Mezrielda picked up the wand training wheels as Bagsy joined her in the corridor. A gentle clatter to their left alerted them to a flight modulator laying on the floor at the end of the hall.
'Mezrielda...' Bagsy cautioned.
'I know,' Mezrielda said. 'This is most peculiar, but I don't have a choice. I need these items, and my magic can deal with whoever is messing with us once we find them.' She set of towards the flight modulator at a sprint, Bagsy struggling to keep up. When Mezrielda picked up the flight modulator a clatter alerted her to another. Then, once she had that, a soft thud revealed Bagsy's quilt, and so it continued. Soon, they'd traversed out of the dungeons, and onto a different corridor.
The longer the trail continued, and the more items that appeared, the worse Bagsy felt about following them. Mezrielda was always many paces ahead of her, Bagsy just barely keeping up. 'Mezrielda...' she said again, uncertainty clear in her voice.
'I don't have a choice!' Mezrielda hissed, dashing around a corner. When Bagsy turned the corner she saw Mezrielda stood frozen.
At the end of the corridor was a large, impenetrable shadow. Sitting in this shadow, as if lit by a spotlight, was a large stack of items; cutlery, a paper dress, jewellery and textbooks were only some of the things Bagsy's eyes managed to take in.
It took her a second to realise this was the corridor the suits of armour had grabbed her in, and that was the shadow they'd tried to throw her into. For the first time it occurred to her that perhaps going into the shadows had been the worst idea they'd ever had.
Time froze like ice around Bagsy, who's limbs and voice felt heavy and useless. She opened her mouth to warn Mezrielda, to beg her to run, but Mezrielda dived at the items before she could. The floor the items were resting on vanished, leaving only the yawning abyss of shadow, and Mezrielda fell out of sight and into darkness, the sleek strands of her hair the last glimpse Bagsy caught of her friend before she disappeared.
Time unfroze, and Bagsy blinked over and over, panic settling into her bones. Two red eyes blinked at her from the shadow. She jumped and fell backwards in fear, staring numbly at the shadow. The dragonfly and its painful death shot to the forefront of her mind, joined by a familiar voice whispering directly into her head.
'Come and join me in the dark, or I will eat her heart.'
Suddenly, Mezrielda was the dragonfly, slowly being drained of her life. Bagsy couldn't move, only stare at the red eyes.
'If, through the shadow you dive, I will let her leave, alive.'
Bagsy stayed on the floor. She couldn't save Mezrielda, she was too scared. That thing, the beast, was going to consume her friend and there was nothing she could do about it. She couldn't cast any spells, she wasn't brave enough to go into the shadows after her, and even if she did, what could she do? She was just Bagsy. She didn't have the skills and quick mind Mezrielda had. She wasn't particularly strong of talented. All she could do was cry and worry.
'Bagsy, stand up,' Mistress Foncée snapped quickly from behind her. Bagsy whipped her head around to see Cora standing impressively over her. 'We don't have much time.' Cora held her hand down to Bagsy, who took it and was hauled to her feet. 'This way. We can save your friend.'
Bagsy let Cora lead her away from the shadow, a hissing in her mind ebbing away as they left. She didn't see the walls pass her by, or notice her feet stammering over the cobbled floor to keep pace with Cora. She felt numb to her bones, seeing the last few strands of Mezrielda's hair disappear into darkness over and over in her mind. Her friends' hands had reached out only to find nothing, no floor, no items, to grab onto and had descended helplessly out of sight. She hadn't had time to scream before she'd fallen from view. Was she in the other Hogwarts now? That cold and dead place with empty paintings, stale air and desaturated palette? Or had the beast already killed her? She found she was trembling all over, her vision growing blurry.
A cold chill swarmed around Bagsy, who found Cora had led her outside and was walking them swiftly towards Hogwarts lake. 'Are you sure this is the right way?' Bagsy murmured.
'Bagsy, you must trust me,' Cora said gently, not looking back at her.
'What do you mean?'
'Do you trust me, Bagsy?'
'Do you promise that I can?' Bagsy asked.
Cora nodded. 'Yes. You can trust me.'
'Then I trust you.'
Once they reached the side of the lake Cora's eyes glowed lilac and she waved her hand, empty of any wand, and a boat – Tod's boat – ascended out of the water. Cora gingerly stepped onto it, before picking up a dumbstruck Bagsy and lowering her in. Cora tapped the side of the small vessel which began to descend into the lake, a bubble forming around them as it went. The dark water was almost opaque as they neared the bottom. With a sudden jerk, the boat fell through the lake bed and landed in the underlake – a small cannel below. It was even darker and colder in the underlake than the lake above. Water dripped onto the pool, and the stretching tunnel of water opened before Bagsy like a great beast's mouth.
'W-why are we here?' Bagsy asked, looking around, the boat rocking from her movement. 'Mezrielda's in trouble, we need too-'
Cora stood suddenly and Bagsy felt a shift in the boat and the air.
Something was wrong.
Glancing up, Bagsy saw Cora looking down at her in a way she hadn't before. The underlake was almost pitch black, with only faint flickers of blue light reaching into it from the liquid hanging above their heads. Water, ankle deep, was black below them. The gentle lapping of the wide underlake river at the cavern walls was the only noise in the muted space.
In this eerie darkness, Cora's violet eyes gleamed menacingly, her severe face glowing like a phantom in the dark, her black pupils enlarged and boring into her. Bagsy was made terrifyingly aware of how much taller Cora was than her.
Was it the darkness playing tricks, or was Cora's cloak of feathers growing in size, as if about to engulf them?
Bagsy could trust Cora, she had promised so. And yet, without looking, Bagsy quietly pulled the spell-sponge gloves from her robe pockets, slipping them as subtly as she could onto her trembling hands, the darkness hiding her movements.
Cora raised her hand like an executioner raising their axe.
'C-Cora?' Bagsy stuttered in confusion. Cora's nails glowed a sickly lavender, casting neon onto the deepest black of her hair. She swung down her arm, the light of her nails carving a sharp shape into the air that rushed like a blade at her.
Bagsy ducked her head and held her hands, palms open and wearing her spell-sponge gloves, in front of her. There was an ear-splitting crack like thunder as the purple projectile collided with the spell-sponge gloves, and Bagsy was thrown backwards, landing painfully in the black water with a splash, lying on her back.
Cora stepped slowly out of the boat, her face fixed on Bagsy and keeping perfectly steady like a stalking panther, despite the sudden movements of her body. She turned her head from one side to the other, as if giving her separate eyes turns to examine her.
Bagsy felt hot liquid drip down her hands and realised it was blood. Whatever Cora had cast had been so strong it had cut through Bagsy's spell-sponge gloves. Luckily, the gloves had absorbed just enough of its energy that there were only two deep cuts in her hands, rather than an absence of all of her fingers.
Then, Bagsy felt cool metal slip around her neck and fall onto her lap. She grasped at whatever it was, holding it in her hand. Some of Cora's attack had slipped through Bagsy's fingers and broken the necklace Fitzsimmons had given to her last year. She stared at it, mind frozen, before shoving the necklace into her pocket, praying so long as she had it on her the beast couldn't get into her mind.
It occurred to her that the beast might, for once, not be her biggest problem. Cora was advancing on her, raising her arm again, her sharp nails glowing purple, ready to hurl a second attack at her. Only this time, Bagsy would have no functioning gloves with which to defend herself.
Suddenly, there was a rumbling all around them, like someone was excavating the surrounding dirt. The underlake quaked and Cora stumbled to the side, a look like fear briefly flashing on her lavender-lit face.
'You've grown only more foolish since we last met...' a voice wrapped itself around the air of the under-lake.
Bagsy startled, looking around in panic.
Cora seemed disconcerted. 'How are you here?' she asked. It took Bagsy a second to realise she wasn't talking to her.
'Foolish indeed. You've removed the one thing keeping me at bay.' Bagsy felt like her soul left her body at that – was the beast approaching? She wasn't sure. It didn't sound like the same voice she'd heard the beast use before.
'What are you on about?' Cora hissed. Bagsy, deciding it was do or die, took the distraction as her opportunity to crawl back towards Tod's boat. Maybe, if she was lucky, she could escape Cora, and whatever madness had overcome her.
The rumbling was growing louder.
Cora's eyes snapped onto Bagsy, a purple light filling the space around the terrified Bagsy like the headlights of a car. Cora swung her hand and the boat splintered into two with a scythe of purple brightness.
'No!' Bagsy cried, feeling tears sink down her cheeks as her last hope of survival was destroyed. Cora raised her hand again, gliding over to Bagsy, water rippling with each tap of her feet. She slashed her arm through the air, a purple arch of deadly sharpness hurtling towards her.
Something giant shot out of the ground between Bagsy and Cora, the thickness and height of an ancient oak. It split in two from Mistress Foncée's attack, dispersing the violet assault before it hit her.
Bagsy screamed as what had been a giant worm fell dead to the floor, twitching this way and that, leaking its insides into the water. Cora shrieked in fury and slashed her arm again. A second worm, just as big, rushed out of the ground, taking the hit for Bagsy again.
Normal sized worms floated on the water around Bagsy, spelling the same word over and over.
Run.
'Bagsy!' the voice called urgently. 'Run!'
Bagsy shot to her feet and did as she was told, water splashing around her as she dashed away from the harsh purple glare of Cora. Worm after worm arched out of the ground around her, blocking Cora's increasingly angered attacks.
'Why are you doing this, Cora?' the voice asked. 'The beast wants her alive. The beast wanted her for herself.'
'The beast is mistaken!' Cora roared. 'She marked the wrong girl! I've been watching her all year – she's the embodiment of pathetic! If the beast wants to return to her full power and faculties she needs a stronger meal!'
Bagsy stumbled over her own feet, her hands hitting the floor with a splash. Dragging in terrified breaths, she forced herself back to her feet and kept running. A group of worms formed a tunnel in front of Bagsy, who ducked down and scurried through them, hearing the worms being cut into two behind her as she passed through, shielding her from the danger.
Cora continued her ranting. 'She can't cast spells, she takes ages to master even the simplest of things, she is weakness and inefficacy manifest. If you'd spent a year having to endure her presence you'd understand.' Even with everything going on, Cora's words stung and Bagsy felt her throat tightening.
'The beast marked her,' the voice reasoned. 'The beast cannot kill anyone else until she has consumed her.' Bagsy was trying her best to listen to the conversation, but as she scrambled around, dodging Cora's attacks, it was difficult to pay attention.
Cora laughed. 'Not if someone else kills Bagsy first – then the beast is free to mark someone new.'
'Ah,' the voice grimaced. 'Let me guess who you've led to the beast.'
'The beast made a mistake last year, an easy one. Two girls were in the same place – one clearly the preferable choice, the other a waste of air. Unfortunately, the waste of air fell into the grasp of the beast, and in her inhibited state, her faculties limited from years of beasthood, she marked her instead.'
A worm with a round, toothy mouth arched over Bagsy and bit onto the back of her robes, lifting her into the air. Water shot out of the ground where Bagsy had been a moment before as a great scythe-like cut slashed into it. Bagsy pulled her legs up to herself, narrowly avoiding another cut soaring through the air below her feet. The worm threw her across the room before it, too, was cut in half.
'So, you've sent the one you think a better meal to the beast, ready to be marked once you've disposed of Bagsy.'
'What do you want?' Cora snapped angrily.
'To distract you.'
Bagsy landed with a thud in Tod's boat – worms had pushed it back together and wriggled their bodies into the crack Cora had cut through it, binding it whole. Cora's purple eyes snapped onto them. She was far away now, her eyes two small, purple dots in the distance. The purple dots began to grow very quickly as Cora swept towards her, her feathered cloak spread wide like a storm of thunder clouds.
The boat began to rise to the surface. Bagsy was going to escape.
Cora's voice sounded electric with lightning. 'I, the Corvid Queen, hereby enforce the Corvid trials upon this child!' She reached her arm forward, a long, dark feather spearing towards Bagsy from her palm. 'Let her be a seeker of shared power, let the shadows consume her.'
The dark feather moved like a lightning bolt and hit Bagsy swiftly on the forehead, splintering into a thousand tiny feathers that floated around her, multiplying like bacteria. Soon, she couldn't see anything but feathers. The boat, the worms, and Cora were gone. She was falling in darkness, the feathers turning into an all-encompassing shadow.
She fell and fell until the darkness began to redden. Bagsy blinked and, without having landed, she was sitting in the middle of an infinite forest of dark trees laden with fat, black berries. The sky was entirely red – a red so unnatural she wondered if someone had painted it with blood.
Words materialised in the air in front of her, spelled with white feathers that danced like leaves in the wind. "Seeker of shared power, show the shadows your worth," they read. Bagsy held back a shudder, feeling a mixture of bone crushing dread and horrific confusion. Cora had said she'd enforced the Corvid Trials upon her, so Bagsy assumed that was exactly where she was. The feathers multiplying around her must have become some kind of shadow doorway.
Slowly, with stiff movements, Bagsy got to her feet, her mind barely able to catch up with all that had happened. Mezrielda had willingly gone through a shadow to get the missing items, and given red eyes had appeared a moment later, Bagsy was filled with a dreadful certainty that her friend was in the other Hogwarts. The beast had made things fairly clear; if Bagsy wanted Mezrielda back, she'd have to go into the other Hogwarts herself.
She wrapped her arms around herself, shuddering and dragging in a breath stifled by fear. She didn't have the strength to go into the other Hogwarts where the beast awaited her, ready to consume her body and soul. And, even if she did, Cora had invoked the Corvid Trials. Bagsy had a feeling she wasn't going anywhere until she'd beaten them.
She didn't have high hopes for that to happen.
Aimlessly, she began to walk, but the trees overloaded with berries seemed to continue forever. The horizon of a red sky never grew any closer, and Bagsy's feet were starting to ache.
In the distance, she heard a caw, and the fluttering of wings. She stopped in her tracks, holding her breath. The hair on the back of her neck stood up and a shiver whispered up her back at the sensation of being watched by hundreds of beady black eyes.
It took her a second to realise that the fat, black berries that clustered every branch of every tree, and were silhouetted against the red sky, weren't berries at all. They were crows, and they threw back their heads, screeching into the red. Bagsy stumbled backwards, her mind racing. One of the crows flew down towards her, its beak gleaming in the red light.
Most witches in her place would have reached for their wand. Bagsy, having known herself for twelve years now, thought she would have frozen in fear and allowed her fate to occur, leaving her wand forgotten in her pocket.
Instead, she pulled her mag-net bat out and thudded it satisfyingly against the crow with an explosion of black feathers. The crow squawked and fell to the ground, seemingly dead. Wide-eyed, Bagsy stared at the thing, twitching in the leaves of the red-lit floor.
There was a rustling of feathers and more crows took into the air before descending towards her. Acting more quickly than she'd thought herself capable of, Bagsy pulled the mag-net ball away from the bat before hitting it as hard as she could with a metallic clang. The ball soared towards the closest crow, hitting it out of the air, before flying back. Glancing over her shoulder, Bagsy saw another crow approaching. She whirled as the ball came back to her and hit it again, sending it slammed into the other bird, its speed aided by its magnetic charge, making it keep its movement force for far longer.
With twists and turns, carefully taken steps and glances in every direction, Bagsy methodically removed the crows from the air. Cracks of metal on metal echoed around the strange forest that smelt of dampness as she ducked the crows' attacks and smashed the end of her bat into them before directing the ball, on its return, to the next closest target. Her breathing became heavy, and she wondered how long she could keep this up for.
Soon, though, the number of crows was growing overwhelming, swarming her like a hurricane. She shot the ball ahead of her, clearing a path, and focussed only on the crows in her way as she began to run.
The crows, halted by Bagsy's consistent assaultive efforts, slowly lost ground on her. She wondered if they knew something she didn't.
When Bagsy saw the grey forest floor suddenly drop away into nothing, she realised she was trapped. She came to an abrupt stop, her feet scrambling on the floor and her free hand reaching out to a branch to stop herself from falling into the valley of nothingness. The crows were fast approaching, and the ground on the other side of the ravine was too far away to reach in a jump. In the back of her mind, she saw Teresa, back when she'd first showed the mag-net bat and ball to the quidditch team, being carried along by the ball.
She didn't know when her mind came up with the idea, but soon she was ripping her own robes apart, pulling off a long, string-like piece of fabric and rolling it over between her palms to strengthen it.
The murder of crows was nearly upon her.
Bagsy tied one end of the fabric around the mag-net ball, looping it around multiple times and tying it tightly to avoid it slipping off. She wrapped the other end of the black cloth around her bleeding hand and, glancing behind her at the swarm of black, deadly birds, she hit the ball as hard as she could, hoping its magically-aided movement could achieve what she hoped it could.
With a thunk it soared into the air above the dark chasm. Now was the time to jump, to aid its movement, but looking into the depths of the canyon she found her legs frozen. It didn't matter, the cloth pulled taught and Bagsy was unwillingly hauled over the darkness as she lost her balance, screaming in fear. The mag-net ball didn't care if she was scared, pulling her upwards.
Just as the ball was finally losing its momentum, the darkness below Bagsy's feet gave way to grey ground. Rolling over on impact, her left shoulder jolting painfully, she found herself on the other side of the ravine. She propped herself up on her arms and looked back at the crows as the ball clinked back to the bat. They crowded at the edge of the forest but, for whatever reason, didn't cross over to get to her.
Bagsy didn't care – she scrambled to her feet and kept running, trying to put as much distance between her and the crows as she could. Soon, she found she wasn't running alone.
For a moment, she wondered if she'd entered a hall of mirrors but, looking at the ground, as the other girls around her did, couldn't see any lines where the mirrors were standing. She stopped in her tracks, breathing heavily and frowning in confusion.
There were four other Bagsy Beetlehorns standing around her. Each had the same mousy-brown, bird's-nest hair and hazel eyes. Bagsy looked from one to the other, breathing rapidly from exhaustion and confusion. The other Bagsys did much the same in freakish synchronisation.
'W-who are you?' they all said in unison, before shrinking back from each other in fear. 'I don't like this,' they all added quietly to themselves.
Bagsy swallowed, hearing her heart beating loudly in her ears, as she took the sight in. She couldn't find any words to say, and she was worried any words she did say would be echoed in exactly the same way, at exactly the same time, by the other Bagsys.
Even if Bagsy had wanted to speak, they didn't have long to chat, as there was a whooshing of air, a flapping of wings, and a thud of talons on the ground as a giant bird landed amongst them. It opened its beak, almost as long as Bagsy's arm, and let out a deep screech. One of the Bagsys turned to run and the bird snapped her up, unhinging its jaw and swallowing her whole like a snake.
Bagsy screamed, her feet begging her to turn and run, but as her scream faded and adrenaline shot through her veins she realised there was no way to outrun this creature. One of the other Bagsys had already tried that and failed. It would snap her up before she'd made any real distance.
She glanced around – the other Bagsys were all holding mag-net bats and balls, each ball tied onto a long, ripped piece of robe-fabric.
'Tie it's legs together!' Bagsy yelled, hitting the ball in an arch around the bird's legs.
The ball zoomed around the bird's legs, pulling the cloth with it, and drawing Bagsy closer to the beast. It zoomed back towards her bat, having tied the robe material around the giant bird's legs.
The other Bagsys followed suit and, just as the bird was about to bite down on the real Bagsy's head, it toppled to its side, its legs bound together. The four surviving Bagsys were huddled around it's thrashing legs, pulling the small lengths of cloth as tightly as they could, securing them at the ends.
Once Bagsy's mag-net ball was untied and safely resting against the bat, she stepped backwards, with the other Bagsys, to see the bird writhing on the ground, immobilised.
'Well done,' Bagsy breathed, her heart beating a loud rhythm in her head. The other Bagsys nodded. Silence stretched out between them, and Bagsy looked around herself, starting to think that perhaps she could beat the Corvid Trials. She'd survived so far, after all. The only issue was, if she did beat the Corvid Trials, she would find herself back in the underlake, and she had no clue what she would do then. She was no match for Cora, that was sure, and Mezrielda was still in danger.
As thoughts on what to do jumbled around her head, she numbly noticed the other Bagsys beginning to twitch and flinch in odd ways.
'Are you all alright?' Bagsy asked, suddenly unnerved that the other Bagsys hadn't joined her in speaking this time around.
Instead, the other Bagsys looked down at their hands in horror. 'No,' they gasped out in creepy unison. 'No... I'm the real one! Please-!' With an abrupt burst, the other Bagsys' bodies disintegrated into piles of black feathers, Bagsy catching glimpses of their terrified eyes melting into plumage as they vanished.
Alone again, Bagsy stared at the piles of feathers with a churning stomach. She stumbled quietly away, her body aching and her mind racing with all she'd seen. She kept checking her hands and legs to make sure she wasn't turning into feathers, too. It was all getting too much and she felt her mind decide to take what she'd just seen, four versions of herself disappearing into feathers as they begged to remain, and lock it away where she'd never have to remember it again.
As she walked there was nothing but grey ground in every direction until, after what felt like an age, she saw a shape on the horizon. It was a strange assortment of objects and her feet were dragging in the ground by the time she reached it.
There was a tube, tall and thin and half filled with water, surrounded by stones and pebbles. On the ground next to it was a grate with a triangular indent that reminded her of a keyhole. She knelt down next to the grate, letting out a breath of exhaustion, and tried to open it. It wouldn't budge. Bagsy tried hitting the ball at it. It clanged off loudly but didn't leave a dent. Deciding she may as well try, Bagsy pulled her hornbeam wand from her robe and pointed it at the grate. 'Alohomora!' she incanted. Nothing.
Bagsy huffed and, had she not been so tired, would have stamped her foot. Instead, she hobbled over to the tube and inspected it. There was a triangular shaped block of wood floating on its surface, looking a perfect fit for the key hole in the grate. A spark of excitement re-invigorating Bagsy, she stood on tip-toes, trying to reach inside the tube. The block, floating on the water that only half filled the tube, was out of the reach of her arms.
She tried what she had with the grate, hitting the ball against its side, but it didn't break. She climbed to the top of the tube and stretched into it as far as her body could. The block was still out of reach. Bagsy kicked a rock angrily, feeling defeated, and placing her mag-net bat and ball back into her robe's pocket.
An idea struck her.
Bagsy lifted one of the small stones lying on the floor and pushed it into the tube. The water level rose, and the block rose with it. Bagsy gave out a cry of triumph and continued, pushing stone after stone into the tube. After ten minutes of work, with her hair sticking to her forehead from sweat, the block was within her reach.
She grabbed it and rushed to the grate, slotting the block into the indent. The grate let out a hiss and slid open, revealing a dark tunnel falling down below her. Bagsy wouldn't have dared to jump into it, but she didn't have a choice, as air was rushing down into the tunnel, and sucked her into the darkness without a second thought.
Bagsy fell until she landed on a mountain of white feathers. She felt something tingling through her body, as if she'd just been given a pepper-up potion, or had eaten a lot of sweets in one go, and felt completely revitalized, as if her body had never experienced exhaustion before.
It was hard to describe but, somehow, Bagsy felt like this tingling sensation, this sudden sense of power, was a welcoming one. She'd done it. She'd passed the corvid trials and was a part of the corvid family. But before Bagsy had time to think on the matter the feathers around her blustered away and she was lying in Tod's boat, back in the underlake.