Son Of Riddle

Chapter Twenty-Nine- The Escape Attempt

The quartet followed the small man to the freezing, damp dungeon area.
"I don't think this is a good idea..." Adam began.
"Just trust me." James replied. "I'll explain everything soon."
Blaise held out his hand, and held his wand in the other. "Hand 'em over."
The quartet looked at him, confused.
The man rolled his eyes impatiently. "Your wands and any other magic things, give 'em here. Can't have you keeping 'em."
The quartet hesitantly took out their wands and gave them to the mousey death eater.
He shoved them into a cramped cell, and smirked. "You're lucky the master went easy on you four."
His smirk seemed to falter as he shuffled away. "And just because they're powerful...He'd have hanged me."
"Well...we're here, now what?" Adam asked.
"Rodolphus is working for someone." James whispered hurriedly. "The Rodolphus I know would not have spared us, he doesn't do 'mercy'. It's not his thing."
"...That makes sense actually..." Adam began. "He kept pausing in the middle of his words as though he were reciting lines for a play."
"That too." James agreed.
"And you let us get captured so you could find out who he's working for because who knows a villain better than his prisoners?" Lucy blurted out in the span of 2 and a half seconds.
The rest of the quartet blinked. "Lucy, no one else here speaks squirell." James coughed. "And half yes, half no. I let us get captured for one prisoner, to free him, and ask him questions."
"Firenze?" Benjamin guessed.
James nodded. "If we free him, it will not only clear my name because he knows it's not me, but he may also be able to tell us who Rodolphus is working for."
"The only problem is finding him." Benjamin mused. "He didn't exactly leave us a trail of breadcrumbs."
"True, but he's a centaur. He's gotta be in a big cell, those guys aren't small." Adam said.
"So we just have to find a really big cell? It seems like that's too easy." Lucy asked.
"It's harder than it seems." James reminded them. "You have to get past multiple death eaters, plus find your way through a maze of cells and hallways."
"Well, you used to live here, don't you know your way around the dungeon?" Lucy asked.
"Yes, but not as well as I used to." James answered. "It has been 30 years."
"Well, whatever we're doing, can we do it soon?" Adam asked, trying his best not to shiver. Benjamin nodded profusely behind him. "It's freezing in here."
"Alright, alright." James shrugged and walked over to the bars.
The rest of the quartet staggered back in shock as Riddle opened his mouth and a blash of fire burst through his throat.
The tongues of fire licked the bars; enveloping them and turning them red-hot, and eventually, little drops of liquid metal dripped onto the floor.
After about 5 minutes, a hole about the size of a small car was burned through the iron bars.
"...I wanna touch it." Benjamin declared, reaching his hand out.
James grabbed him by the collar and dragged him away from the melting bars. "No, Benjamin, you can't touch the bars, you'll burn yourself."
"But it's so goopy." Benjamin said, dejeted.
"Wait, wait, you can turn just your throat into a dragon's throat?" Adam asked.
"Yep."
"But...how could you get that much methane gas in your system? I know you're a dragon animagus but it shoudn't just materialize in your throat. Also, how could you ignite it, you couldn't have a fuse or something to..."
Adam continued to mumble to himself about dragon logistics for a good 5 minutes before Lucy cleared her throat.
"We can't keep the house elves waiting forever, guys." She said, motioning to the melted hole in the bars.
The rest of the quartet nodded and slipped through the bars, careful not to touch them.

Meanwhile, at Hogwarts-
"They should be back soon, right?" Lust asked, wringing her hands.
"I'm sure they'll be fine." Yawned Sloth. "And besides, the potion should last for another 6 hours, at least, they'll be fine."
All the house elves' attention was turned to the hall, as they heard footsteps approaching rapidly.
"Act like they would!" Pride hissed, and they all looked at each other, and promtly started laughing and making random jokes that somehow made sense.
McGonnagle's head appeared in the doorway, and she looked at the house elves suspiciously.
Greed nodded to her. "Professor."
McGonnagle nodded back to him. "I was making sure the four of you were still here, not on some crazy mission to stop that man. Frankly, I'm quite surprised."
"Well...I've decided I kinda like it here. I don't think it would be worth getting expelled." Greed said with such conviction, the other house elves were left guessing whether or not Riddle was actually there.
"Very well..." McGonnagle said, her eyes squinting. She made her way back down the corridor, her footsteps fading gradually as she left.
The house elves breathed a collective sigh of relief. "I hope they hurry." Pride breathed.