Chapter 89 – Labyrinth
I went to the train station first, finding the entrance in the public bathroom hidden from all eyes. I had to push one of the 'out of order' toilets and descend a few yards on a sharp slope. There wasn't any light source present, and the darkness was so bad even my eyes were struggling to adapt. Probably only Quincy would have no problem navigating down here. After lighting up the tip of my wand, I began walking forward, inspecting the floor and the walls, advancing very slowly and methodically. I didn't know if they had any traps here, but I wouldn't be surprised, so I constantly used the revealing charm, ready to dodge some spikes or darts... as if I was exploring an ancient tomb from some adventure book.
"Nothing...?" I asked after more than an hour of walking. I was tempted to stop using spells, but that would be stupid because I would surely activate something if I gave up caution.
Well... after another hour, I reached the other end, emerging close to the castle's grounds. Was this a one-way tunnel? That sounded stupid. That can't be it! So I headed back, this time more confident, not wasting time looking for traps. Instead, I was focusing on the walls and possible hidden marks, anything that would give me clues.
My efforts bore fruit after multiple hours and repeated back-and-forth walks. Maybe somewhere in the middle of it all, I noticed weird markings on the right-hand side of the wall. They were like scratches, like left behind by scraping two stones together. The tunnel itself was made out of earth and stone; it was nothing fancy, so they didn't really stand out. Not until you stopped and began looking at it directly.
"Now, what is this?"
With my wand, I gently tapped the walls on both sides, but nothing happened. I tried some unlocking spells, revealing charms, even some weaker hexes... nothing. It didn't react. That told me it wasn't magical, so I tried brute force.
"Hah!"
With a healthy push, the wall moved, and scraping against the rocks, it rotated 90 degrees, opening up to a different tunnel. No magic huh? Interesting... no wonder it didn't react to anything as it was 'mechanical.'
"I am now wondering if it was truly a good idea to stop learning about muggles!" I whispered, looking into complete darkness.
Entering the new route, I returned to take it slowly and surely, making plodding progress, but I could feel my heart beating rapidly. Once again, I found no traps, but knowing what I was looking for, I more easily noticed the multiple similar scrapings on some of the walls this time. Pushing against them, they turned, revealing another route.
"This is worse than a maze!" I groaned, drawing in my notebook and making a rudimentary map for myself and the others. I had to constantly cast spells, determining where I was, where was north, or whether the route was bent or not. It slowed my progress even further, and I think it was way past midnight when I looped back to my starting point.