Love Potion

Magic Maze

When I told Hwelpum the good news, I knew he would have smiled. He congratulated me and when I asked if I could truly stay here as a student, he said, "Until, you leave - or get expelled!"

He told me the next thing to do was sort me into a house. This was electrifyingly exciting. Was I a merry and kindly Alpapaw? A smart and curious Snellicary? Or was I gallant and daring as a Creepseek?

I remembered the sorting well from the books. Ermis and all the other first-years had to venture through the Maze of Discovery: it was a stone labyrinth under the castle, where at every fork you have to make a choice based on who you are for what next tunnel to go down. These choices you make will lead you eventually to the house you're meant for. Even if you follow someone else so that you'd be in the same house as them, or just to copy their decisions, would tell the maze about you; sometimes you'd end up in the same fork you just left, and would never escape until you chose another path.

The entrance to the underground labyrinth was was in the east side of the castle hill, that it stood on. Hwelpum took me there now, floating along in his magic rocking chair with the morning sun turning his beard to gold and the birds twittering in the trees. He told me the thing he missed most since being paralyzed was humming on a day like this; I was sure he missed much greater things, but I didn't what to press the sore subject.

It took us but a few minutes to get to the labyrinth entrance. It was no better than a large muddy hole in the hill, like an oversized rabbit had burrowed there (Hwelpum tried to convince me that was how it was really built), and he said me he'd be waiting for me with apprehension in the Great Hall, where the three maze exits were: one for Creepseek, one for Alpapaw, and one for Snellicary. His parting note was "Re-mem-ber - thinking, with your, gut, or your heart, or your head, is-all paart of it. If you o-verthiink-it, that's a part of it, too." Then he said he hoped I'd make it with all of my limbs, and promptly left.

My only comfort before my great departure was that if first-years could do it, then I could do it too. I tried not to think about the fact that they all also went together.

I stepped through the entrance and fed myself to the Maze of Discovery.

The mud floor and walls and ceiling turned to stone in a matter of steps. It was dark, cracked stone, but too dry and with not enough light for any moss to grow between them. It was like cold, too, like stepping on dry ice with my bare tootsies, and prickling goosebumps down my arms. The ceiling was low, and when the light the entrance provided died in a short while, I was left nervously shuffling into darkness - no, blackness - that fed hungrily into my eyes, swallowing me whole. It smelt of nothing in particular, and was deathly quiet. It was unnerving to hear nothing but my own shuddery breath and timid scuffs of footsteps. The more steps I took, the less time seemed to exist. I don't know if it was seconds or minutes before I saw a flickering blue light ahead of me, and I came to the first fork in the maze, my first choice.

The light came from a metal sconce on the wall, throwing sapphire light around me and highlighting the ridges of the familiar words that were carved into the stone wall:

So here you are in the magic maze,

Discovering who you'll be.

I will help you, friend. Now please,

Choose of these paths three.

There were three tunnels to choose from, all leading to flickery blue-green light. I knew already what was inscribed above them: "Money", "Love", and "Fame". In the books, Ermis, who was in a bad mood because Troy had stolen his chockyhuckle, said aloud why he couldn't have all three, and a rock uncoincidentally dropped onto his head from the ceiling. In the end he chose love. I did the same, and took the middle path. So far so good. It didn't take long to reach another fork, the second script illuminated on the wall: