unforth | Hogwarts Story: Part 15

Sorry I didn't write yesterday! I got all the prep work for my last paper done instead, and I wrote it earlier today, so aside from showing up in class on Friday, I'm done. 5 more semesters and I'm done with school...(laughs maniacally)...I can do it!

Anyway, had a pretty good couple of days. Did some Christmas shopping, wrote my paper, etc. Am now surprisingly sleepy.

I was going to write lots, but I've hit a stumbling block I'm too tired to deal with now - I'll finish it tomorrow. See, the next part of our adventure involved solving a number of riddles, and though I remember bits and pieces of the riddles it's certainly not enough to write it from memory, so I'm digging up some riddles that are similar in nature to the ones we completed (they aren't the same ones, but it'll do...). I've got four appropriate ones thus far, but I need a few more, I think there were...uh...at least 5. It won't be perfect no matter what I do - the ST's constructed an excellent set of puzzles and related things - but I can get it tolerable...just not tonight. ;) On to the writing!

All of us were momentarily stunned to see how truly ineffective Dimitri’s spell had been. Then, convinced this must have been a mistake, Lycia pulled out her wand. “Petrificus totalus!” she screamed, pointing the wand behind her. Once again, though, spell was unsuccessful. The basilisk was gaining on us with frightening speed, and, as I glanced behind me, I was convinced that Celestine was about to be over run.

Cursing silently in my mind in a most un-ladylike fashion, I reached into my robe and desperately flailed about in its folds for the potion that I needed. Though I worked hard to keep the potions I carried neatly organized, my task was made far more difficult for the way that the robes flapped and caught around me as I ran. Finally, huffing and puffing, I withdrew what I hoped was the right one, and stopped running. The potion sloshed in its bottle as, in one smooth motion, I threw it straight into the beasts gaping maw. Please work, I thought imploringly, please please work.

For a moment nothing happened, and I truly began to be afraid. The spells failing could have been a mistake of casting, but I knew I had gotten the potion bottle cleanly into its mouth, had heard the bottle break, and yet the beast came on unperturbed. I started to run again, wondering how we could escape this terrible situation, when all of sudden the basilisk gave a weird noise and stopped moving for a moment. Looking behind me, I saw that it had momentarily been shocked into stillness by merit of the fact that it was roughly two-thirds of its old size. I shuddered at this, for the Shrinking Potion I had administered should have reduced it much more, yet still I was pleased that it had a least done something. However, once the amazement of the creature wore of, it came after us once more, still more than large enough to pose a threat to us.

Running now, out of breath, I looked at the others. They were to a one red in the face and panting, and the corridor continued endlessly before us. We had to do something, I knew, but I could not think what. “Magic, magic doesn’t seem to work,” Dimitri sounded somewhat despaired. He had been trying, shooting spells behind him regularly, not a one effective.

“If…if magic doesn’t work,” I reasoned aloud, “then we must come up with a way to attack it physically.” Looking around as I ran, I assessed the situation. We carried nothing that could be termed a weapon, and the corridor was bare. The corridor…the stones of the corridor, I thought to myself. “Someone collapse the tunnel,” I cried, hoping desperately that someone knew how to do such a thing.

The events of the next few moments happened dizzyingly fast. Someone, I think it was one of the Lunari’s, shouted a spell, and there was a horrible crashing sound, the air filled with the sound of rock scraping on rock and ripping itself apart, as the arch through which we had just run crashed in on itself, leaving naught but the head of the basilisk sticking out. It still struggled horribly, and the Lunari’s stood around it, bashing it about the head with large chunks of rock while it gnashed its teeth at them menacingly. Watching it, I thought that if it did not stop doing so it would surely break free, so I pulled a Nerve Calming potion from my collection and threw it down the beasts’ throat as I had the last potion. Within moments it had ceased to writhe and twist, though, as before, it was not so sedate as I would have hoped. Feeling that the matter was well settled, I turn to look before us.

Before us was a brightly lit cavern with many, many different passageways leading off of it. All of the caves led into darkness, and I shuddered to think how lost and alone we would have become if we had reached this point with the basilisk still in hot pursuit. Over all was a high archway, much higher than the one that had been collapsed on the monster, inscribed with deeply chiseled words.