a laugh to rival the Jokers before we hit a pitch black room, everything going dead silent for a moment before the hissing started again.
“Oh you didn’t. You fucking didn’t. How and why?”
“Harry?” As Percy turned he screamed; flashlight clattering to the ground, stumbling back to find the hallway was sealed off again. Harry, Hermione, and Ron lit up their wands, twisted figures turning and lurching as they tried to make their way to the light.
“Wands off. Lights off!” Harry urged and no one argued.
“The one thing I dread, the dangers that lurk in the darkest of places. Can you find your way through a maze that changes when you present it with light?”
“Changes?” Percy gasped and Harry nodded.
“They would try to attack us, the warding keep us safe but shifts to accommodate what happened. We could see the entire room when we had the wands up. Lets see where the exit is and- We can probably trick it into more or let straight line.”
“That’s assuming your reaching the other side.”
“The middle of the room.” Hermione nodded. “There was a hole in the middle of the room.”
“What are those things?”
“Nurses.” Harry said, slowly and carefully making his way forward. Even knowing Alyssa’s insane power level, he was questioning the integrity of shifting warding just as much as he knew Percy and Hermione were. The creatures that responded to light without faces, wielding rusty scalpels and pipes.
Some time passed and Ron let out an exasperated groan.
“Were getting nowhere. Lumos!” As the area it up, the nearby monsters lurched forward, causing the group to change direction. Ron seemed not to care about his allies protests, actually taking the lead as his eyes narrowed.
It didn’t take too long before they reached the center, stone walls rumbling up around them.
“Are you willing to take a leap of faith?”
“On three?” Percy suggested, taking Harry’s free hand. Quickly they were in a circle around the pit. “One, two, three.”
As they jumped Harry felt a sickening weightlessness, like when an elevator starts falling. Whatever they hit was sure to hurt, but soon they slowed, floating in a vast black nothing.
Alyssa was actively using wonderland magic at that point, it was the only way for the fall area to exist. Quickly clocks started surrounding them, a heavy ticking filling the air as they fell.
Tick.
Tock.
Tick.
Tock.
As they landed, Harry braced against a wall, catching everybody in a series of mirrors.
“Why the fucking mazes today?”
“I’m late!”
“Rabbit?” Harry turned quickly, stumbling back at the sate of his friend. He was partly decomposed, a massive part of his face ripped off, ink pooling out of his eyes. The Rabbit refracted around them bounding off in hundreds or directions, but Harry instinctively took off forward.
“Harry!”
Harry only momentarily looked back to make sure the others were behind him as he rushed forward, his own minor connection to wonderland allowing him to track the anxiety ridden being. Quickly the darkness gave to an open hilly field, a boat waiting for them on a nearby river, Rabbit healing magically from his wounds, saluting Harry before bounding off.
“Harry?”
“I’ve been to Wonderland. This is not going to stay sunshine and… It’s late! Why is there a… What the fuck is this place?”
“Only way out at this point is forward.” Percy nodded to the boat, squinting at a rocking-horse fly. Nodding Harry joined him, Ron, and Hermione in the boat, unnerved by the sudden calm that they found themselves in.
He knew this river, and he knew what was coming as they neared a large pond being fed by a massive statue of a crying lady.
“This isn’t too-“ Hermione trailed off as the tears flowed red, the water around them quickly melting to blood as the lady swung to hit them, hand causing a wave to send them cascading down another river, world darkening as half decayed frog footmen came barreling through the reeds, none able to reach them thought the group had taken to huddling together in the center of the boat, a distant roaring hitting their ears.
“That’s not-“ Percy gasped, the roaring growing ever louder. “Oh for fucks sake!” Dead ahead, with nothing around them but blood red water was a massive, roaring waterfall.
“Going up.”
“Up?” As we hit open air we fell, but Alyssa was right. While we were falling the course of gravity had entirely shifted, the waterfall inverting behind us as we fell into the sky before hitting the floating blackness of the rabbit hole. Everything slowed down, and as we were catching our breath Cat appeared on the end of the boat. “Didn’t expect you to return here in this way. I find myself amused with the flaming one’s tricks, do you not.”
“Cat.” Harry panted, body relaxing as he took in how healthy the feline was.
“The Cheshire Cat?” Hermione tilted her head.
“I really must be going. Safe travels.”
As the cat vanished the world around us returned to normal, the boat fading as we found ourselves falling ever so slightly right back where we started, though the door to leave had thankfully returned.