Three Hallows, Two Weasleys and One Broken Girl

Chapter 13: The Stone

I messed up tenses a bit in this one but I'm too sleep deprived to fix it today.

———

Delphi wasn't the only one discovering a secret room.
Fred had decided to see how deep the dungeons go that Friday night, and who was George to deny him.
They took the route past the Slytherin common room, just to make them nervous..and maybe set up a prank or two. Then they started heading down.

It got colder as they went, but also dustier. Neither boy knew why Filch was employed at the school for cleaning. Every teacher worth their wand could clean as much as he did in a fiftieth of the time.
The portraits seemed to get more snake orientated as they went, some even were literally portraits of people's serpine familiars. There were even snake carvings, that George was convinced moved when they weren't looking...or maybe followed them. He tried not to think about that too much.

About five flights down, from where the map stopped, they came upon a large rusted door with snake hinges. Fred admired it, and couldn't wait to see what was on the other side.
But unfortunately it was to remain unopened.

"Uh, Fred..."
George's voice had come wavering from behind him, and Fred had turned to tell him to quit being wimpy...only to see every single snake carving, at least a hundred, lining the corridor behind them and watching the pair with glinting emerald eyes.

"Well...Georgie..." Fred's voice had come out slightly too high, "we had a mission right, and this door definitely wasn't it...?"
"That's right Fred...let's just..."
They had slowly walked back past the snakes before turning the corner and sprinting. It was only a few minutes later when they ran into another staircase headed downward, that they reluctantly checked and were relieved to have lost their reptilian escort.

"Bloody hell."
"Creepy as fuck."
"Fred!"
"What!" Grouched Fred, checking behind them again, "mum's not here, we can swear. And that was bloody swear worthy George. What was that door?"
George seemed to think deeply. "Lots of snakes...what's the bet it's an entrance to the chamber of secrets?"
"No bet." Managed Fred, still out of breath. "Anyway, it can't get scarier than that, so let's go deeper yeah?"
George sighed, before mentally shaking himself and following.
It was getting dark enough, that both of them cast lumos. The spaces between lamps getting a little too shadowed and a little too long for comfort, especially after the possessed demon snakes that would definitely give the pair of them nightmares.

Fred loosened his tie absently. Whenever he was preparing for a serious adventure he always liked to dress his very best, but he always tied his tie too tight.
His breath escaped a foggy exhale as he approached the first downward staircase they'd found on this floor with caution. He had a feeling deep in his gut telling him this was the last one. The floors had been getting smaller and more decrepit as they went, and some part of him just knew that this, whatever this was, was here.
He felt George's hand grip his own, and was grateful when he found his feet no longer able to move. He let his twin lead him downward, and toward a light that should not feel that comforting this deep.

———

"Where does that door lead?"
Delphi and Helena had been quiet for quite some time after Helena finished her beautiful tale. It was tragic, but most stories are if you let them go on long enough, the trick is to remember that the ending shouldn't erase the happiness held within the story. You have to have had something beautiful in order to mourn when it breaks.

The door Delphi was asking about was a large blue one, wood with a bronze eagle knocker. The eagle held one claw out clutching an olive branch.
"Go to it." Instructed Helena, gaining a little energy from the subject change.
She rose and approached the door tentatively. The eagle turned to look at her carefully, before dropping the branch in its claws into her hand.
It was a surprisingly heavy piece of bronze work, cool in her hand, but strangely reassuring.

"Intelligence, independence...much like beauty, evoke jealousy in others. Always have. Ravenclaw women always have had a craving for knowledge...and a certain beauty that attracts undesired attention," Helena said the word beauty with disgust, and considering her own history with the bloody baron, Delphi could only feel sympathy. "Rowena set up this as a last protection for her children who found it. After all, her offspring are heirs to this castle. There are certain enchantments here, in order to protect children from each other, but they haven't been renewed in a century."

"How does it work?" Delphi could feel her heart racing in spite of herself.
Rowena smiled, "as long as you are holding it within your robes, you can enter through any door in Hogwarts and come out of this one here. And similarly, you can leave this door and exit any other within the castle, as long as you visualise your destination clearly, just like apparating."
"Amazing..." managed Delphi, staring at the innocent olive branch, whose symbolism made so much more sense. "Can other people use it?"
Rowena smiled, "most, no. Your sister? Certainly for she is one of Rowena's legacy much as you are. You can take people with you, but be very wary who you chose, this secret is your own to share, but it is one that would shake the wizarding world."
Delphi sent the ghost a sheepish smile. Then her eyes lit up with sudden realisation. "Can this take me to Hogwarts ward stone?"

———

Fred and George found themselves in a strange room. It was perfectly spherical and seemed to have been carved out from the solid granite. In its centre, was a large smooth rock in a dodecahedron shape much like dice sold at zonkos. It was a glowing rock, pale, white and translucent quartz, and on it were hundreds of runes, in such intricate arrays, it took the breath from their lungs.

Just at that moment though, something happened that definitely cast the whole awe inspiring moment in shadow by comparison.
A door opened, which Fred would swear blind had never been there before, in the solid granite opposite them. And it opened to reveal...Delphi bloody Lovegood.

If the demon of a woman was shocked to see them there, she hid it well.
"Oh, hello Fred, George...why are you down here? Why are your mouths open, trying to catch doxies?"
A grown woman's cackle came from the room beyond Delphi, confusing Fred even more somehow. But his mouth did click shut.
"Uh, Delphi... we're at the very bottom of the school...how did you get here?" Mustered George.
The blonde smiled, "oh Georgie, telling would ruin the secret...secrets are my favourite outfit you know, I'd wear nothing else if Flitwick would let me."
Fred's legs gave out, and he sat down hard on the ledge they were on.

Delphi stepped delicately out of the room she'd been in, still too shadowed for Fred to make out much, and approached the ward stone, admiring it deeply and as unfazed as ever by the complete madness she could cause with a few well chosen sentences.
"You're bad for my mental health."  Muttered George, collapsing beside him and cradling his head in his hands.
"Oh, here's where moony added the runes that make your map work!" She responded brightly.
Neither twin trusted themselves enough to get up and look.
"Great." Fred's voice sounded hoarse.
Delphi turned to look at them then, indigo eyes as piercing as ever, "come on mischief and mayhem, surely I haven't broken you yet?"
"Not quite?"
Delphi walked toward them, and Fred resisted the urge to scramble away.
"Sorry if I interrupted your symphony, I know you like your adventures. I'll go now."
She patted their heads gently like they were frightened five year olds and turned, making her way over to the door, blue with an eagle knocker, and stepped up into the room beyond, "avoid the snakes though, I like my redheads uninjured."
"Delphi!" The girl turned to look at him, and Fred's courage left him again. "...never mind."
True mischief twinkled in her eyes, "bye then, and good luck with all those stairs boys."

She closed the door and it vanished.

They were shocked into silence for a good few minutes, a feat no one else had achieved before.
Eventually George swore. "We're mad! What was it? Seventeen flights up before we're on the map again?"
Fred scowled, "she could have at least offered us a lift after scaring us out of our wits."

They fumed for a bit, but they'd never been spiteful in nature so it didn't last long.
Eventually George turned to Fred with a smirk. "I'm asking her to the Yule Ball."
Suddenly energised, Fred leapt to his feet. "Not if I find her first, you're not."
And with that, they were charging up the stairs. There was little more impressive and frightening than motivated Weasley twins.