A Winter at Hogwarts

A Familiar Object

That was my first day at Hogwarts. Remembering everything that happened on my first day was heartbreaking as I neared the end of my seventh and final year at Hogwarts.

A few friends had graduated. Jazz was no longer able to get me in trouble like she wanted to. It's not that we wanted to cause trouble. We were just curious about parts of the castle that hadn't been discovered.

When we learned about the second wizarding war in our third year, that started and ended at Hogwarts, we wanted to investigate. Jazz and I had ventured into the third floor corridor on the right hand side. There was a large empty room with a trap door. On the trap door was the largest dusty dog paw print I had ever seen.

"Let's go down there." Said Jazz, eagerly.

"Are you mental? We could be expelled." I replied.

"There's nothing down there. Hogwarts is the safest place for students. Do you really think Professor McGonagall, or the great Dumbledore before her, would set up something unsafe, should students accidentally walk in or stumble upon this stuff? Where's the fun without risk?"

I scoffed and almost turned my back, but she had a point. If students did accidentally put themselves in any bad situation, would any headmaster use an enchantment to harm students? A sigh escaped my lips and I stepped up next to Jazz.

"Okay...just a quick peak, and then we get out of there. Okay?"

"Now we're talking." Said Jazz.

We opened the trap door and looked down inside it. There was no ladder, there were no stares. It looked like just a bottomless pit.

Jazz pulled her wand out, and so did I. "Lumos!" We both said together, and our wands illuminated. We still couldn't see anything.

"Lumos Maxima!" I said, and a ball of light ejected from my wand, sinking further down into the trap door.

Jazz and I realized there was something at the bottom. It looked like large soft black roots that would break our fall if we went down.

Without word or warning, Jazz jumped down into the trap door. "Jazz!" I called after her. I had no choice but to jump down after her, because I was involved. I didn't want anyone thinking I pushed her down. Not that she would have snitched on me anyways.

I fell to the bottom with a plop. "Lumos." I said, and the tip of my wand lit once more. I looked all around and there were black roots everywhere. "What is this stuff?" I wondered aloud.

Before Jazz or I could come to any conclusions, something wrapped around my ankle and a shout escaped my lips. I pointed my wand down at whatever had my foot, and a large black snake unwrapped itself from around my ankle. I kicked it off, and fell backwards, screaming. I was deadly afraid of snakes.

I pointed my wand and realized it wasn't a snake. It was part of the black plant that was surrounding Jazz and I. We looked around for some sort of escape, and when the plant started moving again, Jazz and I fell deeper into the plant into what looked like another room. We walked along and found a bigger room full of keys on the ground. The way they looked, they used to be alive with wings, but now, they were once again inanimate objects, keys with no life.

We didn't need to search for a certain key, because the next door was open, leading us to the next room. Jazz didn't leave, however, without picking up one of the keys with wings. Walking on we entered a room that was dimly lit, but once we took a few steps upwards, we found ourselves in the middle of a giant chess board.

"I don't like the looks of this place." I said, quietly. "Can we go back?"

"Oh, hush. We're fine." Said Jazz. "Look. The door is over there."