Nothing

The first gulp of icy lake water felt like the breath of life. A bubble appeared over Chris's head with a wave of her wand. She then waved her wand to light in front of her in that dark lake. The water didn't feel icy, it felt pleasantly cool and very light as Chris swam deeper into the lake. Silence pressed upon her ears as she soared over a strange, dark, foggy landscape.

Chris had often gone swimming in this very lake but never this deep. She could only see ten feet around her, so that as she sped through the water new scenes seemed to loom suddenly out of the incoming darkness: forests of rippling, tangled black weed, wide plains of mud littered with dull, glimmering stones. She swam deeper and deeper, out toward the middle of the lake, her eyes wide, staring through the eerily gray-lit water around her to the shadow beyond, where the water became opaque.

Small fish flickered past her like silver darts. Once or twice she thought she saw something larger moving ahead of her, but when she got nearer, she discovered it to be nothing but a large, blackened log, or a dense clump of weed. Light green weed stretched ahead of her as far as she could see, two feet deep, like a meadow of very overgrown grass.

Suddenly, Chris noticed a large figure moving ahead of her, and this time she was sure it was something alive. Her intuition came true, it was the giant squid. The squid's entire body was 10 times bigger than Chris but it didn't make any move towards her. As she swam closer to it, it started to swim alongside her. Chris instinctively knew it was leading her somewhere, so she followed the squid.

Chris passed over vast expanses of black mud now, which swirled murkily as she and the squid disturbed the water. The squid then slowed down and came to a full stop. Chris tried to look around to see if they had reached the place but she only saw a large rock emerge out of the muddy water ahead. It had paintings of merpeople on it; they were carrying spears and chasing what looked like the giant squid. Meaning they didn't like the squid, yet the squid had helped her get here, which only indicated the merpeople could help her.

Touching the squid's head lightly, Chris nodded to show it that she understood, thus she swam ahead alone. A cluster of crude stone dwellings stained with algae loomed suddenly out of the gloom on all sides. Here and there at the dark windows, Chris saw faces . . . faces that bore no resemblance at all to the painting of the mermaid from stories and beautiful paintings.

The merpeople had grayish skin and long, wild, dark green hair. Their eyes were yellow, as were their broken teeth, and they wore thick ropes of pebbles around their necks. They emerged from their caves to watch her better, their powerful, silver fishtails beating the water, spears clutched in their hands. But Chris swam ahead without stopping, in the hopes that there must be something that would help her.

Chris finally came to a stop in front of – what looked like the merepeople town square and she couldn't go any further as she was surrounded by merepeople all around. They didn't attack her, which was a blessing but they were completely blocking her path now. A mermaid with an extra sharp and long spear came forward and pointed the tip towards Chris.

Before jumping Chris had decided, that she would let her instinct and feelings lead her to her destination and that was what she did. She reached down her pocket, pulled out the key box, and channeled her magic through it. Immediately, her aura expanded, and the merpeople noticed. The mermaid, who came forward with her large spear pointed her spear away from Chris and towards her right. As soon as the mermaid did that the merpeople parted to make way for Chris. Realizing that was the way, Chris nodded at the mermaid and she bowed. Chris bowed back at the mermaid and swam towards the way the merpeople were parting to let her through. 

It took almost ten minutes as Chris between two rows of merpeople made way for her before she finally reached a small black dome shape in the middle of a clearing. As Chris swam closer to it, Chris realized the outer wall of that dome was carved with ancient runes and designs.

She found it.

After so many years and struggle, she finally found the thing that started all of it. The beginning of Hogwarts. The core of Hogwarts.

As if sensing the keys near it, the dark dome lit up with red, blue, green, and yellow rays. The dome was perfectly divided among the four colors, symbolizing the four founders equally. Glancing at the back Chris realized, the merpeople were gone leaving her alone with this dome, so she swam forward. Chris quickly noticed that every different color part had a keyhole-like symbol on it, and she instantly reached for the keys. 

This was it.

And maybe for the first time, Chris was extremely calm and accepting about the future. Whatever happens after this, she would save everyone. . . even if she had to die for it. Even if this power kills her.

Taking a deep breath, Chris picked up the Key of the Ravenclaw and touched it on the blue-colored patterns of the dome.

"The house I wanted to be in," Chris whispered in her mind as the key got accepted inside the key place and the blue beams got brighter.

Next was the Gryffindor's Key.

"The house that I was given and accepted into."

The red beams got brighter as well taking in the key.

"And the house that helped me and gave me its blessing," Chris touched the Slytherin's Key on the dome, and the green rays got sharper.

"And lastly the house of my family, my ancestors."

The Key of Helga Hufflepuff set into its place and the yellow light brightened. All of the lights became brighter and brighter as the dome split open like flower petals from the middle, dividing all four colors and then the light got blinding. 

Chris shielded her eyes but the light started to press down at her. Her air bubble broke and she felt water rushed to her senses along with that light and . . . Power.

Her ears, eyes, mouth, nose, skin everything felt hot and cold at the same time as the pressure on her kept increasing more and more . . . until Chris couldn't take it anymore.

The last thing she thought she saw was something purple dancing at the edge of her vision.

Then nothing.

. . .

[To be continued]