Day 6

Harry's eyes were terribly tired from reading books on potions for hours on end, for like yesterday, Mr. Peakes had kept him working hard for much of the day. He hadn't absorbed a bit of it, but this did not matter to him. There had been only one thing in his mind all day, and the time had arrived for him to complete the task he had been set by Snape and Evelyn. His mentor's snores had been audible for quite some time, so Harry reached for his shoes and pulled them on, mentally preparing himself for the trip into the catacombs. He took the quill up on his desk, and he scribbled that he was now going to go down to the catacombs before tapping it with his wand. Snape had written a quick note earlier that said he wanted to know when he was planning on sneaking out to explore the catacombs, in case something went wrong and they had to come and find him. Although, how they planned on doing that, Harry did not know. This only reinforced his determination to get this right.

"Good luck Potter," wrote Snape in a moment or two.

Harry paused, suddenly terrified at where he was going. His mind told him to go, but his hand seemed to be searching for a reason to stall as it crawled across the page fervently.

"There will be dead people down there, right?" he wrote, phrasing the question he knew was stupid, but he felt he needed to ask to prepare himself.

"Yes, but they cannot hurt you. You will likely see some unpleasant sights, but this must be done. I am sorry I cannot do it myself instead."

He was surprised at Snape's words. They were oddly comforting to Harry, but he had not much time to dwell on what had been said, for Snape had written back with more.

"Do you have something to mark your way down there like I told you to?"

"Yes sir," Harry wrote back. "I have little bits of parchment to drop along the way."

"Good, but be careful not to begin the trail until you are a little ways in, or someone may follow you. Pick them up as you make your way out, or somebody will know you were there. Do not light your lantern until you are close to the catacombs either. In fact, wait as long as possible to light it. The candle brackets should be lit by the servant's quarters, and watch out for house elves when you do light it (they're short little creatures with big batty ears, and they wear tea towels). When you've lit the lantern make sure the shutter on your lantern is pulled down as far as you can allow. "

"Yes sir." Harry picked up the small lantern and pulled the shutters on it so that only a tiny bit of light would escape when he lit it.

"Enough advice from me. I would suggest you get going."

"I will. Thank you for the help sir."

"Did you really think I would let an eleven year old Gryffindor just go charging down to the catacombs without a plan? You are welcome for the help; I trust you probably needed it. Write back as soon as you can. I have the parchment charmed so I can hear when you respond."

Harry smiled slightly, and left his last reply.

"Yeah, I did need the advice. Bye then. I promise I'll write as soon as I'm back."

With butterflies in his stomach, Harry carefully lifted the lantern and crept from his room, down the hall and to the front door. Thanking the fact that the hinges did not squeak, Harry tiptoed out into the corridor. It was chilly, and very dark. He wished he could light his lantern sooner, for none of the candle brackets were lit, which was not surprising considering it was one in the morning. Hoping that there were no insomniacs in the building, Harry started forward down the corridor, one hand holding the unlit lantern, the other on the stone wall to keep himself going in the right direction. He descended staircase after staircase in the darkness, meeting nobody in his path, much to his relief.

He was glad for the fact that each floor had nearly the same layout, which meant that he had memorized the map quickly, and it only took him fifteen careful minutes to reach the deserted entrance hall and go down the little staircase to the lower level where the house elves worked. It too was deserted. Quietly, he slipped down the hallway, although this one was lit. Up ahead he saw the door to the laundry room, which was open. The corridor was damp and hot as steam poured from the open door. Knowing that he had little time to get past the door, for a house elf was bound to come out eventually, Harry ploughed on. Hopefully the steam would be too thick for them to see out of the room properly. He reached the door frame, and quickly took a glance around it. The little shadows of the elves, scrubbing and washing could be seen in the gloom. He was intrigued greatly by this, having never seen a house elf before, but knew now as not the time to linger. Seeing as the house elves all seemed busy, Harry darted in front of the door and to the other side. He wasted no time in getting as far from the door as possible.

Further and further Harry travelled, until at long last he reached the low arching doorway into to the catacombs. He stared down into the darkness. The air from the corridor was being pulled down into its depths, pulling Harry's hair forward slightly. He turned around, and hurried to the nearest candle bracket. Hastily, he pulled one of the tapers loose from it, the soft noise of it sliding from the metal sounding like thunder to him. Harry lowered it into the lantern, and waited for the flame to catch. The stub of a candle in the lantern flickered to life, and he replaced the one he had used to light it. Then, he faced the blackness again, this time the stony steps illuminated by his lantern. He took a deep breath, and plunged into the darkness, thinking of Snape and Evelyn, and how much they needed him right now.

The steps did not go down too far, and ended at a small doorway. Harry wrenched it open, and the hinges squeaked just loudly enough to make Harry cringe. He waited, wondering if anybody had heard. When no footsteps sounded, Harry slid through the opening. It was lucky he was not overly tall, for the catacomb tunnels were only a foot or so above Harry's head. Knowing it had to be done, Harry gritted his teeth and shut the door, the darkness growing dense around him with the only light coming from his lantern. He fought the panic rising inside him, glad he had never been claustrophobic.

Taking deep, slow breaths of the musty, stale air, he plunged his hand into his pocket and pulled out a small strip of parchment. He dropped this on the floor near the wall, and began to travel down the tunnel. The walls remained smooth as he ventured forward for a minute or two, but after going down two roughly cut steps in the earth he saw the first hole carved into the tunnel wall. It was large enough for someone to lie in. Harry shut his eyes tightly until he had passed it, but soon, as he wound around corners, dropping pieces of paper, he could not afford to close his eyes every time he saw the resting place of one of the dead. On either side of him, crammed together, were more holes in the walls. The dim light from his lantern illuminated the wrapped bodies, surely skeletons by now. Although, by the smell as he travelled further into the tunnel, Harry had the feeling that they dug as they went, and that the newly dead were stored in the farthest reaches of the catacombs.

So far, Harry had yet to see a little crevice or an out of the way spot that Evelyn and Snape could safely surface from. Despite the fact that they twisted and turned, the catacombs had not diverged at all, meaning that in order to get to the end, everyone would travel the same direction. He had to make sure that it would not be a spot easily discovered. Just when he was wondering if he would ever find a spot, the tunnels forked, and Harry chose the path to the right. It was a smaller tunnel, and so he hoped it would be less travelled. After a minute or two, he emerged in what seemed to be a roughly carved room. There were many crevices on the walls, but they only seemed to be half filled. The smell was awful, even worse than it had been in the main tunnel. Harry gagged and put his robe up to his mouth, eyes watering. Glancing behind him as he fought the chills in his spine, he turned up the lantern just a little to illuminate the moist walls. Dark patches riddled the sides of the room, showing where the holes were dug. Harry's heart started to race when he saw that the holes were only half the size of most of the others in the main tunnels. As he looked up at the rows upon rows of indents he saw wrapped bodies lying within them. One looked very recent, for the cloth was still a snow white. Then it hit him why the holes were smaller. These were children. He was too terrified to even count how many were there, and allow himself to contemplate just what this meant. While some of the bodies had decayed, and had clearly been there for years and years, there were a handful that were newer, within the last few months at least.

Harry took a step back in fear. He knew this was the closest place that Evelyn and Snape could surface, for it was the most out of the way, the least travelled path despite the new additions to the room. Fighting back the urge to throw up, Harry backed out of the room, and he started to run back. He skidded to a halt after a few steps, however, catching sight of one of his little pieces of parchment. He forced himself to slow down despite the fact that his pounding heart was about to explode, and he picked up each piece as he went, trying to fight the fear that had clawed its way into his stomach.

Why had those kids died? What killed them? Was it an outbreak of some disease, or was it something worse? In a daze, Harry climbed out of the stinking catacombs and into the corridor. Fresh air met his lungs, and he almost let out a sob of relief. Despite the fact that he was still terrified, he blew out the lantern, remembering what Snape had said. By some miracle, he managed to make it up the staircases and back to the corridor where Mr. Peakes' lab was. He crept along, keeping his fingers on the stone as he went through the pitch blackness, his hands brushing along tapestries. He shivered when a breeze rippled out from behind one. It must have been concealing some sort of passage way. Like Hogwarts, the Potioneer's Society had a fair few secret passages, but Harry had yet to figure them all out. He made a mental note of this one, and continued his way along the corridor.

Suddenly, he heard the sound of footsteps behind him, coming up the stairs. On instinct, he doubled back a few steps and groped the walls, looking for the tapestry from where the breeze was emanating from. The faint light from a lantern was starting to glow upon the walls by the staircase when Harry slid into the secret passage. He stood there in the pitch blackness, not knowing what was behind him, or who was outside with the lantern. It sounded as though there were more than one person. Harry peered through a tiny rip in the tapestry, and saw the lantern bob past, but he did not quite make out who it was.

He then covered his mouth, sure his breathing would give him away when he heard McTavish speaking down the corridor. The group had stopped, and he could only assume that they were at the door to McTavish's lab.

"What do you think of Peakes' new apprentice?" muttered McTavish to whoever he was with, sounding confident that nobody would be listening at two-o-clock in the morning.

The other person spoke, his voice low and smooth.

"He seems fairly ordinary," said the man. "I do not think he will be as nosy as the last."

"For the boy's sake," said McTavish as the sound of a lock opening floated down the corridor, "I hope so. I would prefer not to have to do another cover-up. But just in case, Geoffrey, if you find him out wandering when he shouldn't be, make sure to tell me. Pity Peakes always insists on having apprentices. Children are such a liability."

"I will inform you if the boy gets out of hand," said Geoffrey. "Have a good night."

"And you as well," came the quiet reply as the sound of the door shutting met Harry's ears. One pair of footsteps passed the tapestry and went down the stairs. Harry waited a good fifteen minutes before opening the tapestry a crack and peering out, just to be sure McTavish was not waiting for him or listening at his door. Eyes met with nothing, he tiptoed past McTavish's lab, and to the end of the corridor to Mr. Peakes' door. He opened it carefully, and thanking the well-oiled door, he shut it silently.

Harry reached his bed, and lay down on it for a few moments, digesting all that he had heard and seen. They did not suspect him yet, but all that had happened tonight did little to decrease the fears swirling in his gut. Knowing that Snape would be waiting with the parchment nearby, Harry grabbed the paper. He was glad he had something to do, knowing he would not sleep well. By the light of the dim, flickering candle he kept in his room, he began his message.

"Professor Snape, I'm back," Harry wrote before tapping his wand upon the parchment to send the message. He scratched his nose, waiting to see the all too familiar spidery handwriting of Snape's. In a minute or two, the response appeared on the page. Harry read it, feeling glad to have contact with living people after seeing so many who were dead within the catacombs.

"Good," was Snape's reply. "What are the catacombs like?"

"Not as much of a maze as I thought they would be," Harry wrote back. "It is actually a straight line for a long ways, like they dug the holes as they needed them or something."

"Hmm, that is different than I suspected. Does it still look like a good place to surface?"

"Yeah, I guess," said Harry hesitantly. "I mean, I didn't go all the way to the end. Who knows how long they could have gone on? But I went straight until I found a path that went off to the side that led into a chamber. It was the first room of its kind, but it was so far along I doubt people would be coming down there often, or even notice a hole in the ground once they were in there, especially if you disguised it a little. It would be pretty easy for you guys to get out as well. It would probably take you twenty minutes at the most to get out of there and into the building. I took longer because I was looking around."

"That sounds quite good," said Snape. "But what did you mean by saying that you ‘guess' that it's a good place to surface?"

Harry frowned, rubbing his eyes, trying to get the image of what he had seen in that earthen room.

"Are you alright? Did you see something down there that frightened you?"

He gaped at the paper for a moment, staring at the new message. Snape was worried about him. But what could Harry say - that he saw what happened to all of the apprentices? That he knew why there were so few applicants to the Potioneer's Society for apprenticeships? How could he put that in words? Besides, he could take it. He had dealt with fear his whole life, and people being out to get him.

"What happened, Harry?" wrote Snape after Harry did not respond for a moment. "If you need me to come and get you, I will. You can sneak off the grounds while it is still dark and through the bars in the gate, and I will bring you home, really. I will come and get you right now if something happened. You have already given us invaluable information, and we can figure the rest out as we go."

Harry let out a shuddering breath, and covered his mouth so no sound escaped. Roughly wiping the tears from his eyes with his free hand, he took his hand off his mouth and began to write back. He knew that he could not tell Snape. He was sure he could find more information ... that he could do better than he already had. They still did not know one hundred percent who was in on McTavish's plan. Surely Harry could figure out who McTavish was close to, even by just observing him during meals. So, with a shaking hand, he began to write back.

"No, everything is fine," he wrote, glad Snape couldn't see the terror in his eyes, or the tears sliding down his cheeks. "Nothing happened that was unusual. I mean, the catacombs were kind of scary, with all the dead people, but I'm okay. I'm just tired. You don't need to come get me. I'm going to pay attention to McTavish during meals to see who he gets along well with. Then I'll describe them to you so we can at least know who he is on good terms with. You said we had to know who was in on his plan, didn't you? Besides, I can't do digging charms. I'd just be in your way. And it would be dangerous for me to try to sneak off of the Potioneer's Society grounds. It's probably better for me to lie low here until the tunnel reaches here, then we can all get out together."

"Are you absolutely sure?"

"Yeah, I am."

"Tell me if you change your mind. You can say so at any time, you know that, right?"

"Yeah, I know. It will be okay. I promise."

"Alright."

Snape's message disappeared, and in a few moments, a new one appeared, continuing what he was saying.

"Until we arrive, you must be very careful. Do as you are told, and do not make any more trips in the middle of the night. As well as that, exercise utmost caution in your observations of McTavish and his associates."

"I will."

"Is that all for now?"

Harry frowned, not wanting to say goodnight, for he knew he would not sleep a wink. But he did not want Snape to think him a coward.

"Yes."

"Goodnight, then. Do not forget to roll up the parchment and hide it."

"I won't. Goodnight, sir."

And Snape did not write back, so Harry rolled up the parchment and stowed it beneath his bed. He lay back on his bed, leaving the candle flickering for a little while. It cast shadows in the corners of the room, and Harry kept thinking that he was seeing things in the shadows. So he blew out the candle, and he pulled the covers up over his head like he used to do in his cupboard during thunderstorms. He felt ashamed when he thought it, but more than ever he wished Snape was coming to get him that night.