Play Date (Sophie)

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Mercy was well into her first year at Hogwarts, and having a blast. She'd made some friends almost instantly amongst her housemates, and found some people who would go adventuring with her too. One of those people was a slightly older fellow Gryffindor, Sophie. Mercy had never had a "best friend" before, but she was sure Sophie qualified.

They'd made a plan for today. It was a Saturday, so they had the day off from classes, and they were going to spend it exploring everything. They'd heard from some older Gryffindors that there was a secret passageway from the statue of the one-eyed witch on the third floor that led straight to Honeyduke's, a sweet shop in Hogsmeade. Mercy, being a fan of both secret passageways and sweets, had decided that that was the perfect place to start. If it worked, they could then explore the rest of Hogsmeade village.

If it didn't, they'd see how far into the Forbidden Forest they were both willing to go--first to chicken out lost, and had to give the other girl a sickle. Either way, Mercy was prepared to have fun. She had two galleons, five sickles, and eight knuts in her pocket, so she could buy things if they made it to Hogsmeade.

She was currently waiting for Sophie at the base of the one-eyed witch, fiddling with her wand.

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Sophie raced towards the third floor of the castle. She'd just finished checking on Phoenix and couldn't wait to explore the secret passageway with Mercy. They'd agreed to meet at Gunhilda's statue and Sophie was beyond excited at the possibilities that awaited them.

So far, in her two years at Hogwarts, she hadn't met anyone game enough to join her on her adventures. They were all either too scared or too hesitant whenever she proposed doing something risky and that was possibly against the rules. But in Mercy, she found a buddy willing and daring enough to try new things. She wouldn't classify a secret passageway as risky - unless of course, it branched off in a hundred different directions and they lost their way in the labyrinth of tunnels - but it held the unknown and that was good enough for Sophie.

She turned down the corridor leading to the stone statue and spotted Mercy already there waiting for her. "Hi! Sorry, I'm late," Sophie said, panting slightly from her sprint up the stairs. "Had to go check on Phoenix."

She took out her wand, stepping closer to the lifeless statue of the humpbacked healer. "How do you think it opens?" Sophie thought out loud. In all the books and movies she read and saw, there was almost always a button or lever that triggered the object to move or open. Of course, since this was the wizarding world, Sophie figured that magic fit into the equation somewhere. There was probably a charm they had to do or something.

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Mercy broke into a grin as Sophie approached. Now the fun could start. Of course, she had no idea how to open the passageway--that was one of the reasons they had a back up plan, in case they couldn't figure out how to open it. She shrugged. "I dunno. There might be a lever or something. Or maybe a password."

She turned and pointed her wand at the witch's hump. "Open sesame!" she exclaimed. Nothing happened, but she remained optimistic. Walking around the statue, she investigated closely for any sort of hinges or handles. She tried pulling down on one of the witch's fingers, but it wouldn't budge.

Returning to the hump, she rapped it three times with her wand. "Revelio!" she tried. Again, nothing. Not to be deterred, she walked around again, occasionally knocking and tapping with her hand to see if anything was hollow. She looked to Sophie to see if the other girl had any ideas.

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Sophie watched as Mercy tried out various things to reveal the passageway. When neither open sesame or Revelio worked, Sophie took her turn, her nimble fingers gliding over the smooth stone in search of anything that was out of place. She pushed and pulled parts of the statue that were the most common sites of buttons or levers - the eyes, ears, nose, mouth, even the hump. Nothing worked.

Her first instinct was to use Bombara and just blast open the thing, but she was pretty sure that there was a way to get it open besides exploding the statue, otherwise how did it remain intact for so long? There had to be a charm of some sort that opened it up.

She tried to think back to what she'd learned in Charms class, if there was anything that had to do with opening things up. Revilio hadn't worked so it couldn't be that. She was pretty sure that she'd learned one that had to do with passageways. What was it? Diss-something. There could be no harm trying all the variations right? "Dissendo! Dissendos! Dissendum! Dissendium!" Sophie said, tapping her wand on the hump of the statue for each word she spoke. She'd just been about to cycle through other suffixes when the hump opened up.

"Oh Merlin, it worked!" she exclaimed, excitement shining in her eyes. "Lumos," she continued, producing a light from the tip of her wand. From where she was standing, she could see that there was a short slide down into a tunnel.

"Let's go!" Positioning herself, Sophie slid down the stone slide, landing on a dirt path and walking a few steps forward to give Mercy space behind her.

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Mercy let out a small cheer as the hump opened. Following close behind Sophie, she scrambled through the hole and slid to the bottom, landing on her feet with a flourish. She lit her own wand, and started off down the passage with a bounce in her step and a grin on her face.

"How long d'you think this tunnel is? Hogsmeade is pretty far away, isn't it?"

She turned her head from side to side, taking in her surroundings as she walked. It was pretty typical dark tunnel, with packed dirt floors and walls. There wasn't a whole lot to see, but she thought it was pretty cool nonetheless. It smelled like damp soil.

"We're under the castle right now. I wonder what's going on directly above us. Are we under the dungeons?"

They kept walking for what seemed like hours down the winding tunnel, going slightly downhill. Mercy started to hum, making shadow puppets on the wall of the passage using the light from her wand. She only really knew how to make a dog, a bunny, and maybe a goose. All the rest were ambiguous dinosaur/monster-looking things.

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Once Mercy landed, they started off, Sohpie's heart pounding in anticipation. Would they enounter any traps in the tunnel? She'd watched a movie once - had it been Indiana Jones? She couldn't remember - she remembered that they'd been in a tunnel full of booby traps. Then again it could just be a boring tunnel which Sophie hoped it wouldn't turn out to be. So far though, it was looking pretty normal and uninteresting with a dirt path and walls.

At Mercy's question, Sohpie thought for a while. The question had never crossed her mind. What if it took them hours? At least she'd filled her stomach before coming."I don't know. Hogsmeade is pretty far but I was hoping that this would be a short cut," Sophie replied.

Sophie had no idea where they were currently under. The tunnel twisted so often that it threw her sense of direction off. It didn't help that they were way underground and there was nothing thought which she could look to gain her bearings. "We might be," she said. "Isn't this so cool though? We're somwhere under Hogwarts and nobody knows we're walking beneath them." Sophie glanced up to the earthy ceiling, trying to imagine the life that various students were living in the castle above them.

They walked for what felt like ages with Mercy making shadow puppets. Sohpie grinned and joined in, playing around with the different finger and handshapes.

As they kept walking, Sophie began to wish that the tunnel had been full of booby traps, or at least branching off in different directions. Then they'd have something to do instead of walking endlessly.

"Does this even lead to Honeydukes?" Sophie thought out loud. "And how long have we been walking for?"

A few moments after the words were out of her mouth, the path began going uphill. If she'd been any less fit, her legs would've definitely protested by now. But Sophie was used to physical activity and it didn't really bother that much.

"We're going uphill. We must be arriving soon," she commented, glancing to see how Mercy was doing.

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Mercy noticed the shift at the same time Sophie did, her excitement growing. "Yes, finally!"

She set off with renewed vigor, her legs starting to burn a little bit as the incline grew steeper. After nearly ten minutes of scrambling upward, she stopped, panting slightly. Ahead, she could see a long stone staircase.

"Look!" She pointed. "This must be it."

As the two girls approached, Mercy surveyed the stairs by the light of her wand. She couldn't see the top from where she stood. She mounted the stairs, watching her feet and counting as she climbed.

"...one hundred and ninety-nine...two hundred...two hundred and one...two hundred and two...two hundred an--ouch!" Her head collided with something hard.

Holding her wand up for light, she could see the outline of a trapdoor above her head. "We're here!"

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Sophie scrambled up the steep incline with Mercy, her feet propelling her forward. All that time working out with Phoenix had paid off, but the sight of the staircase disheartened her. Going up a slope was a lot easier than climbing stairs; stairs were a real killer.

"Oh, Merlin," she breathed out, her eyes trying to find out where the steps ended. They seemed endless. Following Mercy, she began to ascend the steps, feeling the burn in her legs by the time they reached the fiftieth step, but they kept going.

Mercy had just finished counting up to two hundred and one steps when she knocked her head. Sophie squinted up, seeing what had caused the interruption, and saw the trapdoor.

"We made it!" Sophie exclaimed, panting. "That was such a climb. Can you get it to open?"

After that tedious walk and climb, Sophie was ready to start splurging on the goodies and sweets they'd find on the other side of the trapdoor. She - and Mercy - deserved rewards for all their hard work.

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"I think so," Mercy nodded, breathing heavily. She braced her hands on the door above her head and heaved, pushing with her legs and putting her whole weight into it. The door swung open with a bang. Mercy cheered and clambered out into a cellar full of boxes, reaching a hand down to help Sophie up. There was a small staircase leading up to a door, behind which she could hear the hustle and bustle of the shop front itself.

"Should we close the trap door, or leave it open? Are we getting back the same way we came? Cause we'll have to go up that slide that we went down at the beginning, remember?" She said this just as it occurred to her. She hadn't thought that far ahead.

She looked around the room, wandering over to a crate and peeking under the lid. It was full of sugar quills! All of these crates must be filled with the shop's extra stock of sweets. She wondered if anyone from Hogwarts ever used the secret passageway to steal from this supply that was just lying out in the open. She hoped not. Despite how tempting it might be, that would be wrong. She closed the lid, sticking her hand in her pocket to make sure she hadn't lost any of her coins.

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