I. social casualty | blaise zabini ✔️

ORBS

CHAPTER 37

ORBS

"OK, listen," said Harry, turning to the others. "Maybe... maybe a couple of people should stay here as a - as a lookout, and -"

"And how are we going to let you know something's coming?" asked Ginny, her eyebrows raised. "You could be miles away."

"We're coming with you, Harry," said Neville.

"Let's get on with it," said Ron firmly. Harry begrudgingly turned to face the door and walked forwards, Lyra and the others followed. It swung open and they marched over the threshold.

They were standing in a large, circular room. Everything in here was black including the floor and ceiling. Identical, unmarked, black doors were set at intervals all around the black walls, interspersed with branches of candles whose flames burned blue.

"Someone shut the door," Harry muttered and Neville obeyed. And without the long chink of light from the torchlit corridor behind them, the place became so dark that for a moment the only things they could see were the bunches of shivering blue flames on the walls and their reflections in the floor.

Lyra stared at the doors, waiting for Harry to tell them which way to go. But before he could choose one there was a great rumbling noise and the candles began to move sideways. The circular wall was rotating. Lyra grabbed Ginny and Luna in case the floor began to rotated as well but it didn't For a few seconds, the blue flames around them were blurred to resemble neon lines as the wall sped around; then, quite as suddenly as it had started, the rumbling stopped and everything became stationary once again.

"What was that about?" whispered Ron fearfully.

"I think it was to stop us knowing which door we came in through," said Ginny in a hushed voice.

"How're we going to get back out?" said Neville uncomfortably.

"Well, that doesn't matter now," said Harry forcefully, "we won't need to get out till we've found Sirius -"

"Don't go calling for him, though!" Hermione said urgently which seemed like a good plan as Lyra feared a noise might set something off.

"Where do we go, then, Harry?" Ron asked.

"I don't - In the dreams I went through the door at the end of the corridor from the lifts into a dark room - that's this one - and then I went through another door into a room that kind of... glitters. We should try a few doors,"

"I'll know the right way when I see it. C'mon." They followed Harry straight at the door facing them and he pushed it. Lyra kept her wand held up in case something or someone were to jump out. The door swung open.

After the darkness of the first room, the lamps hanging low on golden chains from this ceiling gave the impression that this long rectangular room was much brighter. The place was quite empty except for a few desks and in the very middle of the room, an enormous glass tank of deep green liquid, big enough for all of them to swim in. A number of pearly-white objects were drifting around lazily in it.

"What're those things?" whispered Ron.

"Dunno," said Harry.

"Are they fish?" breathed Lyra.

"Aquavirius Maggots!" said Luna excitedly. "Dad said the Ministry were breeding -"

"No," said Hermione, she sounded odd. She moved forward to look through the side of the tank. "They're brains."

'"Brains?" Lyra fights back a gag as she slowly nears it,

"Yes... I wonder what they're doing with them?"