My heart skipped a beat as the photo came to life. There we were, Jacob and I, jumping up and down and grinning at Mom. She must have thought it was because we were excited. Mischievous, giggling, and making silly faces at each other. Little did she...
At last, the enchantment was broken, and the princess awoke and looked around her with wondering eyes.
— The Brothers Grimm, "Sleeping Beauty"
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The Forbidden Corridor resembled Hagrid's garden, except instead of huge pumpkins, there were enormous chunks of ice. While we were gone, even more of them had grown, making the lockless door barely visible.
After the incident in the Artefact Room, my legs were still shaky, even after Madam Pomfrey's Invigoration Draught. She surely seized the opportunity to interrogate us, but Rowan came to my rescue sprouting excuses left and right. Penny energetically nodded, adding details to the story that, however, remained suspicious. I wondered if Madam Pomfrey had enjoyed our improvised fable as much as we did.
Nevertheless, she made us stay in the Hospital Wing until the very evening, shooting chary glares every time Penny gave a sigh ("Is it time to leave? Maybe now? Can we go now?") Being there worked in our favor: it's easier to sneak into the Icy Corridor whilst all the attention is paid to food and not to the number of students at the table. No one was to notice the absence of the three of us.
"Where did all this ice come from?"
Rowan and I shushed at Penny almost as accusingly as Madam Pince, the librarian. Penny covered her mouth and guiltily shook her head. Stepping over the ice floes, we approached the door and, clearly, its furry guardian. Haywood smiled warmly when noticed how methodically Mrs. Norris was licking her paw, though her affection vanished at once when the cat hissed.
At that point, we split up: Penny stayed to watch the entrance to the corridor, while Rowan, emboldened, grabbed the Sleeping Draught. She emerged from behind the ice floe and, on wooden legs, headed straight for Mrs. Norris. All of her movements became abrupt, like those of a mannequin.
"Oh, Mrs. Norris, what a surprise!" Rowan grinned falsely, uncorking the bottle. "And I'm just passing by. Nothing criminal."
I buried my face in my hands. It was pure luck Hogwarts didn't have an acting exam.
"Oh, I spilled something very delicious! What a shame! I'm such a slob!"
I stifled a silent chuckle. A slob? I'll have to tell that to her books, all neatly aligned and arranged alphabetically.
Rowan clutched her head theatrically as the Sleeping Draught spilled onto the floor. I looked over at Penny to make sure she didn't see this sacrilege. Thankfully, she was still standing guard at the entrance.
By the time I turned back, Mrs. Norris was already fast asleep. Her snout, splattered with the potion, was the epitome of tranquillity. Rowan, however, didn't dare touch her. I tentatively prodded Mrs. Norris with my finger once, then again, and once more. If Filch had seen this, the handcuffs from the Artefact Room would have already been on our wrists.
"Last touch, Mia. Come on!"
I pulled out my wand. Aimed at the lock. "Alohomora!"—and something clicked in the door's mechanism. My hand was about to grip the handle when... "Flippendo!"
The fall was swift: my legs buckled, and my already heavy head met the stone floor. Two loud, hefty slaps echoed down the corridor as Rowan and Penny, knocked down by the spell, landed next to me. I could easily identify the attacker from their voice and the sweeping motion of their wand.
As Rowan said, it was a hawthorn, a nine-inch one, too short for the most powerful witch at Hogwarts.
"I didn't even have to think about how to get past that vile cat. All I needed to do was to follow you, idiots."
With great enjoyment Merula watched us struggling to gather ourselves. And we, to be honest, didn't seem to be succeeding. All my attempts to fix my gaze failed miserably, and Snyde, with her sharp eye, noticed it and chuckled. She stepped over me, pushed the door open, and smirked, "By the way, Gelider, only a fool would leave a Hufflepuff to guard the entrance. Think twice next time... and choose the right ally."
Merula saluted and disappeared behind the door. I almost groaned with annoyance: it was all to pot! Somehow managed to get up and helped the others. Penny blushed as if from an allergy spell and kept adjusting her cloak, running her fingers through her hair. Finally, she said, "I'm so sorry, truly. Was staring at Mrs. Norris, just worried if the potion would work."
Rowan looked suspiciously at Mrs. Norris. Fortunately, Mrs. Norris did not look back at her. That meant the potion had worked.
"So what's now, Mia? What do we do with Merula?"
"Let's find her before the problems do. Bet they've already started searching."
Penny furrowed her eyebrows with great determination: she was ready to take revenge for her previous mistake at the corridor entrance. I pushed the door and noticed — from the corner of my eye — Rowan glancing again at Mrs. Norris. Looking flushed, she wished her a good night.
Finally inside! The room was cramped — or at least it felt so because everything, from the walls to the ceiling, was made of ice. There were neither torches nor lamps, only glacial glow streaming through the room surfaces. Rowan grabbed my hand and shivered. The cold licked at our faces—a perfect confirmation that a regular cloak wouldn't keep us warm here.
Merula was probably thinking the same thing. Truly, it's hard to focus on anything else... especially when you accidentally get stuck in a block of ice, as she did. Her face was deadly pale, tinged with blue.
"W-what are you w-waiting for, G-gelider? G-get me out of h-here before I h-hex you all!"
The ice slowly crept up her legs. We stood frozen, mesmerized as it consumed her tights and clung to her skirt. Within moments, an icy crust enveloped our shoes too. We had to jump and dance in place to avoid sticking to the floor.
"Pull her, Rowan!"
Penny grabbed Merula's right hand, and Rowan took the left. They pulled with all their might, but nothing happened, except for the sound of fabric tearing. Merula groaned in pain, looking anxiously at her frozen body. It seemed like things couldn't get any worse.
"Penny, hold the door!"
Penny looked around bewildered, but it was already too late. The door slammed shut and got immediately covered in frosty patterns. I touched them, just lightly with the tips of my fingers, but it was enough to become seriously stuck, or rather, seriously frozen.
"Merlin's beard, not again!" Penny clenched her fists in frustration. "Take care of Merula! I gotta settle up accounts with that bloody door."
Merula looked at me with open disbelief, and then with even greater disbelief when I pulled out my wand. Her face suddenly turned into a funny kaleidoscope of emotions. Despite the impasse, Rowan allowed herself a chuckle, and I couldn't help but smile too.
"I won't say it won't hurt, Merula. Quite the opposite. Are you ready, Rowan?"
Ro nodded decisively. We aimed our wands and did what we'd wanted to do for so long: a sharp flick, a soft twist, and a muffled, slightly rough pronunciation.
"Flippendo!"
Explosion! Merula let out a scream. Icy shards flew all over the room, and we instinctively covered our faces. It did work, didn't it? As we removed our hands, Merula was already free: she slumped onto the floor, shaking her head in bewilderment. Her teeth were chattering with the rhythm of a tap dance.
"Any luck, Penny?"
We turned to the door — and grew still. The wall was covered in symbols: glowing doodles like the ones Rowan and I once spotted in Chester's textbook. The runic pattern stretched from the ceiling and down, to the very floor tiles. The combination repeated hundreds of times like a looped record.
I noticed Penny hiding a potion bottle. She wiped her lips with her sleeve and waved us away with an imperious gesture. We obediently stepped back: Penny, with her great strength, was nothing to joke about. Meanwhile, Rowan helplessly shifted her gaze from the inscriptions to Penny, from Penny to the inscriptions. She didn't want to miss a thing.
"Be ready!"
Penny grabbed the door handle and tugged hard. The ice cracked with a few jerks, revealing her thin hands peeking out of her cloak's sleeves. I was astonished that they could do such a thing, but it all made sense when I remembered the bottle Haywood hid. Must be a Strengthening Solution, huh? Penny pulled again, and the door grudgingly opened.
I hesitated to leave, mesmerized by the wall cipher. "We need to record it somewhere!"
But Rowan grabbed me by the sleeve and pulled towards the exit. "Don't worry, I've got it memorized," she added.
Khanna moved mechanically, trying to commit the scribbles to memory as we head out from the icy room. Merula was already ahead, running towards the common room, cursing and sneezing loudly as we followed her. Soon, our curses joined hers when we spotted Mrs. Norris, deftly moving her paws as she made her way out of a nearby corridor. Her meowing was purely ominous.
It's rare for the same idea to hit three heads at once, but it was just the case. We exchanged quick glances and sprinted towards the Grand Staircase. Penny didn't even jump over the ice blocks, smashing them roughly with her feet. I was once again convinced of the power of her potion.
"Filch! He's over there!"
Rowan dragged me into a nearby corridor just as Filch angrily zoomed by, followed by Mrs. Norris. She was fully awake, happily prancing beside him. In a second, we left our shelter. Passed through a couple of passages, and climbed up a couple of stairs. Finally, I muttered some vague response to the Ravenclaw door knocker, hoping it wouldn't show off its intellect. Rowan stood behind me, gesturing in the air as she drew the wall symbols from memory. It was incredible how much she had stored up in her head.
At last, we rushed into the common room. Looked at each other and suddenly burst out laughing so hard that Ravenclaw's statue almost lost its head again. It was unbelievable that we had managed to avoid frostbite, death, and most importantly, expulsion!
We didn't even notice Chester standing in the middle of the room, arms crossed over his chest. He loudly cleared his throat, interrupting our merriment, and I felt a chill run down my spine. Summoned the rest of my courage and looked up at him. Chester's lips, hitherto like a thread, parted.
"Professor Dumbledore is waiting for you, Mia Gelider. I suggest you hurry."
For the first time, I wished that Mia Gelider wasn't me.
