Shackles

Chapter 7

Draco clutched his wand tighter in the darkness and whispered, "Potter, what now?"

"Lumos maxima," Potter said, and illuminated the space around them. "Get my back, we don't know what else is out there."

"I can see almost the whole room now." Draco tried hard to see into the dark corners that were not quite visible under the light of Harry's spell.

"It's that almost bit that I'm worried about," Harry input shortly.

Draco shifted until he and Harry were back-to-back, and feeling the slight heat of Harry's body radiating next to his was comforting. He scanned the room again.

"The door is over there."

The two of them moved as one unit towards the door, Harry first to watch the door and Draco facing the rear, guarding them from behind. Harry tried to open it, but the doorknob refused to turn.

"Alohomora," he whispered, and the door opened.

As they stepped through, the light followed them, but it was easy to see that this room was much larger than the previous. The light didn't allow them to see even most of the room.

"Do you think our light could be giving us away?" Draco asked in a soft voice.

"If there's anything out there, it might not necessarily need light to find us, while we probably need light to find them," Harry responded, eyes sweeping the darkness.

"If there is a wizard out there–"

"Cast Homenum revelio," Harry instructed and Draco did so, feeling silly for forgetting.

"Nothing," he reported, even though Harry could see for himself the results.

They inched forward, although nothing of the room they were in gave away their position within in. The door they'd come from was already lost in the dark.

"Give me a moment," Draco knelt, while Harry stood over him, guarding him. He quickly sketched a glowing red rune on the ground. Then, holding out his palm, he quickly muttered the "Point Me" spell.

"Right, let's go," Harry said, realizing without asking what he was doing. "Will we be able to see that rune from far away?"

"Even better," Draco smiled grimly. "I can feel it. It will fade in an hour. If I cast another one, the feeling of the first will be diminished. This way we can try and keep track of where we've already been."

"Right."

They traveled in silence for a while, taking even, cautious steps. All Draco could hear for the longest time were their own footsteps and Harry's breathing next to him. Then he heard a noise. It sounded a wet, rattling, breath.

"What's that?" he whispered to Harry, fighting the urge to get even closer to Harry.

"I don't know. Homenum revelio," Harry said.

Nothing.

"Not human then. Great." Harry bit his lip.

The next thing that became apparent was a strong smell of the most awful stench that Draco could remember. It smelled like rotting meat and decay. It didn't take long for them to see it, as the creature couldn't sneak up on them.

"Harry..." Draco whispered, catching sight of a massive shape appearing out of the gloom.

The thing was about ten feet tall, and the first thing that Draco saw were the huge, curved antlers raking outward from the creature's skull. It had a long jaw full of wickedly sharp, yellow teeth and the head was covered in long, thick hair. The rest of it was vaguely humanoid, although its limbs were obscenely long and looked as if it were made of rough skin stretched over bone giving it a skeletal appearance. Its arms ended in long claws. As it came forward, the temperature of the room dropped drastically to the point that Draco could see his breath in front of him.