Slytherin Tales: The Divine Seven

Chapter 21: Teamwork

Word Count: 2,105

Chapter 21: Teamwork

There was no passage or tunnel, just a door to the next room. As it swung open, the key latched in the lock, we gingerly stepped through the door, but were surprised to see the room almost empty. There was a door at the far end, the key to which hung on the door knob of a slightly ajar cabinet. We all stood for a moment, trying to see if there was some sort of trick. Seeing nothing of the sort, I was the first to reach for the key. I slowly grabbed it off the door knob, expecting something to happen, but when nothing did, I stood there, looking at the rusty old green key in my hands.

"Well that was easy," Val snorted, brushing his purple plaid jacket back as he put his hands on his hips.

"Is that really it?" I asked, looking back up at my friends just as their expressions began to morph into fear. I heard a noise behind me, and I turned around to see the cabinet door wide open, and to my horror, there stood the ferocious werewolf from that night. I took a few steps back in shock, holding in my breath. I couldn't move the rest of my body, any attempt I made to move caused me to tremble. It's grey body curved over and it's long arms and claws scraped the floor as it slowly approached. It's lips curled into a horrible sneer, revealing it's yellow-pink teeth and salivating tongue. Licking its lips, it stared at me, it's yellow eyes glaring into my own terror-filled green eyes. It gave a loud howl, preparing to charge at me, when, suddenly, Genesis jumped in front of me.

"Riddikulus!" She shouted, aiming her wand at the beast. Before our eyes, the once fearsome creature transformed into a small chihuahua. She then kicked the small dog back into the cabinet before quickly rushing over to lock it. Sable and Rubina grabbed each of my arms and helped me to my feet.

"What just happened?" My voice came out slow and quivering.

"That was a Boggart, it takes the form of whatever a person fears the most. Since you were the closest it must have fed off your fear of werewolves, Sachie," Genesis explained.

"It looked so real..." I mumbled.

"Did you have to kick the dog, though?" Rubina cringed as she thought of the poor puppy. The cabinet rattled, as if it knew it was being talked about.

"It wasn't a real dog. Boggarts can transform into some really dark stuff, so trust me, it had it coming," defended Genesis.

"How did you know what it was? I would've remembered if it was on the curriculum for first years."

"Training my body and mind gets pretty intense with legilimency so I was taught how to control my emotions through other means. We used a Boggart in my lessons of controlling fear," she said, her voice tough as steel. We stood there, looking at her attentively and I could see a small blush creep up onto her cheeks. "Also I like Defense Against the Dark Arts so I find it interesting," she muttered.

I walked over to the next door, still slightly shaken, but determined to complete the mission, and slid the key into the hole. Turning it, I heard a satisfying click and found the door now opened easily. This time, there was another passage a few feet below the door. We took turns jumping down, finding ourselves in waist deep water. The passage walls were tight, the air was cold, and the water appeared to be flowing into the room up ahead. We trudged through the water, Val complaining the whole way, until we made it into a larger room. I grabbed onto a ledge a few feet above the water and pulled myself out before helping lift the others out of the water. The ground below us wasn't stone like before, instead it was softer, like soil and I could smell the earthiness of it.

"Thank goodness that's over," Val groaned. The light was dim so I could barely see, but he'd taken off his shoes and was trying to squeeze the water out of his socks. Within a second, we watched in shock as he was suddenly whisked out of sight by something we couldn't see. He gave a small squeak and I heard struggling.