The Founders

Chapter 60

Once everyone had finished breakfast, they began wandering out of the great hall. It was already mostly emptied now, since the majority of people had left for the quidditch pitch to get good seats. Oscar and Grace would have liked to be one of them, but they were sadly in capable of waking up early.

Grace was chivvying them along, pushing Kyra by the shoulders to make her walk faster. "We're going to miss kick- off," she said in annoyance. Kyra stopped dead and Grace crashed into her as she patted down the front and back pockets of her jeans in panic.

"Shit, my wand," she said, frowning. "I swear I brought it with me." She looked around at the others and gestured for them to go on. "You guys get seats, I'll catch up, I'm just going to check my dorm room first."

The other two hurried out into the bright sunlight, Grace with a backwards wave, but Alex stood standing behind her, hands in his pockets. Kyra eyed him with a smile, turning back to the dungeon steps. "You know that wasn't just a ploy to go somewhere and make out," she said. "I actually can't find my wand."

He snorted and followed her down the steps. "Give me some credit, Havard. I just don't want you to go wandering into any more dark greenhouses." Kyra rolled her eyes as they reached the foot of the stairs and pushed open the portrait.

"Let it go, Elsa," she responded. He looked at her in confusion and then shook his head. She grinned, taking the steps up two at a time. She swung the door open and froze.

Nooses of knotted rope were suspended from the ceiling, their circles spelling out letters; they spelled 'kitchen'. Kyra's fingers went numb and she stumbled back. Her back bumped into a warm wall of chest, holding her steady.

Someone was trying to say something to her, but she couldn't hear words through the distortion. Suddenly, Alex's face snapped into focus, holding her by the shoulder and saying something to her anxiously.

"Kyra, Kyra, come on, you're okay." She looked up at him and slowly nodded, her panic fading and her resolution strengthening. The nooses were a threat, and maybe not to her. If someone was in the kitchens right now, about to be attacked, then Kyra had to do something about it. Never mind that it was almost certainly a ploy to get her to open the Hufflepuff chamber.

She didn't care, they would figure it out. She wouldn't let someone else get hurt because of her, not if she could help it.

"We have to go, Alex," she tried to walk around him to the door, but he blocked her with his body, looking down at her incredulously.

"You are joking, Kyra. Please tell me you're joking." She looked at him blankly. "There's no way I'm letting you go down there to get yourself killed." She struggled to get around his arms, but he gripped her more tightly and half lifted her back to her bed, setting her down there.

Kyra was about to argue back when she caught sight of her wand, placed very deliberately on her pillow, almost tauntingly. She made a grab for it, but Alex pinned her wrist down to the bed and forced it back to her side.

She looked at him beseechingly. "Alex, please, you can't make me stay here. I have to help you fight, help whoever this person is threatening." Kyra gestured violently up at the nooses above their heads.

He shook his head, his eyes wide and his jaw set. "It's a trap, Kyra. For you. I can't let you go."

"You think I don't know that?" she yelled in disbelief, pushing against his shoulders again. "I'm not stupid, Alex, I know what this is. But I won't do nothing, not when people are going to get hurt, and not when you're going alone to get yourself killed."

She shook her head and dropped her voice. "We're a team. Right?" Her voice shook. "If you refuse to let me go, then you're not protecting me. You're just disrespecting my choice to do what I feel is right. And I need you, of all people, to respect that. Please."

He held her arms, his eyes torn and desperate. Very slowly, he released her and stood back, watching her stand up and get her wand. Picking it up, she stood squarely in front of him and held out her hand in offer.

"Together?"

"Together."