A Dance In The Moonlight

Chapter Thirty-Three- Centaurs and Snidgets

Poppy and I arrived in front of the location but Dorran was nowhere to be seen. Spiders were off to the side so agreeing to take out our anger, we demolished them together, Poppy using cabbages and me using spells every chance we got. It wasn't until we got back to the weird towers sure to be a puzzle that we saw Dorran behind both Sebastian and Ominis.

"Ominis? Sebastian? What is going on here?" I asked, confused to see both of them for the first time in a week. Especially in front of Dorran like two children getting caught by their parents for trying to steal sweets. I could barely stand though, making my way to a pillar and leaning my back against it.

"You two agreed that I could do this on my own! Did you seriously follow me here because you thought I would fail?" Poppy exclaimed, furious at the both of them. Ominis shouted a yes and Sebastian a no at the same time, exchanging glances and changing their answers immediately after.

"Fail at what? You all better explain yourselves right now!" I shouted back, more confused than ever.

"Ugh, children. How I do not miss them." Dorran let go of Ominis and Sebastian, pushing them over to us. "We do not have time for this. Do you two have the moonstone?"

I took it out of my satchel, holding it for Dorran to see. The small blue sphere fit in between both of my hands. Sebastian, who had never seen it, admired it closely.

"So what do we do next? What are these pillars here?" Poppy asked, pointing to the two pillars (one of which was holding all the support from my body to make sure I didn't collapse on the floor) in the ground and the symbols next to them.

"A safeguard I suspect," Dorran explained with a puzzled look on his face, "There is only one way to find out and four of you to figure which way that one is."

I sighed, taking my body off the pillar for only one of my knees to give out, making me almost fall to the floor but I quickly stood back up. I could see Poppy and Sebastian make glances of worry to one another but I played it off to the best of my abilities. None of us were good at puzzles- hence why none of us were in Ravenclaw, but I was the best out of the four of us. After placing the moonstone in the direct middle, two symbols on the ground began to glow along with two other symbols on the door- a sun and a weird shaped symbol.

After what felt like hours of me trying to solve it and having to tell Poppy that no matter how much I loved her, I needed her to shut up, I finally solved it. The door began to fade away after matching the symbols on the floor to the one on the door, revealing to be an entrance to a tomb. Why do all of our missions happen in tombs and never in a place like Zonkos or Honeydukes?

"I suspect we all know what lies beyond that passage. Now- I must leave you for at least a moment." Dorran spoke in a wise tone, stepping over to all four of us.

"You're leaving? But why when we're this close?" Poppy asked in a demanding tone, obviously disappointed in Dorran for leaving us to do the hard work yet again. She should know by now that this was how it was done.

"If the snidgets are here, the herd will want to know the truth for themselves. Elek, especially. You four go on without me. I will rejoin with some support as soon as I am able."

Before we could try to argue, Dorran began running off, back into the Forbidden Forest to find the rest of the centaurs. Sebastian and Ominis, more confused than ever, began berating us with questions. How did we know the snidgets were alive? How long have we been putting ourselves in danger as if danger isn't my life? Who was Elek? Finally, I was just annoyed. Was it partially due to only getting twenty-eight hours of sleep this entire week? Most likely but I just couldn't take it anymore.

"If you two want to come, come. Otherwise, you two can stay right here while Poppy and I do the mission, alone, like what was already planned. Poppy, let's go." I spat out, annoyed with everyone's attitude.