Dragon heartstrings and unicorn hairs (a HP fanfic)

Chapter 3 - caves and keys

It took only about a minute of the imposing darkness before I pulled my wand from my now soggy boot and mentally cast 'lumos'. The bright white light was startling and I practically threw my wand away, before realising I need it and quickly swimming and grabbing the stupid thing again. I just thank the gods that lumos still works underwater. Charlie shook his head at me and Ruth just silently giggled - obviously not trusting the gillyweed enough to talk. I stuck my wand in my teeth and carried on swimming, the airflow now tasting a little like wood. I grimaced and caught up with my idiotic friends as they reached a slight outcrop in the sheer underwater cliff.

A moment later the pair moved towards the underneath of the outcropping and disappeared. I mentally groaned and followed, the light from my wand barely penetrating the pitch blackness. I moved forwards, hands outstretched to feel for anything in front of me. There was only stone so I felt above and below. The second I felt the stone open above me, like a tunnel, I kicked frantically upwards. I could feel the effects of the gillyweed wearing off so forced myself to go faster. It wasn't long before a burning sensation once again shot up my throat and my hand flew to my neck to feel the gills fold away. I gulped a last breath of air and moved faster, my soggy clothes and shoes beginning to weigh me down. Black spots appeared in my vision about the same time as my lungs began screaming for air. With one last burst of adrenalin I broke the surface of the water and sucked in huge lungfuls of air, coughing up the small amount of water that got in my lungs.
"Bout time you got here!" Ruth called cheerfully and I flipped her the bird.
"What" *gasp* "was wrong" *gasp* "with the bubble-" *gasp* "head charm" I choked out. They just laughed and pulled me to my feet.
"Arses. Where are we anyway?" The cave we stood in was fairly oval with the pool/tunnel thing at one side and absolutely nothing else. I raised my wand.
"Nox. Lumos maximus." In a few simple words the glow of my wand was out and a bright ball of light was hovering near the rough stone ceiling.
"A cave? You dragged me through that for a wet, bland cave?" I groaned.
"You remember the legend about the key?" Ruth asked.
"Yes. Find the key, follow the clues,
Those who love will never lose,
The brave of heart to victory leads,
The bright of nature a trait you need,
But remember you must have three,
And she who sees will find the key,
So search well and stay so strong,
Try and prove the legend wrong,
For only those strong of heart,
Will share the reward - part by part." I recited it by heart. Charlie nodded, in first year the pair of us found a shared liking for solving puzzles and mysteries and since I'm muggle-born I knew quite a few that he found fascinating.

The first time he came round my house - during the summer after 1st year - we played a murder mystery with my family and, after taking some time to explain how it worked, he and I found the murderer extremely quickly. In fact I think my mum thinks we should be detectives together! So when we found this legend, this mystery, we couldn't help but want to solve it. And Ruth only added fuel to the fire when she found the last few lines. Charlie scanned the cave.
"You know the line 'she who sees will find the key'?" I nodded.
"Well I think that's you." My jaw hit the floor.
"What?!" My voice raised almost to a shout.
"You see more than anyone, I think the legend is also a prophecy!"
"About me? Your kidding!" Yet as I said it I knew he 100% believed what he was saying. His eyes sparked with truth. I nodded and scanned the cave again.
"But there's nothing here!" I pointed out.
"Thank you captain obvious!" Ruth said from where she sat back against the far wall. Charlie looked up in confusion.
"What?" I shook my head.
"Never mind." Ruth leaned her head back to look at the ball of light I created.
"You can see traces of magic. If a spell was cast here you could see it." I frowned at her summery of a much more complicated 'power'.
"But how? I can't control it." Charlie pushed me to the centre of the room and Ruth came to stand on my other side.
"Just try."

I groaned in frustration and gave in. I stared at the wall and the ground but nothing came to me. No shiny lights or flickering images. Then it came to me.
"Levitate something!" I called and charlie knocked into me in his haste to do so, obviously thinking I found something.
"What is it?" His whisper confirmed my thoughts. I looked at him to show my plain hazel eyes.
"I might be able to see the strings from wingardium leviosa and quickly scan the cave." I explained. Ruth grinned and beat Charlie to it, lifting a medium sized pebble with ease. I nodded and stared at it, for the first time willing the string of magic to appear, hoping I could make this work. After a few attempts a faint silvery string shimmered into existence and I willed it to become stronger. I could actually feel the strain my eyes were under but it worked. Without blinking I moved my gaze to the wall in front of me, scanning for any change. My light above began to dim with the effort i was using up and I started to see the golden glow reflect back to me on the damp walls. For a second I saw an image of myself, ghostly black on the rock wall. A shadowy girl, about the height of the stocky ginger boy next to her and with shining black hair with purple streaks that flowed down to her back. Her eyes glowed golden and her lips seemed full and set in a slight determined smile. I gasped slightly, was this girl me? A second look showed the eyes dimming but in the faint light a small glimmer flickered around my head, like a firefly shooting above me. Ruth stared at our reflections next to me, the shorter girl with bright blond hair and gorgeous blue eyes obviously captivated her. Then the flicker shot past her face and around in a circle before the light went out fully.
"Wow!" I gasped and fell back, weakened from the energy the stupid 'sight gift' took. I didn't fall far, only into Charlie's strong arms as he set me down.
"You okay?" Ruth dropped to her knees by my side.
"Fine... Just... Give me a sec" I breathed and sat back up.
"It didn't last long but there was a glimmer of something, like a tiny little golden star flying over our reflection's heads." I told them. "I couldn't hold long enough to see what it was." They just nodded.
"Well I saw nothing so it has to be something! Let's get you back." Ruth's enthusiasm made us chuckle and I carefully stood.
"How're we hating back?" I asked, staring at the pool of blackness.
"Bubble-head charm." Charlie informed me and we slipped into the cold water. Ruth carefully performed the charm on us as she for some reason knew it and then we dove. Although we all looked like we had a goldfish bowl over our heads, the charm held and we could breath. I felt myself sink through the water and made no effort to stop - it was much less wearing than swimming down.

My feet hit the bottom of the tunnel/cave thing and I started actually putting effort into my actions. Charlie was a great help as my energy dimmed and he wrapped an arm around my waist, pulling me along. Before long I was of no use whatsoever and was a deadweight being dragged through the icy water by both Charlie and Ruth. I yawned slightly and fought to keep awake, to kick my legs, to help in some way. The pair had given up going towards the shore and were heading straight up. I could see the faint orange light above us. Was it dusk already? We must have been down there for hours.
'Come on! Stay awake!' I mentally yelled at myself but it was no use, I could feel my last energy ebbing away. My eyes began to close. Then a cold gust of air slapped me awake. We had broken through the surface of the water and the change from freezing to cold had awakened my senses. The bubble around my head disappeared and I turned to the others.
"Call Sylvia!" Charlie gasped, spitting out the lake water that lapped its way into his mouth. I nodded and pursed my lips, letting out a long whistle that travelled far. My eyelids slipped close for a second and I pushed them back up to see Ruth on Syl's back, reaching out a hand for me. Charlie pushed me up into the hovering granian and Ruth pulled me until I was draped across Sylvia's back. Then Charlie was sat behind me, hands on my back to hold me still as my horse beat her powerful wings, lifting us up towards the castle. I blinked and closed my eyes.

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Well Wattpad deleted half this chapter before I could even finish writing it! so thank you you stupid arse app!
Basically, I can't remember what it was like before so I don't know if this is better or worse but either way here you go!
Em out! xx