The Golden Lock

Part VI

"HELP!!" Elinor shouted, pounding on the now solid wall. No one would find us though, I knew.

It didn't stay hopeless for long, however. Suddenly, several bright balls of light appeared around the outskirts of the room. It was a small space, no larger than a dorm room but instead of being round it was rectangular. The two side walls were covered with large bookshelves. A long table sat on the far side from where we stood, taking up most of the space. It was covered with several scrolls and a thick, worn journal. The journal was opened to a page that read "Hidden Prophecy?" in big bold letters. Beneath it were sketches of the two keys and the lock, while the scrolls contained notes about the riddle parchment, the Tales of Beedle the Bard book I had bought Elinor, and the hidden room under the quidditch pitch. There was a book under one of the open scrolls that was all about curses but no information about breaking them, unfortunately.

Elinor and I carefully combed through the pile. It was obvious whoever made the curse had planned this all out a long time ago. Who were they? Why did they do it? And why did Elinor and I of all people find it?

These questions cycled through my mind until Elinor called my name. "Alex, over here," she motioned, pointing to the wall. There was an indention in the brick, like the keyholes from outside. It was shaped like a lock.

Quickly, I pressed the gold lock into the space and immediately heard a click. The front of the brick above it swung open like a mail slot. I reached into it, gingerly, and pulled out two small cards. The first had a few holes in it and a single word on one side: "stars". The other read "Dispel the Dark Dream Slew" with a picture of the gold lock on one side and an incantation on the other. The counter-curse.

What happened next was a blur. I caught the lock as it popped out of the wall again. Elinor waved her wand over the lock and spoke the counter-curse.

"Did it work?" she wondered when one of the bookshelves swung open to reveal an exit. That was also when Elinor and I realized it was thirty minutes past curfew. We had been in there for several hours.

We sprinted out, following a tunnel which conveniently spit us out in front of the Prefects' bathroom. Unfortunately, Professor Filtwick was walking by at the time and witnessed the two of us rush out of what appeared to be a solid wall.

We didn't lie or try to pretend like we were innocent. But also, the tunnel we had exited had vanished, and it was as if the passage in the astronomy tower never existed. Even in the days following, we never could find our way back into that secret room. Our head of house believed our extremely summarized explanation of where we had been. However, in lieu of evidence, he simply couldn't let us go without giving us detention for being out after curfew. Fair enough.

Afterwards, Elinor and I slipped into the Ravenclaw common room with huge grins on our faces.

We did it.

I was shaking with adrenaline. Elinor squealed quietly and drew me into a big hug. The next morning, we would rush to tell our friends what had happened. The school would be ablaze with rumors of whether and why the nightmares had stopped. Several of them suspected Elinor and I had something to do with it, especially since we had gotten detention for the first time in our lives.

That night, though, not a single scream echoed throughout the castle; all was silent into the dawn.

Professor Potter stared at me a while after I finished recounting the story. When he spoke, it wasn't at all what I thought he was going to say. "So you're telling me that you and Teddy both lied to a professor about being out near curfew?"

"No — I mean...yes?" I smiled sheepishly.

He laughed a bit. "I'm just teasing, Alex. Knowing whole story, I understand. Though I should probably have a talk with Teddy over the summer holiday about it." I made a mental note to apologize to Teddy later for the lecture he was going to get.

"Really, the story was more about the riddle," I explained. "If you remember the last line: 'No truth withheld to save.'"

Mr. Potter nodded, stroking his chin. "But that still doesn't clear things up much for why you want to change your career path."

I looked off at the wall behind him. "Well, to put it simply, that adventure helped me to see that there's more to the magical world than fighting dark wizards — no offense. Breaking curses, researching riddles, hidden secrets — and that was just here at Hogwarts! I think I'd like to spend some time seeing what else is out there. I might not like what I find and I might end up coming back anyways, but I'd at least like to explore that opportunity."

Mr. Potter sighed but settled into a smile. "Well, if you end up finding that fighting dark forces is where you'd like to be after all, I'm sure we'll have a place for you at the Ministry." Then he took out a quill, quickly wrote on a small slip of parchment, and handed it to me. "That phone number is for Victoire's father. He used to be a curse-breaker for Gringotts before the war. I'm sure he can help you with some connections, if you need. And if you need more help with networking, just to explore what's out there, I'm sure anyone in my family would be willing to help."

He smiled softly at me with a great sense of pride. I returned the warmth. "Thank you so much, Professor."

"Thank you, Alexis," he countered, nodding his head at me. "You've been an exceptional Head Girl. Now, get to bed so you don't miss the Hogwarts Express tomorrow." He winked.

When I got back to the dormitory, I quietly took out from under my pillow a journal — the journal, actually, that I had swiped from the secret tower room as Elinor and I were running out. I slipped Bill Weasley's number into it, next to the silver cards from the room. Yes, I was truly curious about different opportunities and career paths out there in the world. I wouldn't lie to a professor (more than once, at least). But I was ever more curious about the person behind the nightmare curse.

I recalled the corrected version of the riddle's end: "Know truth withheld to save." I hoped that the journal would tell me the truth withheld, the beginning of a whole new adventure.