They flew above the green tentacles spreading aside beneath them, heading towards the only stone passage leading onward. Apart from their own breathing and the rustling of the plants, the only sound they could hear was water dripping from the walls.
The corridor suddenly sloped steeply downward and brought them into a brightly lit chamber with a high arched ceiling. The hall was filled with birds fluttering and circling overhead, tiny and brilliant like gemstones. On the opposite side of the chamber stood a massive wooden door.
Landing and stepping off the glider, the boys made certain the birds had no intention of attacking them before approaching the door.
"Oh, flying broomsticks!" Ron noticed several battered brooms leaning beside the doorway.
Potter tugged at the handle and announced:
"Locked."
He immediately pointed his wand at the door.
"Alohomora!"
Nothing happened.
"Alohomora! Alohomora! Alohomora!"
"Harry, stop," Richard said. "You can see perfectly well this lock is stronger than the one on the first door."
"Erm…" Ron, still clutching the owl while staring up at the ceiling, suddenly remarked, "Lads, I think those aren't birds — they're keys. We need to get on the brooms and catch one."
Richard gave Ron a look of unmistakable reproach.
"Ron, there are hundreds of them," he pointed out. "Don't be ridiculous. We'll break the door down faster."
"We'll break it?" Weasley looked doubtfully at the massive door. "Unless Harry smashes it down with his head," he added sarcastically.
"There's already something not quite right with it," Richard remarked as he pulled a steel cylinder from his bag.
"Oi!" Potter protested.
"And who was about to jump into a fifty-yard pit?" Richie pointed out.
Harry flushed and fell silent.
Ron watched in amazement as a brilliant beam of light burst forth from the steel cylinder in Richard's hands.
Harry stared no less dumbfounded. His jaw nearly hit the floor.
"Good Lord!" he exclaimed. "That's a Jedi lightsabre! Richie, where did you get that?"
"The same place I get all my other gadgets," Grosvenor replied. "The wizards in the workshop somehow managed to cram a bizarrely modified version of Lumos into a metal cylinder. Stand back!"
Richie attempted to burn through the door, but failed.
"Looks like it's been enchanted properly," Weasley observed. "We'll have to catch the keys after all."
"We don't have time for that nonsense."
Richie waved off Ron's words and stepped to one side. He drove the glowing blade into the stone wall as though it were a red-hot knife cutting through butter.
"Ha!" he declared triumphantly. "As always, they reinforced the door and forgot about the walls."
Within moments, Richie had cut a circular opening through the stone wall. Then he pulled a robot from his bag, enlarged it, and — under Ron's astonished gaze — climbed inside the suit before using its metal manipulators to yank out the heavy stone disc with its melted edges.
After shrinking the suit once more, he grinned victoriously and gestured towards the passage.
"After you, gentlemen."
Harry approached the hole in the wall, then immediately recoiled.
"Hot," he said.
"Right then," Richard sighed before pointing his wand at the opening. "Aguamenti!"
A stream of water burst from the tip of his wand like a fire hose, hissing as it struck the overheated stone. The air filled with hot steam, and a loud crack rang out, like the explosion of a firecracker — several stones split apart.
Once the walls of the opening had cooled, the boys climbed through into the next chamber.
The following hall was so dark that they could not see a thing. Yet the moment they took a few steps forward, the room was suddenly flooded with brilliant light.
All three boys stared in astonishment. They were standing at the edge of an enormous chessboard, directly behind black stone pieces taller than even lanky Ron. On the opposite side stood the white pieces.
Harry and Ron shuddered slightly, while Richard thoughtfully stroked his chin — unlike the black pieces, the white ones had no faces.
"So what do we do now?" Harry whispered.
"I think the answer's pretty obvious," Ron remarked. "We've got to win the game to reach the other side of the hall. We'll need to take the place of the pieces."
Beyond the white army, another door could be seen.
"Lads," Richard interrupted, drawing their attention to himself, "what's with these suicidal tendencies of yours? Are all Gryffindors like this, or just the two of you?"
"And what do you suggest?" Weasley asked.
"We simply fly across on the glider, same as before. And to hell with the door — we'll make another hole."
"That actually sounds sensible," Potter admitted. "Sorry, Ron, but let's skip the chess match today."
"Merlin!" Ron burst out emotionally. "How did I not think of that immediately?!"
Some time later, the boys calmly flew over the chessboard on the glider. The chess pieces instantly went berserk and charged from their places en masse, clustering beneath the flying platform. Richard was forced to cut another opening high up in the wall — this one even larger than before.
This time, Harry Potter distinguished himself. He took out his robotic exosuit and stuck himself to the wall (the ninja suit allowed him to do that). Ron promptly adhered himself to the wall beside him, while Richie stepped onto the edge of the glider. Harry enlarged the exosuit standing atop the flying platform near Richie, climbed inside it, and took off.
Levelling himself in mid-air, Harry used the steel tentacles of the suit to rip a massive stone block free and hurl it down onto the gigantic chess pieces. Several of them shattered. A terrible crash echoed through the chamber.
After that, everything followed the now familiar pattern: cool the edges of the opening and fly through it. Harry travelled in the exosuit, while Richie and Ron rode the glider.
(End of Chapter)
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