𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐁𝐎𝐘 𝐖𝐇𝐎 𝐓𝐑𝐈𝐄𝐃 ━━ harry potter

chapter twenty-seven

Ben was used to being bored, because that was pretty much all he did at home, but there's a big difference between waiting for summer to finish, and waiting to find out if your best friend is alive.

It was easily one of the most stressful situations Ben had ever been in. The possibility that Harry and Ginny were already dead hovered above their heads as he and Ron pushed and pulled with all their might to clear a gap in the rock wall.

He didn't know how long they would wait until accepting the truth that, if it came to that possibility, they weren't coming back and Ron and Ben would have to head back to the castle without Harry or Ginny, and with a teacher who acted like a three-year-old child instead.

Ron and him hadn't spoken about it, or about anything else at all. Ben understood that Ron didn't want to have a talk while his sister was in mortal danger, but the silence was giving his mind space to imagine terrible things.

Until, what seemed like an eternity later, they heard footsteps and a slight sniffling noise from the other side of the wall. Ron stopped pushing, and both he and Ben walked over to the hole they had managed to make in the rocks to see what was going on, wishing it was Harry and Ginny.

It was Harry and Ginny.

Ron let out a strangled cheer, and thrust an arm through the hole to bring the young redheaded girl with him to pull her into a hug. "You're alive! I don't believe it! What happened?"

Ben turned to the wall to look at Harry, wondering if it would be weird to hug him, but suddenly a large bird with red and golden feathers swooped through the gap. "What- Is that a phoenix?"

"He's Dumbledore's," answered Harry as he went through the hole too. "His name's Fawkes."

He was covered in dirt and blood, and looked incredibly tired. But he was alive, and so was Ginny, whose freckled face was flooded with tears, and that was all that mattered. Ben was so relieved that he wanted to hug them all.

"Is that blood yours?" he asked Harry worriedly.

"Only some."

"How come you've got a sword?" wondered Ron, staring at the weapon on Harry's hand.

"Yeah, what happened?"

"I'll explain when we get out of here," he replied. "Where's Lockhart?"

Ben pointed at the back of the tunnel, where the man was sitting while happily humming to himself. "He's acting like a child."

"He's lost his memory," added Ron as they walked towards the teacher. "The Memory Charm backfired. Hit him instead of us. He hasn't got a clue who he is, or where he is, or who we are, so he kept asking the weirdest questions until I told Ben to stop answering and we made him sit back there."

Lockhart noticed they were all looking at him, and beamed at them happily.

"Has either of you got any idea of how to get out of here?" asked Harry.

Both boys shook their heads. "We don't know how deep we are, but we definitely can't climb all the way up there," Ben looked at Harry and Ginny. "So, I don't know wh-"

Fawkes the phoenix had swooped past Harry and was now fluttering in front of him, his beady eyes bright in the dark. He was waving his long golden tail feathers.

"It looks like he wants you to grab hold," noted Ron. "Does he think he can pull you up there?"

"Fawkes isn't an ordinary bird," said Harry. "We've got to hold on to each other. Ginny, grab Ron's hand. Ben can hold your other hand, and Professor Lockhart-"