Chapter 43.2- Doom Days

“Okay, that’s all well and good but what do you want with me?” I asked this time.

“Remember the second task?” He asked, and I began to chuckle. If that was what he was here for, then this was going to be a very short task for him.

“Here for revenge for that? Trust me when I say that’s not going to go well for you”

“No, no. of course not. Just making sure you don’t get the chance to come for me. So I’ll look at the puzzle or whatever is keeping the kitchen hidden, and I’ll take your word that you won’t attack while I open it up for the both of us.” He said, stowing his wand away and stretching his hand out. I looked at the hand, and flicked my eyes back to his face. This was a lot of trust he was showing in me. At least, he probably wanted it to seem like a lot of trust. There was no chance he didn’t know that whoever attacked here would have a bad rap in front of most of the wizarding world.

Betraying him would be even worse than betraying Krum that first time would have been so I reached out and took his own hand in mine. We pumped up and down twice and I stepped back.

“Probare tuum valorem” Diggory read out before chuckling. “Well, that’s easier than expected. Definitely easier than the key thing. That one tripped Krum up for so long that I had to consider stepping out of hiding to help him out.”

“What is it?” I asked.

“You don’t see it, Potter?” He asked, quirked eyebrow.

“If I did, I wouldn’t be asking would I?” I retorted, quite sharply by my own reckoning.

“Sorry, sorry. It’s just something we learn as children. Makes sense though. You know, you growing up with muggles and all. Blood is your value in this world. You are worth nothing more than your blood.” He said before slashing his hand with a wave of his wand and splattering the blood on the portrait. It swung open and he jumped in. The portrait swung back closed before I could make it across.

I considered cutting my palm like Diggory had, but that was stupid. There were more nerves in the palm than the rest of my arm. I made a slight cut around my forearm and levitated the blood before splashing it on the portrait. It swung open for me to enter, and entering the kitchens revealed pandemonium. I stopped on a dime, barely managing to keep myself from falling off the ledge. The entrance was gone and behind me was nothing but a rough wall. On the ground was a thin ledge, and beyond the ledge, a massive drop. It was so deep, I couldn’t see the bottom from here. There were floating stone platforms all across the massive cavern that the. Kitchens had been transformed into.