Wishmaster

Chapter Thirteen - Down The Rabbit Hole


"Harry!" Called Luna as she watched her friend jump down onto the next ledge.

"Harry you can’t go down there, what if one of the ledges breaks? How will you get back up then?"

"I’ll be fine!" Harry’s voice was muffled, and Luna could hear his feet hit another ledge as he dropped out of sight.

Steeling herself, Luna pulled out her wand and dropped onto the ledge below the door.

Below her, the thump of Harry’s feet hitting rock had became regular, and more distant as he moved further down the shaft. Luna scrambled down after him. The shaft grew steadily darker as she descended and Luna was soon forced to pull out her wand and cast Lumos. Her worry increased when she realised that she had not heard Harry do the same, had he lit it wordlessly? Down and down she went, the shaft starting to feel more like a well than anything else, below her the steady thumping of Harry’s decent had ceased and for some reason, Luna couldn’t help but feel slightly afraid of dropping down to see him crouched silently in the darkness nearby.

"Are you all right?" Luna jumped as Harry’s voice drifted up from somewhere far below.

"Y-yes!" She called back shakily.

She told herself sternly not to be silly.

She was panting now, nearly out of breath as she continued to scramble down into the blackness. She could no longer see any trace of natural light from above, only the faint downdraft of air still indicated that there was any opening to the outside world. Luna stopped for a moment, breathing hard to get her wind back. Silently she wondered how farther down she would have to climb, her clothes had already acquired a thin layer of something that was not quite dirt, but which had a general grimy quality. Looking at hand, just visible in the gloom, Luna felt a surge of irritation when she saw that the grime had got under her nails.

"Harry!" She yelled.

"Luna?!" Came Harry’s startled voice from only a short distance below.

Luna's irritation turned to relief; gladly, she scrambled down the last few ledges, landing on a disconcertingly soft carpet of the strange mucky grime that had caked the walls of the shaft. Getting to her feet, she pointed the beam of her wand around, searching for Harry. The beam swung through the cloying darkness around her, finally lighting on her friend. Harry and Luna stood in the bend of a corridor of wet, grey grime. Ahead of them, the corridor stretched away into the darkness. Harry stood before Luna looking intently into the blackness. Luna watched him nervously.

"What is it?" She asked. "Did you hear something?" The thought of anything coming out of the dark at them made Luna's stomach clench. At the back of her mind, names slimy things moved in the blackness beyond the small illumination of her wand.

Harry shook his head.

"It’s just a tunnel, then there’s something on a shelf at the end."

Luna frowned at him.

"You can’t possibly see that," She snapped. "It’s pitch black in here!"

Harry blinked, then squinted, seemingly at the lack of light in the area.

"I thins its an illusion actually," He mused. "There’s still alot of light coming down from the shaft, its quite dim but not pitch black."

He must have seen the bewildered look on her face then for he took hold of her hand.

"It’s not a very long tunnel anyway, I’ll go see what’s at the end, then I’ll come back and we’ll leave, ok?"

Silently, Luna nodded and hoped that Harry would light his wand before setting off.

He didn’t.

Luna waited in the "bend" of the tunnel, listening nervously. The walls around her were moist, and as she pointed the beam of her wand at an apparently blank surface beside her, something glinted. Curiously, she moved closer to the side of the tunnel, training her wand on the object. It was a smooth white stone, embedded in the gray grime that layered everything. Luna moved to look at the stone and reached out to touch it, surprised to find that it was weirdly warm to the touch, she grasped it and pulled.

The object squelched unpleasantly as she pulled it part way loose. A moment later she reeled back as a foul stench hit her, as if something had died. Gagging, she pulled her shirt up over her nose and stepped closer to what was a longer object than she had expected, and saw that something seemed to be seeping out of the newly made gap. Holding the top of her shirt firmly, Luna grasped the object and tugged it sharply. The thing came loose with a wet, disgusting squelch, and for a moment, the smell was almost enough to make Luna retch as she staggered back a step. When her eyes had stopped watering, she looked at the thing she now held in her hand.

It was a bone.

Her eyes widening, Luna shone her wand on the pale shape of the bone and to her horror, saw that it was covered in a dark, sticky redness .

Luna felt her heart begin to beat faster as slowly she forced herself to point her wand beam back at the rotting, stinking hole where she had pulled the bone from.

There was blood. Blood seeping down the wall and leaving a red trail. Blood, pooling on the floor, nasty, sticky, rotting, and yet still alive. But it wasn’t the blood that Luna was looking at. It was the hole. The wall around it was moving, expanding and pushing outwards as if it were alive, and Luna looked wildly around to see that other, previously unseen bones had seemingly pushed themselves out of the walls.

With a sickening gurgle, the blood began to spurt.

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Harry jumped as a series of low, dull thuds sounded behind him. Looking around, he was in time to see the walls of the tunnel begin to expand as several long thin, pale objects dislodged themselves from the walls and fell to the ground. Gasping, he doubled over and wretched as the foulest thing he’d ever known seeped into his nostrils.

Alarm bells began to ring in Harry’s head.

Grabbing the object he had been examining from its grimy shelf, he tucked it under his arm and began to sprint back down the tunnel just as a horrible gurgling noise resounded through the rapidly widening space around him. Harry tried not to think as something warm and sticky splashed against his side. He could see Luna's rapidly nearing silhouette crouched on one of the ledges they had come down, waving frantically at him. Harry gasped for breath and nearly doubled over again as he tried to plough his way through the now nearly waist deep substance. The air was almost unbreathable with the stink of decay.

His muscles burning, he forced his way through the flood of scarlet liquid, ahead of him, there was a loud shattering rumble and a scream. Harry reeled back as something slammed into him, realising a second later that it was Luna. Whimpering, she held onto him as, in numb disbelief, he watched the heavy stone ledges tumble into the blood now rapidly filling the passage..

"Harry!" Luna's voice was shrill "Harry, the shafts too smooth, there’s no footholds, we can’t climb!"

Refusing to believe this, Harry half waded, half swam to where the shaft opened onto the tunnel, light filtering down from above. Frantically, Harry searched for the slots into which the ledges must have been placed but saw none. Magic. A dull anger started in Harry stomach and rose up his body into his brain. Grabbing Luna’s hand, he pulled her out of the now chin deep liquid and onto the heap of rubble. Momentarily on "dry" land he stared up the shaft, trying desperately to think of a way to get him and Luna up it.

Behind him he could hear Luna muttering repulsion and barrier charms but as the tide of stickiness was now seeping up around his calves, some enchantment was obviously dispelling her frantic attempts. Harry’s anger swelled and became sharp and potent, waves of it began to seep from him, behind him, Luna stumbled and nearly fell face first into the almost rot filled tunnel, looking round, she saw that the blood seemed to be being pushed away from Harry and quickly grabbed his arm.

Meanwhile Harry’s head was light and dizzy; he could feel Luna holding his arm but at the same time he seemed to be reaching up with it. He giggled in amusement at the strangeness of it as he grabbed the edge of the crumbling walls at the top. Numbly he was aware of Luna shaking him, her voice was shrill and she appeared to be saying something.

"Hang on tight to me Luna," He murmured.

Oddly, he was able to feel Luna's surprise radiating from her as she tightened her grip. His head still light, Harry contracted the arm that was reaching up into the fresh air and with a last, sucking squelch, pulled both he and Luna out of the sticky ooze. He could feel Luna’s grip tighten and the surprise radiating from her, but that wasn’t important. His mind was beginning to hurt from lifting them both and as they dragged up the side of the shaft, he felt his unreal new appendage beginning to fade.

The light was getting brighter now, and Harry could hear the wind blowing and the rain pattering on the ground and plant life. Gladly he heaved the sweet, stinging air into his lungs and lightness in his head lifted somewhat. With a last contraction that made his mind ache, Harry pulled himself up the last few feet and grabbed the edge of the ruined floor above just as his mind retracted the ghostly arm that had lifted them.

Beside him, Luna grabbed the ledge and let go of Harry’s arm, pulling herself up, she turned and reaching down, grabbed Harry’s wrist and pulled him with uncanny strength up back into the house.

Remarkable, it must be the pure witch blood, thought Harry light-headedly as she let go.

Then he slumped forward, unconscious.

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Authors Note : Calling all readers! Its bloody difficult to write with no feedback! ( Hint Hint )