Harry Potter 6 - Instalment 11

Chapter 21 - Voldemart Returns

It was almost beautiful, in an extremely sadistic and twisted sort of way. At first, the pyramid acted as though it were a volcano, with the top of it blowing up into the air and then fire and smoke billowing out of the top, with molten rock erupting from the inside and flowing out. But, as all that was going on, chunks of it were shooting of all over, plunging into the growing lake of melted stone around the base. Finally, after only a few moments of all this, the Geb Pyramid just gave up and let the whole thing detonate from the inside out, causing the whole structure to collapse on itself, making a massive cloud of smoke rise into the air above.

Throughout all this, Harry could only think of one thing: somewhere, in that cloud of dust or in the pile of ash and stone was Malfoy’s body. He shuttered at the thought. What had he done?
“My oh my…” sighed Dumbledore to himself, shaking his head slowly and looking out the window. “That’s going to take a lot of work to clean up. We’ll need to get memory wipers in here by the hundreds, and quickly too!”
“But… what about Malfoy?” asked Harry quietly, not daring to remove his eyes from the window.
“There is noting we can do for him,” heaved Dumbledore. “All we can do is honor his memory by trying to find his body and having a funeral.”
Harry wanted to so badly to beat himself up. How could he have been so… stupid, greedy, selfish, and everything else bad? He abandoned his friend and left him to die in a small room by himself… all for a Ring. It didn’t get much worse than that….
“This is all your fault!” screamed Harry in his mind, directing his thoughts to the Ring. “If it wasn’t for you, the horrible pyramid would have never been built, and Malfoy would be here with us right now!”

But, as hard as Harry tried to be angry at he Ring, he still had no desire to take it off. It was like a child who had done something bad. Harry was certainly angry at it for what it did, but was no closer to disowning it than he ever was or would be. For this, he hated it even more… and yet he didn’t.
“Well,” said Dumbledore, turning his attention to Jamie. “It appears that in the process this trip, we have both lost and gained a student.”
“Hello to you too, Headmaster,” said Jamie, faking a smile.
“Jamie,” said Dumbledore, still looking at her with amazement in his eyes, “how did you ever survive for so long in the pyramid by yourself? You were only a second year!”
“The necklace kept me alive,” she said, looking at Dumbledore distastefully. “As long as you wear it, you cannot be killed by old age or malnourishment. Of course, you still fell the pains of both. It has not been an easy eighteen years.”

“I can see,” said Dumbledore, eyeing her up and down. Harry looked at her again, literally in a new light. Now that they were out of the dark caverns of the pyramid and in the light of day, he could see just how bad she really looked. Her skin was no longer peach, but a dark brown, caked all over with mud. The little skin she had was barely enough to cover her body; Harry could see most of her bones. But, still the worst thing was the hair. There were grubs and a few other moving things inside it, which Harry guessed Jamie

must have wanted. Those were probably her only source of food.
“But, I’m sure we’ll have plenty of time to hear all about those past years when we sit down with mom and dad and tell them that you’re okay!” said Ron happily, patting his older sister on the back.
“About that…” said Jamie slowly, removing her brother’s arm from her back. “Maybe we could wait a little while… until the end of the year perhaps, until we announce my existence to the rest of the family?”
“Why?” asked Ron.
“Because I don’t want to be alone when I see them for the first time. If you set up something not too conspicuous, like when we get back home to introduce me again, that would be much better. It would soften the blow for both parties.”
“That sounds good,” said Ron, though looking a little disappointed.

“And we shall all make sure not to tell anyone your little secret,” said Dumbledore, zipping up his lips. “Until you decide to show yourself, Jamie, I will allow you to stay at Hogwarts and assist Hagrid with his job.”
“Thank you Headmaster,” said Jamie, bowing slightly.
“Not a problem at all. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go organize the cleanup for the mess we just made, and figure out how in the hell I am going to explain this to the students.”
With that, he stepped through the small crowd, and made his way to the private compartment again, where the rest of the teachers were already seated. He shut the door behind him and locked it tight.
“Now what do we do?” asked Ak, breaking the small silence.
“I know what you need to do, Jamie,” said Ron, holding his nose. “For God’s sake, take a shower!”
“But don’t you like the smell of eighteen layers of muck, dirt, grime and bug skin all over my skin?” asked Jamie sarcastically. Everyone held their noses tight and shook their heads and she laughed. “Fine then. I’ll see you back at the school.”
She walked down the hallway to the end of the train, where there were the bathrooms. As she made her way each compartment, Harry heard many loud comments about the smell, and a few doors opening, to see what the source was.

“Oh my goodness!” exclaimed Madam Pomfrey suddenly when she saw Ron with his mangled face and body as she came by with her cart full of goodies. “My dear boy! You must come to my emergency room on the train now!”
She grabbed his arm, and ran down the hallway as well, to one of the final compartments. It had a white door, with a large red cross on it. She threw Ron inside and shut the door behind her. Even through the closed door at the back of the train, Harry could hear her yelling about how kids don’t take ‘flesh wounds’ seriously enough nowadays.
“If you don’t mind,” said Ak, “I think I’ll be off as well. I’m sure my friends were wondering where I am.”
“Are you sure you wouldn’t rather come with us?” asked Harry, wondering if now Ak qualified as a true friend. But, after what they just did, how could he not be?. “After all that we’ve been through?”
“And miss the chance to once again try and beat out Harry Potter by not saying

that I defeated an Egyptian God and a werewolf when he failed?” asked Ak mockingly. “I hardly think so!”
“Fine,” sighed Harry. “See you later, Ak.”
“Well, where should we go?” asked Hermione when Ak arrived at his compartment. Harry wanted to say that they should go back to the remains of the pyramid, and help look for Malfoy, but he had to get over that. He had to save his sadness for the funeral….
“Why don’t we go check on Ron,” suggested Harry.

“Sounds like a good idea,” responded Hermione. Harry could tell she was fighting to hold back her tears, and had been ever since the pyramid crumbled. Even though her and Malfoy had never been very close, Hermione still never liked it when anyone got hurt, and especially not when they got killed.
They made their way down the hall, hearing the occasional exclamation of how the pyramid just exploded like that. From what Harry heard in his few moments of listening, it seemed that everyone thought that the pyramid exploding had just been a show, a magical holograph. A cool way to end the first day of the trip. None of them believed or even thought for a second that it was real.
“What! NO!” Harry heard Ron yell through the hospital compartment. “No! It can’t be true!”
Harry rushed inside, to see what was going on and saw Ron lying on the single bed in the small room, his hands covering his face. Madam Pomfrey was holding some sort of contraption in her hand. It was white and cylindrical and had a red dot at one end.
“What is it Ron!?” asked Harry, wondering what could have caused him to react like that. “What happened!?”

“I… I…” mumbled Ron incoherently through tears and his face.
“He was bitten by the werewolf,” sighed madam Pomfrey. “I’m afraid that your friend Ron now has its blood flowing in him, and is now one as well.”
“But I thought it just scratched you!” said Hermione.
“I thought so too,” said Ron, sitting up. “But, I guess I couldn’t tell the difference between its claws scratching me and its teeth biting me. They both hurt just as much.”
“Only the fangs are the ones that carry the magic,” said Madam Pomfrey. “If he had only scratched you, nothing would have happened. And, by the way, just how and where did you meet this werewolf?”
“Long story,” said Harry, shoving her off. How could Ron be a werewolf? This was too weird…. They were becoming just like his father’s old group of friends. They all were Animagi, and one of them was a werewolf. Harry hoped that there were no versions of Wormtail in their group.
“How am I ever going to lead a normal life?” demanded Ron. “I’m going to have to transform every month, just like Lupin… just like Lupin…. Great…! Just great, I’ll end up like Lupin; a poor, friendless loner. Just great….”
“Is there anything you can do for him?”
“Of course,” she said. “Once the magical blood was worked is way throughout him entirely, I will be able to perform the Homorphus Spell on him and return him to his human form permanently. But, that won’t be until after his first transformation, which will not be until around the end of June.”

“See Ron,” said Hermione, sitting down on the bed next to him. “There is hope.”
“Yeah,” added Harry, “and until then, you’ll be invincible to almost every spell that there is! Think of the possibilities….”
“Hmm,” sniveled Ron. “I guess you’re right. Being a werewolf for a month may have a few advantages.”
“That’s the spirit!” said Hermione, hitting him on the back.
“Can we take him back to out normal compartment?” asked Harry. “Or does he need to say here?”
“Oh, I managed to fix those gashes and everything already. He is free to go.”
“Alright,” said Harry. “Come on Ron… Hermione. Let’s go back to our compartment and wait until we get back to Hogwarts.”
“Okay,” said Ron, looking as though he was over his little trauma. He bounced off the bed and hopped right up next to his two friends, looking as happy as he usually did, which was often far too much. They thanked Madam Pomfrey, and let her return to her duty of selling food, while they returned to their compartment. When the door opened, Cho and Ginny were already inside, sitting down and waiting.
“There you are!” said Ginny.
“Where have you been?” asked Cho.

“And where’s Draco?” asked Ginny, peering all around them. Harry, along with Hermione and Ron, heaved a great sigh and collapsed into the available seats. With Ginny looking at them in a confused way, Harry took a deep breath, and told her what happened, right from the beginning.
It was the worst trip ever on the Hogwarts Express Harry had ever been on. Once Harry finished his explanation, Ginny asked once again where Draco was, with a rather blank expression on her face. Just as she did, Dumbledore came over the speakers, and gave the grim announcement that the explosion had not been fake, but very real.
As soon as he stopped explaining, a sort of panic broke out on the entire train. Ginny burst into tears and all the prefects were called upon to settle down their house’s younger students. Harry had to grab Joe the second before he jumped out the window with no magical parachute on this time, and took Mike’s marker away, before he wrote ‘We’re All Going To Die!’ in Japanese all over the train.
Once Harry calmed them down, he returned to his compartment where Hermione was gone, tending to the girls, and Cho and Ron were trying to comfort the traumatized and heartbroken Ginny.
“It’s just… not… fair,” she said spastically through her flooding tears, sounding as if she was going to hyperventilate.
“I know, I know,” comforted Cho, stroking her hair. “It’ll be okay….”
It went on like that for the entire two hour ride. Hermione never came back, and Harry had to constantly patrol the halls, taking care of some students that we’re going crazy, saying they could have died, the ones that the other prefects were too busy to watch. Harry breathed a huge sigh of relief when it all was finally over, and the train pulled into the Hogwarts station.
“Come on,” sighed Cho, heaving Ginny up onto her shoulder. She had cried herself into exhaustion, and looked as though she may collapse at any given time. Her face

was about the same color as her hair, as were her eyes. “Let’s get you to the school, come on.”
“Thanks for helping, Cho,” said Harry, happy that he at least didn’t have to deal with the mourning Ginny.
“No problem,” she whispered back. “But I think this one is going to need some serious counseling.”

“I don’t doubt that,” said Harry, watching Cho carry Ginny off the train. Though, he thought, he might want to sign up for a little mental help himself. No one that he personally, really knew had ever died when he was old enough to actually understand what death meant. Harry didn’t know if he were in shock right now from it, but if he was, he hoped he would stay like that, so he wouldn’t have to deal with it. He didn’t want to accept that fact that Malfoy had died.
Just last year, Malfoy’s death would have affected Harry, but in a different way. Over the past year, he had grown to appreciate Malfoy as a person, an actual human being; and not a bad one at that. He was funny, kind, intelligent, serious when he had to be, and meant a lot to many people.
And now he was gone.
Harry shuddered and stepped off the train with the teachers, all the students had already gotten off. He held himself tight. It was so much colder here than in Egypt, very much. Even more so since it was very late at night, almost early morning.
His teeth chattering, Harry walked up to the main entrance, along with the hundreds of other students, most of which didn’t look too much better than Harry. Dumbledore quickly walked by them, and threw open the doors. The entire mass of students ran inside, trying to get warm.
“Everyone to the Great Hall!” announced Dumbledore, magnifying his voice so everyone could hear him. “I have a very quick announcement!”

The whole throng of kids first groaned, then turned, rather than going straight, into a dark Great Hall. The professors flew in above them and quickly lit all of the lights, brightening it up so that everyone could take their seats. With a yawn, Harry sat down at the Gryffindor table.
“I’m sorry to repeat this,” announced Dumbledore, speaking as he walked up to the front, “but, as you know, the Geb Pyramid is gone. We were that last group there, and we are the last group to ever see it. The team of wizards that was sent there to do whatever they could confirmed that it is far beyond repair. However, no Muggles saw it, and no bodies have been found.”
With that last statement, he turned to Harry’s direction and gave a frown. Harry nodded his hand in understanding. Malfoy’s body had been disintegrated by the fire, then the crumbling rocks. What a way to go… he wondered if Dumbledore was going to say anything about him.
“Tomorrow, I will continue with a few more announcements about the pyramid,” he said, lowering his voice slightly, answering Harry’s question. “But, for now, I encourage you all to go to bed, and get a good night’s sleep. You will need it after what happened…. Once again, I am deeply sorry that your field trip was cut short, but that is no excuse not to get a good night’s sleep. So, off you go!”
The student body once again sat up and walked off to their common rooms. Harry

didn’t bother to seek out Ron or Hermione, he was far too tired. All he wanted to do was collapse into bed, and when he got to his dormitory, that’s exactly what he did.
“Harry!” yelled Ron when he came in. “How can you sleep at a time like this? Ginny’s a mess, Malfoy is dead, and-”
“Ron,” mumbled Harry, not moving an inch. “Please, just shut up.”
“Harry…”
“Oh Ron,” mumbled Harry, turning over. “Not now, I don’t want to talk about what happened now!”
“Harry Potter…”
“What?”
“Harry…”
“Ron!” yelled Harry, sitting up and opening his eyes. “Will you stop doing that? Can‘t you see that I am tired? T-I-R-E-D spells tired! Aren‘t you feeling the same way after we passed the hero’s-”
Harry stopped right in the middle of his thought. Instead of Ron peering over him, waking him up like he usually did, Voldemort, in all of his horrible glory, was standing there instead.

Chapter 22 - The HeadMaster's Room

“Hello Harry,” greeted Voldemort through a thin smile, as if they were old friends.
“We have to stop meeting like this,” said Harry, looking around. He was in a rather large room that he had never been in before, and had probably never been in there for good reason. All around him were old statues, stacked on top of each other and thrown in random places, both large and small, with cobwebs all over them.
“Aren’t they wonderful?” asked Voldemort, moving his arms in the direction of all of the statues. “They’re sculptures of previous headmasters, you know; the greatest headmasters that Hogwarts had ever had.”
“I don’t see Dumbledore anywhere,” spat Harry.
“Humph,” he groaned. “This room is reserved for the immortalized versions of only the headmasters that are far to great to be within a fifty mile radius of that old buffoon. These statues here are of the many headmasters that have tired to turn Hogwarts into a school for the Dark Arts, but failed in their valiant efforts. Apparently, Dumbledore doesn‘t think you children should see them.”

“What do you want,” hissed Harry. He had been through this before and knew that the Voldemort in front of him wasn’t real, just a holographic version, a dream, like the time he was in the common room with him.
“I think we both know what it is I want,” he murmured, glaring straight at Harry.
“No, do tell me,” said Harry mockingly.
“I want the Glove!” he yelled, looking furious.
“Why didn’t you just get it yourself at the pyramid?”
“I tried,” sighed Voldemort. “I told the previous guardian to try and get it from you, after he had exterminated you six. But, of course, he failed.”
“I’m not going to give it to you,” said Harry sternly, patting his pocket to make sure it was still in there. “You can torture me all you like, there’s no way. I know that you already have at least one Item, and there’s no way I’m giving you this one.”
“Very well then Harry,” laughed Voldemort. “Very well. I see that you are you are a man of business, Harry. So, I suppose, I will just have to give you a little bit more… incentive.”
“Like what?” asked Harry curiously. But, Voldemort just grinned and tapped himself with his wand, disappearing into thin air and leaving Harry all alone in the dark, creepy, windowless room.

“Great, now what?” Harry asked himself, looking around. He was wandless, had no illumination, and did not know where he was. Harry scanned the room, for any source of light that would lead him out.
Then he saw it. Right above an especially large statue with six arm, positioned almost like a perfect ladder for Harry to climb up and out with, was a hole leading out of the room. He walked up to the horrifying statue. It displayed the six armed man, with one leg on top of a skull and the other on top of a screaming head. The man was grinning, with an eyeball dripping from his mouth. Harry shivered and climbed up his arms, wishing that he could have just had a normal night like everyone else. But no! He had to have a conversation with Voldemort.

Harry peered his head through the hole in the ceiling, to see where he was. It was a fairly normal looking hallway, though one Harry had never been in this one before. Instead of being the usual vibrant colors, it was rather old and looked in bad shape. How much of this school had he never been in before?
Harry climbed out of the hole and stood up to look around. The hall looked exactly like a normal one, only much older and decrepit. Harry brushed himself off and began walking down it, hoping he would arrive at familiar territory soon, before Voldemort, or any version of him for that matter, came back.
“AAAHHH!” yelled Harry. Apparently, this hall was older than he thought it was. His leg went right through the floor, creating an awfully loud noise and making Harry stuck between two stories. He was all alone, trapped in the middle of somewhere he‘d never seen before, and Voldemort could appear at any time and kill him. This situation could not get much worse.
“Meow…” came a soft cat voice. Harry stopped trying to pull his leg out of the hole for a moment and looked straight ahead. Before him was Miss. Norris, Filch’s cat. Wherever she was, Filch would soon be, reprimanding severely whoever happened to be there at the time, which would be Harry in this case. He had to get out of there… now!

“Did you find someone?” Harry heard Filch say from not from too far away. Any minute now, he could see Harry… and what would his excuse be? That Voldemort summoned him down here? Filch was going to see him any moment….
“That’s it!” said Harry to himself. “If he can’t see me, than I won’t get in trouble! Thank you Sirius!” Harry remembered that he had the Animagus Invisibility Ring on and quickly transformed into his gryffin form, becoming completely invisible just as Filch appeared at the end of the hallway with his lit lantern in hand.
“Do you see someone?” asked Filch to his cat again. “Not very likely that any student would be down here….”
He kept walking closer to Harry, moving quite slowly, as if checking every inch before he took a step. The ring may make Harry invisible, but it didn’t make it possible for people to walk through him! Unless he got out of the hole quick, Filch was going to bump into him and find out he was there.
Harry flapped his gryffin wings as hard as he could, though not hard enough to make any noise, to try and pull himself out. It was even harder in his Gryffin form, since the wings were not the strong part of the body, the arms were; those were what gave the initial push off of the ground. It was like trying to lift a barbell with your pinky.
“I don’t see anyone…” whispered Filch, still getting closer. He was only a few feet away from Harry. He had to get out of the hole now!
Harry put all the energy he had into one final, massive flap of his wings. That brought him right out of the hole and onto the ground nearby. He tried to be as quiet as he could about it, but a few noises were inescapable. Filch must have heard those, for it seemed that he began to walk faster, and looking even more furious.
“I know there’s someone here,” he mumbled. “He’s probably got one of those blasted invisibility cloaks on… I’ll get those banned next year.”
Harry kept backing up, to try and get out of the way of the rampaging Filch. Miss. Norris was quickly pacing back in forth in front of him, so he couldn’t risk trying to run past. He just had to hope that he didn’t run out of hallway to back up in soon.

“Blast it!” yelled Filch, stopping where he was. “We must have lost him by now. Come on Norris, if we hurry we can still get him before he gets back to the Main Hallway!”
With that, Filch and Miss. Norris sprinted down the hallway in the opposite direction of Harry, and out of view very quickly. Harry breathed a huge sigh of relief and transformed out of his gryffin form. He spun around, to keep going, and then took a step forward… and fell into a hole.
“Woah!” yelled Harry, then covering his mouth up quickly so that Filch wouldn’t hear him. The hole took up the entire width of the end of the hall and was fairly deep. Harry fell for several seconds before he hit the damp ground, getting wet all over.
“Oh no,” sighed Harry, looking up at the very far away hole that he fell through. He was far too tired to transform again, much less fly all the way back up and expect to keep walking the rest of the way back to the common room. He hoped that wherever he landed had an exit. “Now where am I?

Harry looked around, and was surprised at what he saw. It was a fairly small area that looked like a Muggle security room. All over the four walls were small television-like screens, depicting every single room in Hogwarts. Each was in perfect color and had a small label below, telling what each room was. Hanging from the ceiling of the room in the center was a sign that read “The Headmaster’s Room”.
“So it’s true,” said Harry, in awe of what he was seeing. “Dumbledore really does know everything that goes on in this place! He can see any room in the entire castle whenever he wants!”
Harry gazed at the walls of screens, in awe of what he was seeing. With this, he could spy on anyone at anytime, no one would ever have any privacy anymore as long as someone was in this room. He saw Ron and Ak asleep in their beds, Hermione reading by wand-light in her dark dorm, the house elves busy preparing tomorrow’s breakfast…. The possibilities of a room like this were endless….
“But,” Harry though, suddenly realizing that all these screens applied to him as well, “Dumbledore can see whatever I’m doing. That means he may know that we have the Items! Or worse, he knows whenever we sneak out at night, and what we do. We’ve got to be more careful in what we do around here… we could be expelled! Though, I suppose, if Dumbledore was going to expel us, he would have done it long ago.”
Trying to stop worrying, Harry once again looked at all the screen. Most of them were showing students asleep in their dormitories, teachers asleep in their offices, and the rest depicted dark and empty rooms… except for one. Only one of the screens was not almost totally dark, and Harry moved in closer to it, to see what was on it.

It was showing two people talking in an office that looked very familiar, though so little of it was shown, Harry couldn’t quite make out which one it was. He looked below the screen and saw the label. It read, ‘Headmaster’s Office’. Harry turned his attention back to the screen, and suddenly saw who the two people were! Dumbledore and Quirrell!
“-he is very close,” whispered Quirrell, so softly Harry had to really lean into the screen to head. “You-Know-Who already has one, and I think he could even have two by now. If he gets the others, then we’re all doomed!”
“Oh no,” whispered. So it was true! Voldemort did have one of the Items already, and Quirrell believed that he could even have more. Harry tried to figure out how that all

worked out: he had the Glove and the Ring, Hermione had the Bracelet, and Professor McGonagall gave the Stone to Dumbledore, so Voldemort must have… the Watch! He stole it from Dumbledore somehow! But, what other one did he have?
“I know,” sighed Dumbledore. “I know. He is very close to the others as well, we must begin to use more forceful and blatant tactics. It is the only way.”
“Of course,” said Quirrell. “Let us call a meeting tomorrow, we shall figure out everything then.”
“Alright,” said Dumbledore, yawning a little. “We shall. Tomorrow then, Jerry.”
“Yes,” he said, opening the door and leaving. “See you later.”
With that, he stepped out of the office and shut the door, walking down the steps. Harry saw Dumbledore give one last sigh and then open the door to his bedroom, disappearing from the view on the screen.
“Dumbledore must know about my little nighttime meetings with Voldemort,” said Harry to himself. “He knows that he is close to getting the other Items, and I know it too. If things get any worse, I’ll have to give him the rest; just to ensure the world’s safety. But, first, I need to go to sleep.”

Harry quickly turned his head around, trying to find a door out, and saw none on the walls. But, in the middle of the room below the sign, there was another hole with a ladder going down. Harry jumped into it and began climbing.
It was a fairly short trip down, and the ground Harry landed on felt like damp dirt. It was extremely dark as well, so much Harry had to use up what little energy he had left to transform his eyes, just so he would be able to see here he was going. If only he had his wand instead…
But, just like the ladder, the hallway was not very long. Harry quickly reached the end and found himself at a three-way fork in the road, with each path having a sign above the entrance, telling where it went.
“Headmaster,” read Harry off of the sign above the one he had just exited from. He turned to the other three. “Death and Main Corridor…. Hey! I’ve been here before! This is that secret passage I found when the staircases changed.”
Happy that at least he was now back in somewhat familiar territory, Harry grinned to himself and went down the Main Corridor path, not wanting to go down the Death path, the one he just got out of, or the one that led him to this fork last time, unless the staircases were acting up again.
Harry ran down the corridor, wanting to get back to his nice, warm bed and let everything that had happened in the past hour or so sink in and stop buzzing around in his mind. He quickly appeared back in the Main Hallway, stepping through the invisible one-way door in the wall like last time.

“There you are!” yelled Filch suddenly, seeing Harry pop out from the wall. “I knew it was someone with an Invisibility Cloak! Probably the one you got from your father, eh Potter?”
“Filch?” gasped Harry, amazed that after all he had done, Filch had actually gotten him. Both he and Miss. Norris were wearing the same expression, a smile that only a prize catch could bring.
“You’re lucky the headmaster’s asleep,” grinned Filch, grabbing Harry by the ear. “He’s usually the one to deal out my punishments, but since I don’t want to disturb him

while he’s asleep, I think I’ll just- WHAT?”
Harry, not wanting to hear what horrible task Filch had cooked up for him, used every last ounce of energy in his body to transform fully, turning into the gryffin and becoming invisible. Harry collapsed right onto the ground.
“What the hell!?” yelled Filch, looking up and down the hallway. “I could have sworn I saw Potter here a second ago! But, he just… disappeared. He didn’t have his Invisibility Cloak with him anywhere I could see… eh, Miss Norris?”
“Meow,” she hissed, staring at Harry who was breathing hard and laying down on the ground. She and she alone knew that he was still there.
“It’s late,” said Filch, shaking his head. “My eyes must be playing tricks on me. I’ll continue the search tomorrow. Come on!”
Miss. Norris hissed at Harry one last time, knowing he was getting away with something when he shouldn’t be, and then ran off to her master, glancing back at Harry every few seconds, still smelling him. When they were well out of hearing range, Harry collapsed back into his human form, feeling more tired than he had ever in his life.
“Need… to get… to bed….” Harry managed to gasp out, an instant before he fell asleep right there in front of the Great Hall.

“Harry! Get up!” came a shrill voice belonging to Hermione. She poked him with her wand a few times, making Harry grumble, groan, and turn over. “You’ve been out here all night!”
“I know…” sighed Harry, rubbing his eyes. All around him, sunlight was flooding in through the windows and Harry had to cover his eyes from being blinded. His body ached all over from sleeping on the hard ground and he felt as though there was still glue all over his eyelids.
“I heard that you were down here from a few early comers to breakfast,” explained Hermione, helping Harry back up onto his feet. “You’re lucky no one’s stepped on you or told one of the professors.”
“I would have been luckier if I had made it back to my bed,” sighed Harry.
“Come on then!” said Hermione, helping him up. “Let’s go to breakfast.”
“That sounds like a good idea!” said Harry, suddenly feeling much more hungry than tired. He jumped up, right next to Hermione.
“Why were you out here anyway?” she asked him as they sat down at the Gryffindor table, with most of the rest of the school already there. “Did you and Cho have an exhausting date or something?”
“No,” said Harry, letting all the memories of what happened last night flow back into his mind. “You see, it was-”

“Attentions students!” said Dumbledore just then, interrupting Harry and Hermione. “As I said last night, I have a few more announcements about the trip.”
“Oh no, he’s going to announce that Malfoy died,” cringed Harry.
“I am extremely sorry to say,” said Dumbledore, shaking his head, “that while most of the school was able to evacuate the pyramid in time, not every was so lucky. I am afraid to say that one of our students did not make it back alive. This morning, I want us all to lift our glasses to-”
There was a massive, explosive noise just then: the sound of the Great Hall doors

being thrown open. Everyone in the room swung their heads over and Harry head to keep himself from screaming out loud.
It was Malfoy.

Harry Potter 6 - Instalment 10

Chapter 19 - The Guardian of Immortality

“Harry!”
A sharp voice suddenly rang through Harry’s head. It was so painful, hearing it echo around his brain. Harry groaned and pressed hard against his forehead, to try and stop some of the pain. As he did this, he suddenly realized that his eyes were closed. Harry quickly opened them, revealing a strange sight.

Himself, Ron, Hermione, Malfoy and Ak were each in a room around the same size as the past ones they had been in. Except, this time, they were each in a separate cage, placed in random spots around the room, like some sort of human zoo. Harry stood up and grabbed onto the bars, to see if he could break them down since they should be quite old. But, they must have been enchanted or something, because no matter how hard Harry tried, the bars didn’t move.
“Harry!” called Hermione again from her cage, sitting down. “You’re up.”

“Yeah,” yawned Harry back, sitting down too. “Where are we?”
“Don’t know,” Malfoy shrugged.
“And we can’t get out of the cages either,” added Ak, examining his bars. “Someone’s taken our wands.”
Harry, not even thinking of using his wand, reached into his pocket, just to make sure. But, sure enough, there was no wand to be found.
“So what are we going to do?” sighed Harry, feeling lost.

Suddenly, a hole in one of the walls opened up, right next to a big red dot, revealing a door. It flew open, and through it walked an extremely hairy woman, who looked as though she hadn’t had a decent shower or haircut for several years. Her bushy red hair went all the way down to her waist, and Harry could’ve sworn he saw something (or several things) crawling through it. She was quite tall as well, but very skinny, with most of her face covered by hair. Only her baggy eyes, small nose, mouth and a small, beaded necklace around her neck were visible, and those were almost covered as well.

But, despite the hair that seemed to be a separate organism from the person, the most noticeable feature about the woman was the red glove on her arm. It shone brighter than intense rubies, and it was so beautiful, the second Harry saw it, he desired it.
“So,” barked the woman, stopping before them and crossing her arms, glaring. Her voice sounded odd, as if she hadn’t talked in a while, and wasn’t used to it. But, that was probably true. She must have been thousands of years old if she resided in this place. “Why do you want the Gomotornice?”

“What?” asked Malfoy, sounding flabbergasted..
“We don’t even know what that is!” yelled Ak.
“Yes we do,” sighed Harry. Now, everything was coming together. Bob the Ghost said that heroes tried their luck at the four challenges for the treasure at the end, to be immortalized. What better way to become immortalized than by making an Immortal Potion? The treasure at the end were the five legendary ingredients: the Ring, the Sorceror’s Stone, the Gomotornice, the Havomotornice, and the Bomotornice. The Egyptians had been the ancients that created those items, and they had hidden them in the pyramid…..

“We didn’t know that the Ingredients were in this pyramid,” said Hermione,

probably realizing the same thing as Harry. “And we really didn’t know that you had the Gomotornice.”
“Well, whether you knew it or not,” growled the woman, “it is my duty to protect it. Ever since the last hero passed through the challenges, the Guardians of Immortality have not allowed anyone else to create the potion. So, even though you have passed the tests, I cannot allow you to take the Ingredient.”

“That’s okay,” sighed Harry, just wanting to leave. ‘We don’t want to make the potion anyways, We just want to get out of here.”
“Just wait a minute here!” yelled Ron suddenly, taking the woman’s attention away from Harry and over to him. “Are you telling me that the red glove you’re wearing is the Gomotornice?”
“Yes,” she hissed.
“How can we be sure?” asked Ron, stroking his chin. “I mean, what if this is all an act that you are just putting on?”
To this, the woman scrunched up her face at Ron, looking furious. She stomped over to Harry’s cage and reached one of her arms in, grabbing hold of Harry’s arm before he had a chance to react. The woman ripped the Ring off of Harry’s hand, practically taking the finger with it.
Instantly, the second the Ring left Harry’s hand, he felt weak. It was as if a massive weight had just been dropped on his back, and all of his muscles had been ripped out of his body. He felt like a living bowl of jell-o.

The hairy woman took the Ring and touched it to her glove. Immediately, the map popped up into the air, proving that the glove was one of the Legendary Items. A few seconds later, after all of them had seen the map, she removed the Ring from her glove and threw it on the floor. Harry watched it fall, as if it were a juicy cheeseburger and he had had nothing to eat for the past ten years.
“Now you see that this is the real item?” she said, pointing to her glove.
“How did you know that Harry had the Ring?” asked Hermione, swallowing hard.
“I saw it when I put you all in the cages,” she grinned. “And I know that you have the Bracelet, young girl. I used to have that one too, in addition to the Glove, but one day as I was making my rounds around the pyramid, that damned guardian snake exploded into a hundred littler ones. The snakes overwhelmed me, and I lost the Bracelet. Not knowing I had lost it, I ran away. When I finally realized it was gone, and I returned for it, it was missing.”

“That must have been when I found it!” exclaimed Ron.
“And,” continued the woman, not paying any attention to Ron, “I know that Dumbledore has the Legendary Watch.”
“How do you know Dumbledore has the Watch!?” demanded Hermione. “Nobody except for me, Ron, and Harry know that!”
“Well, that is an interesting tale,” she sighed, though she sounded as though she enjoyed the company, even if they were all in cells. “You see, just like you five here, I was once a Hogwarts student as well.”
“Yes… and!?” yelled Harry, curled up in a corner of his cage, wanting the woman to finish her story as soon as possible so he could get out of the cage and get his Ring back. He didn’t care about her stupid tale, all he wanted was the Ring, and he would never

be happy again until it was slipped back on his finger… never.

“Anyways…” she continued after Harry interrupted. “Like you as well, I too wandered off from the main group, probably down the same corridor as well, the one with the huge pile of treasure at the end.”
“Is that treasure real?” asked Malfoy suddenly.
“Oh no,” she said, shaking her head. “It’s only a distraction, to make you stay in that place long enough for the spell there to take effect. It brings you down to the start of the tests. So, I fell victim to the trap and worked my way through the tasks, not worrying about what may happen, just overjoyed by my own sense of superiority that I had passed the tests that so many others had failed. By the time I reached the final room, the one with the treasure in it, I was so full of myself that I wasn’t ready to defend against the Guardian of Immortality at that time. He easily defeated me and cursed me to guard this pyramid for all eternity, just like he would have had to do, if I had not showed up.”

“That’s all well and good,” said Hermione. “But, how do you know that Dumbledore has the Watch?”
“I’ve been in this place for a long time,” she sighed, leaning back. “I’ve had a lot of time to think. Out of all the pyramids in Egypt, why do you think Dumbledore chose to tour this one?”
“Because it’s the best one!” said Malfoy, looking quite confused. No one had ever told him anything of the Immortality Potion, so he was probably very lost.
“Not really, there are many more impressive pyramids,” said Ron.
“Right you are,” she said, pointing to Ron. “So, why choose this one?”

“I… don’t know,” admitted Hermione.
“Well, I believe the reason that he chose this pyramid over all the others is not due to what the children can gather from this place, but what he can gather from this place.”
“Meaning… what?”
“Meaning, Dumbledore wants the treasure that I guard.”
“No way!” yelled Hermione and Ron at the same time.
“Why would he want it?” demanded Ron.
“To keep it away from Voldemort probably,” suggested Hermione.
“Nope,” said the Guardian, shaking her head. “Dumbledore has been coming to this place long before You-Know-Who ever even knew the treasure existed. The other Guardian before me said that he had to keep several children away from the treasure, all of whom were sent through the tasks by Dumbledore. Of those several, I was the only one who was ever cursed to remain here.”

“Dumbledore told you to go down the wrong path?” asked Ron, sounding as if he were asking if that were the punch line to a bad joke.
“Yes,” she hissed. “I got lost and he found me. Instead of leading me back to the group, he showed me down the wrong path, with hopes that I would get the treasure for him.”
“If Dumbledore wanted it that bad,” said Ron, “why didn’t he just go through the four tasks himself? I mean, if a few second years could do it, there’s no reason why he couldn’t, and then he’d have it.”
“I don’t really know,” she sighed. “But, I think the spell that brings you to the start

of the four tasks only works on youth. The Egyptians didn’t want all of their old and wise population dieing out by trying their luck at the tests. However, even if he could get to the tasks, laziness would probably prevent him. That and not wanting to put his own life in danger.”
“There’s no way any of that’s true,” said Hermione sternly.

“Yeah,” said Ron. “If Dumbledore wanted the treasure, then he’d do it himself, and he wouldn’t want the Items for any other reason than to keep them away from Voldemort.”
“Oh no?” question the woman. “What makes you think Dumbledore doesn’t want to make the Immortality Potion for himself?”
There were a few seconds of silence, no one knew what to say.
“You’re wrong,” whispered Hermione.
“Am I?” said the Guardian mysteriously.
“So, you’ve had to guard this place for… how long?” asked Hermione, obviously wanting to change the subject for now.
“Eighteen long years,” she sighed, putting her hands on her legs.
“Wait a minute…” said Ron softly and slowly, as if he had just realized something big. “You’re telling me that eighteen years ago, all Hogwarts students came on a field trip here, and you’ve been here since.

“Yes,” she said, sounding curious.
“And what year were you in at that time?”
“I was a first year.”
“And you have red hair?”
“Isn’t it obvious?” she said, pointing to the hairy beast on her head.
“What are you getting at here Ron?” asked Hermione, sounding irritated.
“Hermione!” exclaimed Ron. “This woman here, the Guardian of Immortality… she’s my sister!”

Chapter 20 - Escape from Geb Pyramid

“WHAT!?” yelled everyone, except for Harry, all at once.
“Ron! You don’t have another sister!” yelled Hermione.
“Oh yes I do!” said Ron, eyeing the woman up and down. “Only she’s been in this pyramid for the past eighteen years!”

“What are you talking about?” demanded the woman. “I don’t have any other brothers except for Bill, Charlie and Percy, and they’re all grown up now, not short like you.”
“No Jamie,” said Ron, startling her by addressing her with her real name. “After you went missing, mom and dad had four more kids, Fred, George, me and Ginny.”
“How do you know my name?” asked Jamie, gasping and walking backwards slowly, away from Ron.
“Because you’re my long-lost sister!” exclaimed Ron.
“I don’t think so,” said Jamie, shaking her head and putting her hands up. “There’s no way that’s possible.”
“Oh yeah, ask me a question about our family,” grinned Ron. “Anything at all, something only a true Weasley would know.”

“Fine then,” said Jamie, looking better. “What are mom and dad’s names?”
“Molly and Arthur,” said Ron lazily. “Next!”
“Okay,” said Jamie, a single drop of sweat going down her face. She thought for a second, trying to think of a good question. “Where did they get married?”
“The North Pole,” said Ron again. “Now do you believe me?”
“Not yet,” said Jamie, her confidence fading. “This last question is something that only a true Weasley would know. What is the true Weasley Spell?”
“Agricola Bonas Est,” said Ron confidently, folding his arms. To this, Jamie suddenly burst into tears, ran towards the cage that held Ron, opened it up, and embraced him… like a brother.
“You are a Weasley!” she sobbed, hugging him tighter.
“What was that last question all about?” asked Malfoy.

“Don’t ask,” said Ron, his sister finally letting go. “It’s an old Weasley thing.”
“You didn’t even have to go through all those questions,” added Hermione. “You could have just figured it out by looking at the hair.”
“Um…” added Ak. “Do you think you could open the rest of the cages?”
“What…?” asked Jamie, her eyes red from the tears. “Oh! Oh yes, of course.”
“One last question though,” said Malfoy as Jamie looked through her keys for the one to his cage. “Whatever happened to the other Guardian of Immortality after you took over for him?”
“He still hangs around this pyramid,” she said, unlocking his cage. “I see him every now and then on my rounds. Being a Guardian is apparently the only life he’s known, so he can’t return to the real world.”

“You mean, he’s still in this pyramid?” gasped Hermione as Jamie moved along to her cage.
“Yep.”
“But, what if he tries to get us?”

“Oh, don’t worry about that,” said Jamie, unlocking her cage. “He’s a weird guy. Whenever he moves, he makes this really funny clicking noise, so I can tell when he’s coming, and get out of the-”
Suddenly, the room filled with the most unusual noise. It was like the sound of a retractable pen being clicked up and down furiously, only a little softer. Like the clatter of a mouse gnawing on a cracker.
“Oh no…” groaned Jamie, looking quickly for the key to Ak’s cage now. “We’ve got to get out of here now! He’s coming, and he won’t be too happy to see that I’ve let you go. We haven’t had any visitors for a while and he won’t want to see you five go to waste.”

The clicking noise only got louder, and the more piercing it became, the more worried Jamie looked. She was furiously looking through the keys now, trying to find the right one. Finally, much longer than it would have taken her without the horrible noise all around her, she opened up Ak’s cage, just when the same door she had entered through opened once again, to reveal a most horrible monster.
It looked more like a centaur than a human, only except for being half horse, it was more like a half spider, with four black and hairy legs protruding out from either side. The human part of it was relatively the same, except where there should have been a mouth there was a set of mandibles, constantly clicking and seething a light green saliva, all in all being a very grotesque sight.

“Jamie…” it hissed through the clicking. “What do you think you’re doing?”
“Just… getting ready to dispose of them,” she said, trying to smile and nonchalantly moving over to Harry’s cage with the keys behind her back, attempting to unlock his cage without arousing attention.
“It looks more like you’re setting them free…” he hissed again, darting his larger than usual eyes around the room.
“No,” said Jamie, shaking her head and fumbling for the correct key, even though she couldn’t see which one was going to use. “I’m just…”
“You’re just… what?” his asked again, coming closer to her.
“I’m just…” said Jamie, finding the right key and inserting it into the keyhole, unlocking Harry’s cage. “Going to have some fun first.”
“How so?” he asked, sounding intrigued.

“Instead of me killing them, I’m going to let them do my dirty work,” said Jamie, trying to sound sinister. “I’ll give them their wands back, and the last one alive gets to go free.”
“An interesting twist,” hissed the monster. “But, just to make sure your allegiance isn’t wavering, I want you to do something first.”
“What?”
“I want you to kill one of them.”
Jamie glared at the monster and he glared back. Her wand, along with Harry’s, Ron’s, Hermione’s, Malfoy’s and Ak’s, was sticking right out of her pocket, and her hand was floating right above it, ready to strike. Both of them started at each other, the terrible clicking continued. It appeared as though nothing was going to happen, when just then, Jamie made a move.

“Avada Kedavra!” she yelled, aiming right for the monster. But, just after the ‘Avada’ left her mouth, the monster extended one of his powerful arms out, and a green

ray flew out, right at her wand and the ones in her pocket. The ray seemed to have a life of its own, sucking up each wand, and then squirming back, giving all six to the monster.
“Well well well,” he hissed, glaring at Jamie. “It seems as though we have a mutiny on our hands here.”
“Mutiny!?” yelled Jamie. “What are you talking about? I’m the only one in charge here; I’m the only Guardian! You gave the position to me!”

“You never truly stop being a Guardian,” he murmured. “But… in your case, you will stop being one.”
He walked over to the door that he entered through, crawling with his eight legs. He raised the hand that had no wands in it, made it into a fist… and brought it down right on the red button that was next to the door on the wall. It gave off a loud alarm and a voice came on that started speaking in Ancient Egyptian.
“What is it saying?” demanded Jamie. The monster grinned.
“It is saying that the entire pyramid, well, except for this room of course, is being flooded with gas.”
“Gas? What’s so bad about that?” asked Hermione.

“By itself, nothing really,” he smiled. He grabbed one of the wands from the six he had and made a small fire appear at the tip. “But, when combined with fire, it can make this entire pyramid explode.”
It took a second for this to sink in, but when it did, the reaction was immediate.
“We’ve got to get out of here!” yelled Jamie, running in the opposite direction of the monster. “He’s going to blow up Geb Pyramid!”
Harry decided to take this opportunity to start moving again and to get his Ring back. He turned his head in the direction of where he saw it fall when Jamie threw it down, but it wasn’t there. Harry fell to the ground, onto his knees, and began examining every stone, but there was no sign of it anywhere. It was as if it had just disappeared.

“Come on Harry!” yelled Ron above the laughing monster. The four of them were following Jamie out of the room through a door that she opened on the other side.
“No! Not now!” yelled Harry back to them, not wanting to do anything until the Ring was back on his finger.
“Come on!” groaned Malfoy, running over to Harry and grabbing him. “We’ve got to leave now!” He pulled on him with all of his strength and peeled Harry off of the ground, dragging him to the rest of the group.

“Oh no you don’t!” yelled the monster, turning his attention to the six of them. “You’re not leaving unpunished!” He pointed the wand that he used to summon the fire right at Harry, and shot it out at them again. The flame rushed at them, Harry closed his eyes, waiting for the fiery impact… but it never came. He opened his eyes up, to see why, and immediately saw the reason.
Malfoy had been hit instead. He let go of Harry, and was flailing his arms everywhere, now just a human-shaped ball of fire, screaming and rushing everywhere.

“Come on Harry!” yelled Hermione, Ron, Ak and Jamie together, sounding extremely serious and anxious. “We have to get out of here now!”
Harry turned to his flaming friend, but there was nothing he could do for him. Without his Ring on, he felt so weak, there was no chance he could transform and try to beat the monster. He had to run now and try something later.

The Ring… as soon as Harry thought of it, he couldn’t get it out of his head. Malfoy, the gas, fire, explosions… they all didn’t matter now. Harry had to find the Ring! It certainly wasn’t in here, he had already looked, maybe someone else picked it up!

Leaving Malfoy behind, Harry ran over to the rest of the group, entering the dark hall that lead out. As soon as he caught up with them, the smell of gas became overwhelming. Harry almost felt as though he was going to pass out, and since he didn’t have his wand, there wasn’t much he could do about it. He did the best thing he could by bringing up the top of his shirt over his mouth and nose.
“What are we going to do about Malfoy!?” demanded Hermione.
“We can’t leave him behind!” yelled Ak.
“But we can’t bring him with us either,” said Ron. “He’ll blow the whole place up the second he enters this hall.”
“I’ll take care of it,” said Harry, turning around for a second and walking back to the door that lead to the room. Malfoy was still there, on fire, but the monster was not. However, Harry didn’t have time to worry about the beast right now, Malfoy was getting closer to them and he had to stop him. Besides, he felt another force pulling him, telling him to run back with his friends as soon as possible….

Harry looked down, to the side of the door, and saw a big button, like the one that Jamie pressed to open the door. If he pressed it again, it would close, keeping them all safe from Malfoy.
“Sorry… friend,” sighed Harry, slamming a fist against the button. The primitive door, that was little more than a hole in the wall, instantly disappeared, along with any hope Malfoy had.
Not having anything more than survival and the Ring on his mind, Harry sprinted back to the group, not even thinking about what he had just done.
“What happened to Malfoy?” asked Hermione through her shirt.

“Don’t worry,” said Harry, constantly darting his eyes everywhere, scanning for any sign of the Ring. “He’ll be fine.”
“I know a secret passage out of here,” said Jamie who was at the head of the group, holding a cloth over her mouth. “Just follow me and we’ll be back to the main lobby soon enough. From there, we can send an alert throughout the rest of the pyramid.”
Not wanting to take their shirts off their mouths, no one said anything, only obeyed. It’s not as though they had much time to say anything, though, since they reached the next room only a few moments later.
“From here it’s only about a hundred more feet,” gasped Jamie. “We’ll be out of here in just a-”
Suddenly, there was an explosion in the wall, sending dirt, stone and dust everywhere. Harry looked up to see what caused it, and was not too happy when he saw what it was. The monster that had stolen their wands only minutes ago was now before them, blocking the only door out, all six wands in one hand, forming a superior magical device.

“Leaving so soon?” he hissed, grinning. He waved the wands in the air, making a long, thin string appear. Attached to one end was a red ball, one that didn’t look too nice. He tapped the end of the long string with his wand, and it began shrinking at a slow rate, getting closer and closer to the red ball.

“That’s a bomb!” yelled Hermione.
“What are you doing!?” demanded Jamie. “You’ll kill all of us!”
“My time is almost up as it is,” he sighed, bobbing the ball up and down in his hand. “If I’m going down, I’m taking this hellhole and all who dwell inside it with me!”
“You’re insane!” yelled Hermione, looking almost in tears.

“Yes, well, none of that will matter in a few moments… and besides, there’s nothing you can do about it, without your wands.”
As much as Harry hated to admit it, he was right. Jamie and Ak were useless without wands, and himself, Ron and Hermione were far too tired to transform. All they could do was wait, and hope for a miracle.
Just then, as if on command, there was another explosion in the room, this time, in the ceiling. After the dust and stone had settled, Harry covered his eyes and looked over, flabbergasted by what he saw.
It was Dede’ft! Only… he wasn’t looking too well. His eyes were massive and puffy all over, and his hide was now a swamp green. Also, his skin was literally crawling. Little bumps were moving all around in random directions all over.

“Whether you passed the tests or not!” he hissed, though only Harry could understand him. “I haven’t eaten for months and I… I… AAAHHH!”
The most disturbing sight ever to befoul Harry’s eyes suddenly came before him. The snake gave one last scream, and opened his mouth so wide, that his lips began to roll backwards over his long, thick body, revealing his horrible insides. Only, there weren’t any organs there anymore, just hundreds upon hundreds of tiny snakes that immediately flooded the room, demanding food.
“Food!”
“Food!”
“FOOD!”

“FOOD!” they all hissed, slithering over anyone and anything to get to their goals. Fortunately, that goal didn’t seem to be Harry or his companions, but rather the guardian that was still holding the bomb. Tiny snakes were slithering all over him, biting him everywhere and dragging him down to the ground. He threw the wands and the bomb into the air so he could use his hands to try and peel the snakes off of him.
Harry leapt for his wand: the next best thing to his Ring. In addition to his, he caught Ron and Hermione’s, and Ak and Jamie caught theirs. Harry quickly tossed the wands to his friends; now they were back in control.
“Let’s get out of here!” yelled Jamie, hopping over the snakes and towards the door, keeping a close eye on the bomb, whose fuse was now only a about three feet long, and getting even shorter by the second.

But, just when the five of them began to cross over the slithering carpet below them, there was an abrupt eruption in the middle, something threw hundreds of snakes into the air from below, sending them in every which direction. Harry immediately looked over, to see what it was, and what was there could probably have not been much worse if it was Voldemort himself.
It was a fully grown werewolf, about four times the size of any of them, one hundred times stronger, and invincible to every spell Harry knew.
“You’re telling me that old guardian was a werewolf too!” yelled Hermione,

backing up and brandishing her wand, though it would do little good.
“Yeah,” gasped Jamie, backing up too. “I guess when Dede’ft made a hole in the ceiling, the moonlight came through, transforming him.”
“Who cares how he transformed!” yelled Ron. “All that matters is that he did and now we’ve got to stop him!” With that, Ron ran up to the werewolf that was in a killing rage, mutilating all the small snakes around him, turning them into a pulpy and bloody green and red mess.

“Stupefy!” yelled Ron, aiming right for the werewolf. The red spell came out and the beam hit him, but it did nothing. All it did was turn the attention of the monster away from the serpents to Ron. He gave an ear shattering growl, and leapt right at him.
“HOMORPHUS!” yelled Ak suddenly, waving his wand furiously in the air, as if drawing a picture. The strokes that he drew glowed a bright silver, revealing a circle with a star in the middle, and runes drawn at each star point. Evidently, he had been working on that spell for a while.
Each rune at every point gave off a different color and they each shot off their colored beam towards the center of the picture, making a single point of great energy. An orb of silver grew at that point, and from it a massive, silver beam erupted, aimed perfectly at the werewolf who had pinned himself over Ron, and was now scratching and biting his face and body all over. The beam blasted him right off of Ron and up against a wall, pushing on him with incredible amounts of pressure, enough to make him give a howl of pain, and create holes and cracks in the wall behind him.

Then, just as the werewolf gave another howl, the spell disappeared and he fell limp to the ground, right back into the pile of snakes that turned from eating their slaughtered brethren to the old, sleeping monster, the half spider half man one.
“Ak!” yelled Hermione. “How did you perform that spell! It’s the second most complex spell on Earth!”
“No time to explain!” yelled Ak, pointing at the bomb. “Look!”
Harry turned his head over to the bomb, and saw that the fuse was now little more than a foot long. If they wanted any chance of survival then they had to run now!

“Ron!” yelled Hermione, going over to him. He was a bloody mess all over, looking in about as good shape as Harry did after his encounter with Amemait. “Are you okay? Can you get up?”
“Yeah,” he managed to heave out, getting to his feet fairly quickly. “I can still move.”
“Alright, you guys head out!” yelled Jamie. “I’ll be right behind you!”
“No way!” yelled Ron. “You’re coming with us!”
“I will… I just have one thing that I have to do first.”
She ran over to the unconscious monster and ripped the beaded necklace off of her neck, creating a bright flash from her head. She quickly threw the necklace onto the beast’s neck, creating another flash.
“What was that all about?” asked Harry, keeping an eye on the bomb.
“That necklace was the reason I couldn’t leave this place,” said Jamie, signaling them to start running. “Whoever wears it can’t go past the exit. The only way to get it off is to immediately put it on someone else.”
“That’s nice but let’s go!” yelled a seriously bloodied and cut up Ron, jumping

over the snakes and sprinting down the hallway. The other four quickly followed behind, knowing they didn’t have much time at all left.
“Harry!” heaved Jamie from behind. “One last thing….”
“What?” asked Harry, slowing down a bit.
“I want you to take this,” she said, giving him her Glove. “If Dumbledore sees me with it, he’ll try to take it. But, he won’t have a clue that you have it.”
“Dumbledore doesn’t want it,” sighed Harry, still not believing that she didn’t trust them. “But, I’ll take it anyway, to keep it safe.”

Harry took the Glove from her wand and stuffed it into his pocket, reminding him of how badly he wanted the Ring. The only way he could continue going was to constantly tell himself that maybe Dumbledore had it, or maybe it was in the lobby.
“We’re nearly there!” announced Jamie when the exit became visible. Harry could just picture the fuse in his head, probably no bigger than a few inches now. With that thought in mind, he ran even faster, as did the rest of them. Seconds later, they reached the main room.
“Harry! Ron! Hermione! Ak!” announced Dumbledore, who just happened to be right there, as if expecting them. “Ever since we smelt gas in the pyramid, we’ve been evacuating all the kids and you were among the ones missing!”
“There’s… a bomb…” choked Harry, out of breath. “We’ve got… to go… now!”
Dumbledore’s eyes widened.
“A bomb?”
“Yes!” yelled Jamie. “We’ve got to go now!”

“J- Jamie?” gasped Dumbledore, staring at her as if she were a ghost, which she must have been to him.
“We’ll explain later!” yelled Ron, grabbing Dumbledore by the arm. “But we have to get on the train!”
“What…?” asked Dumbledore, looking as if he were in a gaze from seeing Jamie. “Oh… yes! Train! Bomb! Gas! Let’s go now! Everyone, hold hands!”
The six of them quickly formed a circle, holding shaking and sweating hands. The world around them turned black and spun around, much faster than Harry would have expected or liked it. Dumbledore was probably Apparating in a hurry. Then, before another thought could pass Harry’s mind, the six of the them were aboard the Hogwarts Express, along with the rest of the students.

“John!” yelled Dumbledore into the conductor’s room. “Get us out of here as soon as you can, if not sooner! The pyramid’s going to blow!”
“Can do, Mr. D,” he said back through the curtain that separated the driver’s chamber from the rest of the train. With that, the engine gave a lurch and began moving forwards at a rapid rate. But, traditional methods of moving would not get them to safety quickly enough, and the conductor must have known that, since a moment later the train heaved itself into the sky.
“Harry,” said Hermione quietly. “I think I found something that may belong to you.” Harry looked over at the hand she was holding up to him, and saw that on it, was his prized Ring. But, instead of thanking her, or anything of the sort like that, all Harry could say was,
“Give it to me!”

“I don’t know,” said Hermione sarcastically, with a trace of sincerity in her voice. She stroked the Ring. “I kind of like it….”
“Give it to me!” screamed Harry again, this time much louder.

“Fine!” said Hermione, ripping it off of her hand and offering it to him. Harry grabbed it out of her fingers and immediately slipped it on his. The effect was instant. Power flowed through his body like blood and he felt alive once more. Harry’s mind began to work again and he found himself finally being able to think outside of the Ring. The memories of what had happened flowed back to him.
“OH NO!” yelled Harry, getting back a memory that wasn’t too pleasant at all. “Malfoy is still in the pyramid!” He looked out the window at the night sky, with the full moon shining above the giant pyramid.
Just then, as if it wanted to mock Harry in its final moments of life and receive the last laugh, the Geb Pyramid exploded into a shower of fire and Stone.