A Harry Potter Quest: He who was not

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Present Date: 08th​ January 1994
Current Wand: Fagus wood, Phoenix feather core

When he crashed to the ground, there was no life left in the statue before you. It lay still and unmoving, now nothing but ornament to the large hall; a giant that had been slain by the contester. A bright light behind you caught your attention. The dark gate was now alit itself, a blue fire radiating out of it, brightening the poem on its doors. You quickly turned and crossed the distance as a soft female voice emanated out of the gate itself. It was the voice of an old woman, her words both scratchy and rough, as she asked one question again and again.

"Who are you?" She said once and a pulse went through the air, making the blue flames flicker one after the other as if a wave was going through them.

"Who are you?" The female voice spoke again, before another pulse travelled through the air.

You went over the words in your head, thinking about the structure of this riddle. 'The three are here now, may smart or bereft, for one foot they set down, three there still left.' This was the beginning and the first step. The Hufflepuff that had stayed behind out of loyalty and faith.

In the beginning you had thought the long tunnel leading out of Hogwarts to have been in a test for the brave. In hindsight, you questioned that deduction. That long passage through uncertain grounds could have easily been a Hufflepuff test as well. Someone would be needed to hold the group together in times of danger. Someone who was able to keep pushing on and on, only to then stay behind after they had finally arrived at their destination, so that the group could make it out on their own.

Be it as it may be, testing the Hufflepuff was the first step of the riddle, no matter if it started in the room with the statues, in the tunnel before or earlier even by gathering the people in the first place to even be able to find the hidden corridor that went out of Hogwarts.

Understanding the next steps was easier. The second step was thought out for someone representing Ravenclaw: 'For the guardian is whole, all other were cruel, as one they will act and follow the jewel'. This was about solving the riddle as a whole, understanding what needed to be done for this to work. The jewel likely meant Ravenclaw's diadem. Gryffindor had the sword, Ravenclaw the jewellery. You needed to follow Rowena's image to succeed in this part of the riddle.

Step three was the easiest; it was simply searching for someone brave enough to follow Godric's wake: 'With their swords in hand, swift and gallant'.

So, at last it was for Slytherin to be the fourth step: 'Then at last trick and dupe, make the mountain a fool'. While the fight might be started by valour and bravery, it was to be ended by trickery. A win would only count if the guardian was defeated without damaging him, something that would have been difficult to achieve with magical prowess only.

These four steps made out all the distance. These were the centre of this riddle. In the end it didn't matter who it was that showed the traits, which was the reason why you had been able to do all of this by yourself. It was just important to understand and be able to portray them.

The Riddler was testing all indications for a group of the finest students Hogwarts may offer, a challenge for the most accomplished to teach them what was truly needed to follow into the Founders' footsteps.

And now, it seemed that you had finally arrived at the last riddle. To walk a last step, which was the fourth step again; Slytherin. 'The last step is the fourth, the fourth is the first. For here to pass, your words must be reversed'. The only solution that hit all the marks, was clear. It made you understand quite a few things in retrospect.

"I am the Hufflepuff," you said.

An answer that would need to be of Slytherin trait, cunning and smart. The fourth step needed to be the first, which meant a Slytherin needed to act as a Hufflepuff. Lying through their teeth to pass this last riddle, even if their Hufflepuff friend was still imprisoned in the room before.

"You are not a Hufflepuff," the voice said, following lines that had been recorded a Millenia ago. By now, you had won some understanding about what you had found, hidden deep inside the mountains.

"I am the Hufflepuff," you said again, staying persistent. A Slytherin that needed to be as persistent as a badger.

"The Hufflepuff is trapped, cannot come," the scratchy voice said.

"I am the Hufflepuff." And when you repeated the lie, a third time, the engravings disappeared before you and you heard the familiar grumbling of the earth as the gate started to move to the side. You walked back a distance, taking time to grab your bag that you had thrown on the ground before. Another sip made its way into your mouth, before you turned to the gate again.

The steps back were slow. Your legs were hurting, your lung was burning and the insides of your mouth were sticky and tasted metallic. The teeth inside your mouth felt as if they wanted to fall off. Your back hurt and you had ripped your pants, when you had been thrown back by the Guardian's last attack. The physical state of your body had never been a good one, right now though, you felt as if you were at the end of the line.

When you reached the second gate again, something moved behind you. The guardian stood up behind you, now ignoring that he had fallen out of the range of his confinement. You watched him with your wand raised, as he grabbed his sword without looking at you. Then he started to walk back to his spot at the centre of the hall. The Guardian fell back into his starting position, before halting all movement again; waiting for the next challenger. No matter how many decades passed, he would wait and fulfil his duty.

You looked at him for a long time, before you turned back around and passed into the next room. The picture of the guardian, surrounded by a hall older than anyone you had ever known, burned itself into your mind.

The new room was smaller than the great hall behind you. It was but a fraction of the size, but still as large as the first room, with the statues inside. It was an exact mirror. The large gate behind you, the statue room in front of you and a dark tunnel at the end of it. The only difference was that in here you didn't find three statues of the Founders, but instead only one.

"I was right about you, great Riddler," you said, looking up at the statue that you had expected to see here. It was almost obvious in hindsight. Many things had pointed to this. Before you, stood the Riddler. She was who that old female voice imitated, the one to have likely build all of this puzzle game. Overall it was nothing but a lesson for Hogwarts students, to show them what traits the Founders had valued. At the heart of it was something else, though; to show the importance of unity, starting by having a Hufflepuff guiding the way, gathering the group together in the first place even and giving himself up for the group to proceed.

There was only one person that would fit the theme of this all; Helga Hufflepuff.

The statue was as tall as the other three had been, but somehow this one seemed less alive. Where the others had been made by someone who had deeply cared about them, this statue seemed like an afterthought. Helga was a round, plump woman with long and curly hair and large eyes. Where the prior set of eyes had moved with you, these did not. Instead they were watching the great hall behind you. You turned around, following their direction to find the first gate at the end of it. The statue of Helga had been looking at the room in which the statues of her friends stood for a thousand years. Always looking out for them in the end.

The revenant pulse that had vanished before, now once again returned. The air vibrated as words were spoken, seemingly coming out of the walls around you.

"You are here," it said, speaking French still.

"I am," you answered.

"You have shown that you are worthy, so now, you shall know of this place," Helga said before falling silent again. In front of you, something cut into the air. You jumped back instantly, raising your wand. Only then did you realize that the blue fire that was being ignited in mid-air was starting to form letters. Letters turned to words first and then into sentences. One after the other. Then the voice returned, speaking those same words you were reading.

"Rowena found this place in her dreams. This was what first brought us here, searching for an answer to the many questions we had. We were never able to locate whatever it was that we were searching for, instead choosing to build the School by the Lake."

Your heart was pounding against your ribcage, you could hear the blood being pumped through the blood vessels in your ear. Exhilaration filled you, when you realized that your assumptions had been right; this was the voice of one of the most famous witches to ever exist. Helga Hufflepuff was talking to you.

"Can you hear me?" You asked.

But the voice continued as if you had said nothing: "Now, I have found this place, but it seems I was too late. My friends have withered away. They died with broken hearts or regrets in their minds. I have failed them again and again, was not able to keep us together."

There was no sorrow or pain in her voice, the recording not able to do more than to copy her voice after a thousand years. The excitement fell away again, as your eyes followed the words along with her voice. The Founder was not here, not really. This was not even a ghost, or an afterimage of the woman. It was a simple recording of words.

"I only found this place at old age. I am not able enough to conquer this on my own, now that my friends have left me. This place is dangerous and deep, but do not fear its dangers, be brave. Do not fall for its lies, be smart. Fall in love with its beauty instead; it is the most curious thing. Maybe so, you will be able to do what I was not, to keep your group together and conquer what we could not find."

The words in front of you started dying out, until only two sentences floated in the air before your eyes: "I guarded you from its dangers until now, now go on and leave the defences of Hogwarts. You have shown that you are capable enough to explore Nei'it-ruˆm."

A last pulse went through the room, before the magic died off, the words before you disappeared and the blue fires died out.

"Lumos," you said, suddenly surrounded by complete darkness. A blaze-like flash of lightning shot out of your wand. A great shadow you made out for a moment behind the large statue sprang up and fled. Just a second later you were not sure if you had imagined the happening.

You looked down at yourself, even half cast in shadows, you looked dishevelled and dirty. There was the tremble of your knees that didn't stop. Never before did you have this kind of a tasking adventure before. You felt weak and you logically knew that it would be the best decision to head back to Hogwarts soon. You had done enough for the short time of preparation. This place had been waiting for a thousand years ... it could wait a few more weeks.

Turning around to the Guardian's hall, you told yourself: "I should go back."

For a minute you stood there, undecided. Even if you knew what the obvious right answer was, your legs didn't want to move. Looking back at the statue of the fourth Founder again, you could make out the dark and mysterious tunnel behind her.

Your eyes stared at the hole that was the first step out of the secure hold of the castle. A passageway into something that even someone as Helga Hufflepuff had not been able to fully explore. Your legs started to move on their own, passing by the statue of the Founder and heading into the darkness below.

There was no way that you would simply stop here. You needed answers. Today.

You felt an instant difference as soon as you left the Founder's final room. A chill air seemed to strike your face, rising from invisible depths. The tunnel extended downwards, more cave than manmade dungeon. A foul smell reached your nose, while you descended the tunnel. At the end of it the cave around you opened up into a larger cave.

Nothing but the sound of your own steps reached your ears as you shined left first. While the wall might have exhibit features of old architectural design in the distant past, by now most of it had withered away, making it hard to discern a wall from what could have easily been a natural cavern as well. Only at second glance did you see that there were chains worked into the right end of the wall.

You moved your light a little to the right to follow the chain from the ground upwards. It had been largely ripped out of the wall. In those parts without a chain, the stone had withered away and the chains had completely rusted or even disappeared into nothingness. Where the chain was still bound to the wall, time had hit different. The wall and chains, while still looking old and weathered had held much better against the passage of time.

"Magic?" You asked yourself.

Suddenly, there was a crack to your right. Your wand made a sharp move to follow its place of origin. As the light travelled through the air, a bundle was illuminated on the ground. You didn't instantly register what it was. The light shooting out of your wand hit something that was moving on the ground even further to the right. There was a sudden scream, like breaking glass, when the creature jumped into the air and at threw itself at you.


Sudden Defense (INT + CRE + DADA + Perks + Talaria), DC 70 → 1D100+31 → 51 (20 + 31) → Failure!


You had no time to move back as the creature reached you. "Incendio," you cast in the last second. The illuminating spell fell away, as you had never practiced keeping 'Lumos' active while casting another spell. Soon after that, a small fireball shot out of your wand.

The room around you brightened for a second, darkness making room for bright fire. Only now did you make out that there were two bundles on the ground, not just one. There was no time for an unsettling feeling to creep in, when you realized that those were two skeletons in very familiar robes.

When the fireball left your wand, the creature attacking was already in the air. Its reactions were faster than yours. The small creature pushed a long arm out to push against the ceiling and change direction mid-flight to pass directly under your spell, without stopping its momentum. Like a cannonball it shot down and against your legs. The force was so immense that you were thrown in the air and flipped around yourself. Your back hit the ground first, after you lost all sense of equilibrium by being thrown around. All air was violently pushed out of your lungs.


First Attack (INT + CRE + DADA + Perks + Talaria – 10 Malus), DC 40 → 1D100+11 → 87 (76 + 11) → Success!


For a moment you felt as if you had gone blind after hitting your head. It took a moment for you to remember that it was still completely black around you. "Flipendo!" Someone shouted. Only later did you realize that even confused by the fall and almost unconscious, you had somehow raised your wand into the direction of the tunnel you had come from. Before the creature could move again, you had cast the spell.

There was another screech as it was thrown back up the dark tunnel. By the time it hit a wall, you were on your feet again, running further into the room, away from whatever was attacking you. You stumbled over something on the ground only a few steps in.

"Lumos," you said to finally see something again, casting the wand down.

The face of a skeleton looked up at you, the badge on his robe red and bright under your light. A sudden movement behind you, made you turn again. "Incendio," you said, before you had fully turned. A second fireball shot out, illuminating the room and this time finally succeeding in hitting whatever it was that was attacking you.

For a moment you thought that you had won here, as the monster was set alight, part of his skin burning even. It didn't matter what you thought in the end, because the monster kept running at you.


Sudden Defence II (INT + CRE + DADA + Perks + Talaria), DC 50 → 1D100+31 → 81 (50 + 31) → Success!


"Protego!" You said.

Half a second later the creature hit his head against the shield in front of you. Its burned face was mad, small yellow eyes were wide open, directed at you. It hit the ground before you, thrown back a second time. Almost instantly its long and thin legs started moving again as it dashed to your left, circumventing the border of your narrow shield. As soon as it had bypassed your defences, it jumped at you again.

You had no time to cast another spell, so you did the only sensible thing; and punched the whatever-it-was in the face. The punch was an awkward one. You had never in your life punched anything, not even a wall. Your hand did not close properly and it was almost a slap from upwards to his upper head. It was a lucky strike in the end, when your fist connected with one of his yellow eyes. A sharp scream cut through the darkness.

You jumped back, raising your arm for a second spell. In the darkness, the creature moved again.

"Protego," you cast a second time. This time the creature had been expecting this. Instead of charging mindlessly at you, you saw it to your left, now having circled you completely.

Good that you had been expecting that as well.


Second Attack (INT + CRE + DADA + Perks + Talaria), DC 40 → 1D100+21 → 42 (21 + 21) → Success!


You were prepared this time. By now, your mind was back to normal again. Your eyes were getting sharper now, allowing you to make out its shape with the weak illumination your shield produced in the surroundings. When it dashed to the side, you let the shield drop and started the second incarnation again: "Flipendo!"

The creature to your left was surprised, rushing forward only to be thrown back again. He flew through the room and came to crash against the wall to the left of the room, where there were still chains attached to the wall.

The very moment the creatures back touched the metal it let out a mindless scream of pain that was mind-numbingly loud. Not even the burning of his skin had made him scream this much, or even halted his advance. This time it was different though.


Third Attack (INT + CRE + DADA + Perks + Talaria), DC 40 → 1D100+21 → 110 (89 + 21) → Great Success!


You knew nothing of the creature or anything about this place either. But still, in the end, this as well as everything else was a riddle. One you had been well prepared to solve by your time spent discovering the mysteries of the castle.

As soon as you had left the Founders room behind, there had been an instant change in the surroundings. While parts of the long passageway from Hogwarts had also seen withering away to time, you had been able to make out many other halls and floors from down below that were part of this large underground system; most of them still looked like they had in ancient days, build to hold against the passage of time.

The first clue was why it was that the home of this creature seemed to be different. One possible answer; it thrived in the destruction of civilized constructions. It had started in the tunnel behind and had worked its way here, over decades, maybe even centuries to destroy inch after inch of the structure. This was the reason why the chains had started rusting away, it was actively destroying the magic holding this place together.

And the reason why it did that so methodically, was what you would use to win this.

"Reparo!" By now, the creature had already fallen to the ground, crouching down in pain as it was trying to reach the place on his back, where the chains had hit him before. While the skin there didn't look much worse than its other burns, the pain seemed to be much more intense for the creature.

The chains behind him started repairing themselves, growing in strength and length as they won back long-lost properties. You saw the monster turn its head, alerted by the rustling of the chains behind him on the wall. One of his yellow eyes had turned brown and dark. It was the one you had hit with your fist.

While the chain was still being restored, you were already moving. You grabbed one end of the long chain. It was growing, when you started running around the creature. It flinched forwards when the chain behind him moved, following the movements of the end in your hand. The creature moved forward fleeing the chain on his back, only to run into the part of it that you had pulled in front of him.

Then the screams began. Before you closed the chains around him a first time, you knew that he was already lost. His screeches shook the room, but you still kept running lapses around him, again and again. Pulling the chain tighter with every round until he was standing in front of the wall, trying to make himself as thin as possible to minimize its contact with the chains.

"Pleassse …" He screamed, suddenly able to communicate. "Stop … ukavop … this, I bid you … for th-… fultum," the creature screeched with a voice of a thousand creaking windows. You didn't understand all of the words. Some of them were familiar, others sounded old and others again not like human sounds at all. It was trying to communicate with you.

First, you used your wand to illuminate the room again, before you asked: "What are you?"

Its eyes found you again. The monster was small, not even as tall as a House-elf. The arms and legs were long and scrawny, its skin half brown and hairy and half burnt to crisps. One eye was yellow and bright, the other dark and brown. The creature looked like nothing you had ever seen in a book, its teeth were sharp and dark, its mouth as brown as the slushy liquid that exited his body on the few wounds you had caused him that hadn't been burned by the fire.

"Save me! Help me!" It screamed, now speaking fully in words that you understood.

"What the bloody hell are you?" You asked again.

"No!" The creature tried to break out of his chains only to screech out in pain again. "Save me! Pain!"

Those words, were clear. While the monster had an inhuman voice to it that fit his grotesque nature, its words were of human origin. The thing was mindlessly thrashing against the chains around its body, trying to move them away from his skin. You turned for a moment, shining your light back at the two bundles you had seen before.

One of them with a red badge, the other with a yellow one. At least one set of students had found the Guardian before you. They had chosen to destroy it, not able to solve the riddle. Looking at the two skeletons in this room, you now had clear evidence that there had been at least one group to pass the test before you.

You shined the light to the other end of the room, were a corridor branched out, leading down into darkness. It seemed that you were not the first to explore these ruins of old.

"I ask you again," you said, as you raised the end of the chain you were still holding and dangled it in front of the creature's eyes.

"What are you?"

"Pain! I am in so much pain!"

Had the students behind you screamed those words in their deaths and taught them to the monster?

You hesitated for a second, before pushing the end of the chain into its face. Another screech. After a few moments, you let go of him. The area where you had pushed a chain into his face was swelling and turning dark as you looked at him.

"Please, stop!" It screamed, the words clear still. When he started to deviate from the script of pleading for mercy, his words became broken, mixing in things, you didn't understand. "I will … mûghat-atârum… baduzg … teach. I will teach," the creature said.

And with that, he caught your attention. Its eyes widened in surprise when it saw you drop the end of the chain. It took the creature a moment for his eyes to find yours. There was pain in its face. Pain and rage.

"What do you want to teach me?" You asked, crouching down to it. The foul smell that had radiated out of the room and the monster, had turned into the smell of burned flesh.

"Quûrub," it said, its voice slow and dark. Still fighting against the pain, its yellow eye fell away every few moments to check for the chains it was trying to keep away from its body.

"I don't understand," you said. "What is that?"

The creature looked at you, his lips moving soundlessly as if he was searching for words. "Pact," he said in the end. "Pact, I will show you Pact."

"Then show me," you said. Here the creature shook his head vehemently.

"No! Free me! First!"

Instead of answering him, you raised the chain again and brought it dangerously close to its face. The creature turned his head to the left, shying away from it, but didn't dare to move the rest of his body to not move the chains again.

"I will show. Pact," it said. "I will show Pact. The khatar … book. Book with Bloody-Gryffindor."

Your expression froze when you understood the meaning of those words. The way the creature in front of you spoke, as if he was mixing words together that he had once heard, memorized or otherwise stored. He said 'bloody Gryffindor' as if it was a word, a name even.

The creature in front of you, who had tried to kill you, had most surely been around the set of skeletons, when they had still been alive. You didn't ask it, if it had killed them, because you knew the answer already. Instead, you stood back up, still holding on tightly to the chain and backed up to the corpse with the red badge on its chest.

The black robe was still mostly intact, even if the corpse inside wasn't. You had no way of telling how much time had passed since their deaths. Carefully dropping the wand between your legs to have one hand free, you crouched down next to the corpse. While your right hand searched for something hidden below the robes, you looked over to the dead Hufflepuff student. Did he call the student in front of you a 'bloody Gryffindor'? Or had there been others around that had either survived or gone deeper into the dungeons and died?

Those were questions for another day. A book found its way into your hands. It was old, possibly ancient even. The binding was barely holding the insides together. When you opened it, a few pages fell to the ground. You carefully picked them up again, before letting the book down and shining your wand at it.

Your fingers slowly brushed over the parchment, before you started flipping through it. If this wasn't dark, you didn't know what would qualify. You could tell that it had been a common book once, there were some scribblings still to make out under the new writing. Once it had been nothing that would have caught your attention. Now, red and brown letters were covering most of the old text. Parts of the letters were in English, others were in a set of runes you had never seen before.

The wand left the book for a moment, to shine at the creature that was still standing at its place, trying to stay still inside the chains. His hateful eyes were still watching you closely. You closed the hand around the end of the chain tighter as you looked down at the book again.

The creature had covered the book with his own writing. A book that had been likely carried by either this group or another into this cave had turned into something evil and dark. Where the creature had not found quill nor ink, it had used blood and shit for its writings. You flipped the book with its large, hideous writings to the second half, where the layout started to change.

Gone was the old, but processed parchment, instead you found yourself confronted with rough patches of a leathery material. Skin. The second half of the book was written on dried skin. And down here, you saw only one source for this. Your eyes found the set of skeletons again. Had they been dead, when the creature started cutting into them? Where they screaming and pleading him to stop, when it ripped out their skins?

Your eyes scanned over the words you understood and roamed over those you didn't. It may take quite a bit of work, but you should be able to understand its teachings in the end. You studied the dark book in peace, flashing your wand upwards to check for the creature every few minutes, as you tried to make out the topic of the book.

"These are for bindings?" You asked the creature from your spot next to the Gryffindor.

"Yes, binding. Pact. This for Pact." Its voice was cracking still, every word like a mirror that broke gainst the ground.

You found a few passages in the book that you could understand. It explained the structure of a binding – a magical contract of sorts between different creatures. While it alluded to the possibility of creating such Pacts against a will, the book only explained a form of bilateral agreement. It explained how to magically form such a contract and how to keep it in place. Only now did you understand why the creature had created this item. It was a token of security. If it ever found itself in this a situation, in which its life was at danger, the creature would propose a Pact with its captor.

And as if the monster knew, that you had finally understood, it opened its mouth again. The voice was nothing but a whisper this time: "A Pact … Quûrub. Teach and safe for freedom."

You looked into its yellow eye.

Helga's words came to mind again. Brave you had been, that had never lacked you, because you were always guided by curiosity, which was stronger than any fear. But she had called you to be also cunning and for the first time did you understand why. The world you had discovered was a dangerous one, yes. It was one where you would need to develop your magic and skills to contest the many shadows and beasts, but it was also one for the cunning and smart. After your first step, you had already stumbled upon the concept of Pacts – a kind of bilateral agreement that could not be broken by either side.

You would need this knowledge for the way down. This and many other things. For it seemed that not even Hufflepuff herself, able to create the Guardian and the riddle above, had been able to conquer this place. A place dark and dangerous. Something that you had never seen before, nor even thought possible.

This place was calling you and even more …

It was telling you to decide for the first time.



How would you decide?

[ ] A Soul for a Soul – Take the book with you, but do not form any kind of Pact with the creature. You can't let it roam free, so you will kill it on the spot. End its miserable life. You will not be able to carry the dead back on your way to the Castle. But you will at least have avenged their deaths.

[ ] The Smell of Freedom – Trick it into agreeing to form a pact with you in exchange for you to free him. Once you learn the first steps of how to form a pact, free him (fulfilling the agreed upon conditions) and then kill him. You will not be able to carry the dead back on your way to the Castle. But you will at least have avenged their deaths.

[ ] A Pact, I agree – Agree to form a Pact. But you want more than just this book. The creature will be freed by your hand. In return it will swear to not harm you and share with you all the knowledge you need to further explore the deeper levels once you return.



→ Dark Arts enabled. The skill can now be trained.

→ + 200 EXP for the completion of the first Stage. → Level up!



Three-hour Moratorium! As always, please take time to discuss the chapter and the vote first.