The Golden Wand [Harry Potter/Percy Jackson]

Chapter 42: The Sixth Trial With Scary Shit

Hermione POV:

The last three days had been hell. 

Firstly, as soon as I walked back into my room and searched for clues, I found a book on my shelf that had never been there before. I knew all my books like the back of my hand, and this - The History of Nurmengard - wasn't one of them. But as soon as I took the book from the shelf, the walls and floors and every object of the room disappeared, so that I stood alone on the sandy beach holding my wand in my right hand and the book in the other. 

That's when I began to sink. The sand around me was writhing and swirling as if it were a whirlpool, and it was dragging me under, urging for me to drown. I kicked out with my feet to no avail, used the ascendio charm without success, tried to apparate but stayed where I was; sinking in the sand. I began to panic as the sand reached my chest, crushing against me, suffocating me. Within a matter of seconds I would be completely under the sand, and I would die. 

I tried to transfigure the sand below my feet into solid ground, I tried to undo the charm that was making the sand engulf me, I tried to make it all disappear - nothing. Finally, when the sand had reached my chin and I started to choke, I attempted one last thing. I looked at a tuft of weeds reaching out from the sand nearby, and, concentrating hard, I transfigured the weeds into a tree. Its trunk grew up and sturdy, its roots seeped into the ground like an anchor, its branches spread out and its leaves shone proudly green. 

My mouth and nose sank below the sand's surface. I couldn't breathe. 

Carpe Retractum, I thought, unable to speak.  A rope of pure light jutted out of the tip of my wand and wrapped itself around the trunk of the tree. My fingers tightened around my wand just as my eyes sank below the surface, but I could feel a tug from my wand and slowly I began to ascend out of the sand. It felt as if I was being winded - it felt as if I was being stretched, all my muscles were being strained to their limits - it was the most peculiar, extraordinary pain as I was pulled out of the sand. But then I was free, gasping for air, and scrambling away from the edge of the whirlpool until I was sure I was safe.  

The book was a clue, I was sure of that. Perhaps it was the key that the figure had mentioned, but that seemed too easy to me. My thoughts went to Annabeth, hoping she was alright and safe, wishing she were here so that we could figure this clue out together.

The pages inside the book were blank - all bar one - written in Ancient Runes which read: The Utmost Cell. I gasped; this was Grindelwald's prison cell, the very one he had been put in by Dumbledore and killed in by Voldemort. So that was where I had to go. 

I spent the remaining hours of the day walking along the beach, only reaching the first sign of life when the sun reached the silhouette of the hills to my left. In the sea was a lone swimmer, swimming out to a single buoy in the beautifully calm water. They had left a bag and a towel on the beach, and with a quick glance at the swimmer to make sure they hadn't seen me, I rifled through their bag. I found a phone, telling me the time was 18:47 and the date still the 15th December, and a purse with an ID inside. The swimmer was called Cristina Ortiz - a 29 year-old woman born in Malaga. I was just about to put the purse and phone back where I found it when I felt a cold, wet hand on my shoulder. 

I jumped backwards in surprise, eyes widening as the woman approached me, yelling at the top of her lungs. She wore a black swimsuit and, for a 29 year-old, she looked awfully old and frail. 

"I-I'm sorry!" I cried over the sound of her shouts. "I was only checking where I was, I'm lost! I didn't mean to steal anything! I'm trying to give it back to you - here!"

"Alejarse de este lugar, salir de este lugar, que no son caja de seguridad aquí!" She yelled back in Spanish, oblivious to my protests. She started to wave her arms up and down frantically. "Si te encuentran, te matarán."