Albus Potter and the Healing Springs

A similar tune to Fireheart’s singing was echoing out of the cave. The beautiful notes lessened the suspense that Albus was feeling. But the suspense was still real.

Before, the trees had hugged the land and it’d hidden you from any danger. Here though, it was an open plain, open to being found.

"Fireheart’s trying to get us to go inside," said Albus.

"But should we?" asked Alex. "Serena Churchill said she’d get McGonagall."

"You’re the one who brought us here," reminded Albus. "We have enough light, especially with this lantern."

Albus took a few steps into the cave, and the two friends followed. There was a clear path and many scratches along the walls. Other than the illumination coming from their wands and lantern, it was pitch black.

"Here, put this in your bag," said Albus giving Alex the Marauders Map. "It won’t help us here."

"Alright," agreed Alex.

There was a sudden screech, the same screech Albus heard the night Taylor Jones was attacked.

"The monster is here," Albus breathed. "It’s hiding in this cave."

"Let’s go back," mumbled Alex. "We came to find Webster not a-"

"Webster must be with the monster. He must control it."

"That can’t be right," speculated Ronnie.

"How do you know?" questioned Albus. "He came all the way out here with Slughorn. They’ve been working together to take out all these students!"

"I highly doubt that," said Ronnie. "Or at least I hope that’s not what’s been going on."

"I have no doubt Webster is somehow behind all this," said Alex regaining the anger in his voice.

Fireheart sang a few notes and waited for something to be sung in return. Instead, what they heard was a mixture of shrieks coming from deep within the cave. Fireheart then began to tug at Albus’ shirt to go forward.

"He wants us to keep going," said Albus. "I think we should. We can do this together."

A loud scream yelling for help rang in Albus’ ears, this time coming from a man.

"Professor Slughorn!" gasped Alex.

"Hurry up! We need to help the poor man! I told you he wasn’t behind this!" yelled Ronnie as she grabbed Albus and ran, while Alex followed.

After running a bit she came to an abrupt halt, and Albus noticed there were three paths to choose from. This time, the map wouldn’t help him choose the right one.

"What do we do now?" enquired Alex.

"We definitely can’t split up," said Albus. "That’s for sure."

Fireheart sang again, yet this time nothing could be heard in return, not even a shriek. Nothing.

"Look, the floor," Alex pointed out.

There was the same herd of foot prints that Albus and Ronnie saw on the day of their detention.

"Here’s proof that the monster was what fought the Blast-Ended Skrewt," declared Albus.

"This has to be the path then," said Ronnie.

They decided to follow the path with the footprints but, before they went on, something occurred to Albus.

"Alex, what was the spell you used to burn the note to Bella in the beginning of the year?"

"You mean Incendio?” Alex replied.

"Right."

Albus approached the wall next to the path they were taking and used the incantation. He moved his wand and the fire in the shape of his signature “A”.

"This way, McGonagall and Serena will know which way to go," informed Albus and the trio continued along the path.

Slowly, they kept walking with Fireheart by their side until they reached an end. The path continued along the other side of a river which was yards below what could be a smaller version of a cliff. The continuation of the path was too far away to be jumped.

"Alright. So what now?" sighed Ronnie.

Albus looked around. There wasn’t a current so the water was still, but huge spiked rocks were awaiting any diver down below.

"Maybe we could try to levitate each other," suggested Alex.

"I don’t think we’ll be able to hold on that long," rejected Albus. "Great. We’re stuck."

Fireheart proceeded and grabbed Albus by the back of his collar and picked him up. They flew over the river and landed on the other side. It all happened so quickly that Albus didn’t even know what was going on until he landed on his feet again.

"Wow!" called out Ronnie. "I didn’t know a phoenix would be that strong!"

"Me neither," exclaimed Albus in shock. "Fireheart, please bring my friends as well."

Fireheart flew over and picked up Ronnie, brought her over, then did Alex.

"That was a lot simpler than I thought it’d be," said Alex.

"I wonder what else this cave has got in store for us," muttered Ronnie.

I’m afraid to find out, thought Albus, yet he knew he had to go on. He was honestly surprised he had gotten this far and was actually proud of himself.

"Let’s go then," he said and they continued along the path.

Albus walked in front of his friends feeling brave and that he needed to protect them. He had numerous dreams of these moments and now was the time to prove that he could take on this monster. He wouldn’t let it take hold of his friends like it did in his dreams.

The floor started getting sticky, and it became harder to walk on. Albus illuminated the floor by his feet and noticed it was coated in green goo.

"Yuck! What is this?" complained Albus.

"Oh my gosh!" yelled Ronnie, with her wand pointing at a squashed spider on the wall. This spider was at least as big as them, but was surely dead.

"We aren’t the first to roam through here," guessed Alex.

"Well, other than that, there is the monster,” reminded Ronnie.

The monster, thought Albus. If it was anything like in his dreams, he had no idea how he was going to face it. With or without his friends, he stood no chance. They were still just beginners in magic.

Another dead spider was lying on the floor, completely squashed, a few feet away.

"This is disgusting," he groaned.

"At least they are dead," shrugged Alex.

However, it seemed that one wasn’t. An opening in the wall revealed four red eyes staring right at Albus. Albus raised his wand at the ready.

Don’t freak out, don’t freak out, he repeated to himself.

The spider suddenly ran out of the hole and, immediately, Ronnie started sending spells along with Alex; the two kept missing. Albus stood there shocked, and the spider ran off.

"I’m starting to think we should have stayed in the common room," panted Ronnie.

"We’re doing this to find out what Webster and that monster did to Johnny!" reminded Alex. "Let’s keep going."

Albus wasn’t sure what he was going to encounter, and he had honestly hoped McGonagall would have caught up to them by now.

He pointed his wand forward to illuminate the darkness in front of them, only to see that they really had no idea where they were going.

"What if we’ve gone the wrong way? We haven’t heard anything for a while now," he considered.

"You can still see some footprints now and then in muddy parts of this cave. This has to be the way," Alex pointed out.

"Alright. Then, let’s keep going."

As they kept walking along the path, the cave walls began to spread apart. The path became wider and the dirt was wet.

"At least this time, the floor isn’t wet because of spider goo," giggled Ronnie.

"Thankfully," replied Albus. "Just a bit of water. But from where?"

Another shriek escaped from deep within the cave and echoed over the walls. This time, it was Webster who was screaming for help.

"I told you this was the right way!" yelled Alex and he then started running towards the cries. "But why is Webster yelling-"

All of a sudden, Alex’s feet started sinking into the ground, followed by his legs. His body was slowly but surely disappearing into the ground.

"Help!" screamed Alex. "Do something! Ugh, I don’t know any spells for quick sand!"

“Immobulus!" exclaimed Ronnie.

Ronnie wasn’t pointing the wand at Alex, but at the quick sand surrounding him. Alex suddenly stopped moving, and then was able to pick himself out of the quicksand as if climbing out of a hole.

"Brilliant, Ronnie!" Albus congratulated.

"I just panicked," confessed Ronnie. "Glad it worked."

"Wait, is that a door?" asked Albus as he looked ahead the path. There was a radiant red door with a gold knob. There were scratches over it, but it still looked pretty impressive. One torch was set on each side next to it.

"I didn’t expect the monster to live in a house," said Alex. "This is really weird."

"I guess we’re here," mumbled Ronnie as she stepped up and turned the knob, yet the door didn’t open. "Never mind, then."

Suddenly, the floor was flooding with water. The source of it, Albus couldn’t see, but the water was rising fast.

"Look! Up there!" Alex signalled. There was a small hole on the cave ceiling only a few feet wide.

The water was now up to their waists and quickly rising.

"We all need to be directly below this hole close together," ordered Albus and they all did so. "Fireheart go up through the hole and wait for us there."

Fireheart flew up hesitantly, and the water was now up to Albus’ chin. If there wasn’t anything at the end of this hole, then they were all going to drown.

But there has to be, Albus thought. There has to be.

The water lifted them up, and they now had to swim in order not to fall behind. They raised up through the hole and they could see Fireheart waiting for them at the end of it. The hole wasn’t too small for Albus, Ronnie and Alex to fit into but all at the same time made it uncomfortable.

As the water reached the end of the hole, it stopped flowing. Albus climbed out of it and so did Alex and Ronnie. They were all dirty, muddy, and wet.

"Well that sure was something," said Ronnie.

Fireheart began to sing his tune, and still nothing was sung back in return. There was a big opening ahead of the trio and Albus feared that they found what they were looking for.

"What is taking McGonagall so long," Albus complained. "Should we just wait here for her?"

"We didn’t plan on having her with us in the first place," argued Alex.

"We didn’t plan on finding a monster either," added Ronnie.

Fireheart started tugging at each of their shirts to pull them forward.

"I think we’ll be safe as long as we’re with him," comforted Alex.
As they reached the end of the path, it continued below with a slope that hanged off the walls all around the cave until it reached the ground. They were at the top of the inner cave which was humongous. There were various openings all around the walls just like what they were standing at.

Down below were streams of water surrounding one huge lake. It glittered and flowed into subsections that surrounded the rest of the inner cave. Next to it was Professor Slughorn, occupied with test tubes and potions, and next to him was the monster.

It was a big purple creature with a wolf’s head, and had four legs, two were bears paws, and two were hooves. It had a reptile tail and a pair of oversized bat wings. It turned on the trio quickly and screeched. Jake Webster was lying near it unconscious next to the lake.

That’s when it occurred to Albus where they were.

The Healing Springs.