ꜱᴇʀᴘᴇɴᴛɪɴᴇ ꜱᴇʀɪᴇꜱ | ᴛᴏᴍɪᴏɴᴇ

Whispers from the Past, ch. 20

CHAPTER TWENTY

The golden bars of the elevator opened with a ding. Marek and Mag went in first followed by Snape and Harmony. She stood in front of Marek. When the doors closed and the elevator descended, she could feel Marek's eerie brown eyes on the back of her head. If it weren't for the black cloth covering his nose and mouth, she was sure she would have felt his hot breath on the back of her neck. She did her best to ignore him and how unnecessarily close he stood behind her.

In the elevator, the pain from her Serpentine charm vanished and she sighed in relief. They were plunged into semi-darkness except for a soft yellow glow around the crown of the ceiling above their heads. Over a loudspeaker, a pleasant woman's voice listed off a couple rules in a placid tone.

Harmony swallowed nervously. They were going a long way down into the ground, and she could imagine it growing hotter. She coughed, hating the awkward silence.

"I'll admit I'm a bit surprised to see you here," she said.

Mag peered over Snape's shoulder to look at her. "Is that so?"

"We're here for the grand prize," she said.

"Good for you," he replied with a smile in his voice.

"Which I will win," she finished. That got her a glare from Snape and a laugh from Mag.

"Strong words from a strong witch," Mag said between chuckles. "I have no doubt."

"So my question is," Harmony continued, "why you and your silent companion came to this competition at all."

"Enough," Snape hissed in warning.

"It's quite alright, Sev," Mag said without looking away from Harmony. Snape flinched at the nickname as though Mag had hit him. "We came here for the crowd," he explained. "You never know who you run into at these gatherings. After all, we've had the luck of running into you, have we not?"

Harmony turned her head to look back at him over her shoulder. "So you came here to recruit more Death Eaters, is that it?"

"Yes, and among other things," Mag said, shrugging. He nodded his head to Marek, "And my silent companion is quite the dueler, a secret weapon you could say. I would bet major galleons you two will be facing off in the finals together."

"Really?" Harmony asked as she turned her head to look at the wizard behind her. As expected, he was staring fixedly back at her. Why did he never blink? It made Harmony uncomfortable in her own skin. She swallowed her dry throat before saying, "Well, I welcome any challenge." She held her hand out to him. "May the best dueler win."

Marek stared at her hand for a brief moment before slowly extending it and grasping her hand in his.

At that moment, the elevator doors opened. A shiver ran up her spine as though she had been force-fed a bolt of electricity. She turned forward again and looked out on the Underground dueling competition. Harmony's brown eyes grew wide with wonder when she realized Snape meant it when he said everyone was going to be there. The crowd of witches and wizards was vast, but they weren't packed like sardines. The walls expanded for hundreds of meters, large enough to fit everyone comfortably with room to spare. At the very center was a rectangular platform approximately ten to twenty meters in length. The dueling floor. At that very moment two duelers were battling it out; the light from their spells momentarily illuminated the faces in the crowd below. A large group of people were gathered at the far end, behind the dueling stage, and Harmony saw a bar set up beside a dance floor. The music playing was loud and fast with a low bass that rumbled deep in her chest.