As they descended the staircase, still amazed by the unbelievable events of the night, Professor Sinistra remarked, –I always wondered why that side of the parapet was so thick. I guess it was built that way to accommodate the staircase.â€
Rose added, –It must go all the way down to the main part of the castle, unless it ends partway down. I don’t think there’s room for anything else in this tower except staircases.â€
–You’re right,†Scorpius agreed. –And there’s no reason for it not to go all the way. But if it was blocked at the top, it might have been blocked at the bottom also.â€
–If it was blocked. It may have simply been closed at the top by a spell, in which case it might well be intact at the bottom,†Rose argued. –Professor Sinistra, is there any room or corridor at the base of the tower that shows evidence of the opening of a staircase?â€
–Not that I know of,†Professor Sinistra replied, as the three of them continued down, step by step, towards the corridor. –But the Astronomy Tower was one of the last additions to the main body of the castle. It was not here when the castle was first built.â€
–It wasn’t? How far up did the original construction extend?†Rose asked.
–About as high as the ceiling of my office, I think. The celestial sphere classroom is a part of the later addition.â€
Listening to this exchange, Scorpius was struck by how Rose’s manner of thinking reminded him of her mother’s. He had met Hermione on several occasions, and he could hear echoes of her analytical thinking in her daughter’s speech.
They proceeded downwards in silence. The vision of the meteorite strike had been pushed out of Scorpius’ mind by the conundrum of the newly discovered staircase. He frowned; something didn’t make sense here. He tried to sort it out in his mind, and suddenly he realized what was bothering him — the two staircases must have been built at the same time, the main staircase that everyone used, broad and well lit, where two or three could walk abreast, and the steeper, narrow, unlit staircase concealed in the wall, where people would be obliged to ascend or descend single file.
He voiced this puzzle by saying, –So why did they need two staircases up to the top of the tower, one broad and easy to climb, the other hidden and narrow, probably built at the same time?â€
After a few seconds Professor Sinistra answered, –Maybe the staircase you discovered was never meant for going up. Maybe it was meant for going down.â€
–What do you mean?†Rose asked in tones of surprise.
–An escape route from the top of the tower. To prevent being trapped by enemies coming up the main stairs. The Battle of Hogwarts is not the only battle this castle has seen. As you have observed during your years here, this castle is in many ways like a fortress. In the days when it was built, everything was a fortress, as well as whatever other functions the buildings had, such as palaces or churches or guildhalls or monasteries. Everything needed to be defensible. Outside the walls, the world was lawless and perilous.â€
Scorpius shook his head faintly. It was strange to think about the earliest days of Hogwarts, when things were not exactly as they were at his present time. An incomplete castle, primitive magic, harsh living conditions, those early witches and wizards all banded together for survival in an environment of danger and desolation…
They reached the bottom of the stairs and headed down the corridor, led by Professor Sinistra. Eventually they arrived at Professor Sprout’s private quarters, a place where Scorpius had never been before, and they banged loudly on the door to rouse the headmistress.
Soon they heard her voice crying out, –I’m coming, I’m coming,†and a few seconds later the door was opened by Professor Sprout, clad in a dressing gown and running her fingers through her hair for a quick comb-out.
Professor Sinistra spoke first.
–Professor Sprout, the castle has been hit by a meteorite. It has broken off part of the parapet of the Astronomy Tower, but I believe that no one has been injured.â€
Scorpius was surprised at how terse this initial statement was. There was no –We were up on the tower to look at the constellation of the Scorpion through the telescope, and then we saw a big meteor shower, and we saw one come closer and closer, and it was blazing bright, etc. etc.†Her statement had been stripped down to the barest of essentials: name of the event, damage report, casualty report.
I’ve got to remember that for next time, he thought. It sounded so professional. A detail-filled lead-in, such as he might have given, would have sounded childish. The details can come afterwards, he realized, and a long-winded explanation about why they had gone up to the tower in the first place could come much, much later.
Professor Sprout invited them in to her chambers.
–A meteorite has hit the castle, you say? Sit down. Tell me more. How do you know about this? And why are these children with you?â€
Scorpius winced at the word ‘children’; he was already eighteen years old, but he concluded that to Professor Sprout all the students were children.After I leave school, people won’t call me a child anymore, he reflected.
Professor Sinistra settled herself on a chair. She looks tired, Scorpius thought. He and Rose sat upright, side by side on a settee, leaning forward a little.
–I was on the tower with Mr. Malfoy and Miss Weasley to observe through the telescope a southerly constellation that is barely visible in our latitudes. While we were there, a meteorite struck the tower and shattered a considerable portion of the parapet. There is a lot of broken stone on the tower platform, and I am sure there is much stony debris in the courtyard below also.â€
–And the meteorite too,†Rose interjected.
–And you say no one was injured?†Professor Sprout continued.
–We three were protected by a Shield charm,†Professor Sinistra explained, –and I greatly doubt that anyone was in the courtyard at that hour.â€
–When did it happen?â€
–About half an hour ago.â€
Scorpius felt impelled to make it clear that Professor Sinistra was the one who had put up the Shield, not he or Rose; she deserved the credit.
–Professor Sinistra put up the Shield faster than I’ve ever seen. She saved our lives, Rose and me. The blow was tremendous; it knocked us off our feet and threw these great boulders everywhere. Didn’t you hear it, Headmistress?â€
–Half an hour ago? I was asleep, but I seem to remember hearing something that sounded like thunder, and I vaguely thought that clouds must have come in after I went to bed.â€
–No, there were no clouds,†Scorpius asserted. –The sky was perfectly clear.â€
–What is the extent of the damage?†Professor Sprout asked, turning to Professor Sinistra.
–A large section of the parapet is gone or partially gone. We think the point of impact was where the parapet meets the platform floor on the side next to the courtyard.â€
–Well, our first and immediate duty is to check the courtyard at once, to ensure that no one was there or was injured by falling rock. Then, when the sun rises, we can inspect the tower itself and arrange for repairs.†She chuckled to herself. –A meteorite. My, my. Who would have dreamed it? A meteorite during my tenure. You know, people used to think these things were omens, a long time ago.â€
She suddenly became solemn and turned toward Professor Sinistra. –You could have been killed.â€
Professor Sprout stood up. –Let me put on my cloak and shoes and we’ll go outside.†She conjured lanterns for all of them, and they all left her quarters, proceeding through the dim corridors to a door that opened onto the courtyard.
–When are we going to mention the staircase?†Rose whispered to Scorpius.
–I don’t know,†he whispered back. –After we check for victims, I guess. She’s right; we do need to do this.â€
–There’s nobody here.â€
–You’re probably right, but we won’t know for sure until we look. I wouldn’t put it past some people I know to sneak out.â€
–Like us!†Rose laughed quietly.
They fanned out into the courtyard, their lanterns held high. Broken stone and boulders met their view, much as they had seen on the top of the tower, but the debris field extended over all the courtyard. Where the boulders had landed on earth, they were partially buried in the dirt; where they had landed on pavement, the walkways were honeycombed with cracks.
Professor Sprout assigned them each a quadrant of the courtyard to search.
–Go over your territory systematically,†she instructed, waving her hand to demonstrate a back-and-forth search pattern. They listened carefully for cries, concentrating on the slightest possible sound, then called out –Is anyone there? Is anyone hurt? Homenum Revelio!†Hearing nothing, they traversed the courtyard, their pools of lantern light moving back and forth as they covered every square inch.
Satisfied that no one had been in the courtyard at the time of the meteorite strike, they reassembled by the door. The deep black of the midnight sky was lightening up; now it was only a dark, velvety blue, and Scorpius noticed that the myriad faint stars he had seen when he was up on the tower were fading out, though the bigger stars still shone brightly. He held his lantern to his wristwatch; it was about three o’clock in the morning. Merlin, what a night! And it wasn’t over yet.
–Did you see the meteorite?†Scorpius asked Rose quietly as they stood by the door.
–Not in my quadrant.â€
–Me neither.â€
–Maybe we missed it in the dark,†Rose suggested.
–I know an easy way to find it,†Scorpius said.
–What’s that?†Rose asked.
–If they say a Repairing charm, the broken stones will fly up onto the tower to reassemble themselves, and only the meteorite will be left, because it wasn’t part of the tower,†Scorpius told her, feeling ingenious.
–Then you could say Accio meteorite and it will fly right to you.â€
–I’m not sure I want a giant space rock flying towards me. Once was quite enough. I’ll let it remain quietly on the ground while I walk up to it.†He laughed softly.
–You know something?†Rose said. –We might not ever find the meteorite.â€
–Huh? Why not?†Scorpius asked.
–When it hit the wall, I’ll bet the wall wasn’t the only thing that broke. I’ll bet the meteorite broke too. It’s probably in a thousand little pieces all over the ground.â€
–Oh.†He was again struck by how much Rose resembled her mother in the way her mind worked. She thought of everything; nothing escaped her. He felt a momentary flash of pride that she was his girlfriend.
–Well,†he said, –in that case we won’t have a big rock to put in the Hogwarts Museum. We’ll have to Summon a big pile of fragments, and everyone can take a piece home as a souvenir.â€
They had re-entered the castle and were walking along the corridor now in the direction of Professor Sprout’s quarters, the two professors in front, discussing the events of the night, and the two students following them. Rose and Scorpius fell silent. They did not know what role they had to play in the further developments, but they did not want to be left out, and they guessed that it would be to their advantage to remain unobtrusive so that they would not be sent back to their dorms.
Scorpius was feeling exuberant with the optimism of youth. Less than two hours earlier he had escaped death by a whisker, but now it seemed, in retrospect, nothing more than a fantastic adventure, and he looked forward with intense curiosity to exploring the mysterious staircase that the meteorite had uncovered.
–I’m anxious to see the damage as soon as it becomes light,†Professor Sprout said as they walked briskly along the corridor. –Frankly, I’m impressed — no, astounded — by the volume of rock ejected by this blast. What time does the sun rise, Aurora?â€
–Sunrise is at about four-thirty, though it’s pretty light by four. But there’s something else we have to talk about. There’s more up there on the tower than just broken stone.â€
–What do you mean, ‘more up there on the tower’?â€
–When the parapet was broken off, it revealed something: a staircase that I have never seen before, leading down into the wall.â€
–A staircase, you say? Do you know anything about it?â€
–No, I was completely unaware of its presence there until tonight.â€
Professor Sprout went on to inquire about the appearance and details of this unexpected find, but the Astronomy professor could not add much more information.
–We will go up there as soon as there is enough light to see,†the headmistress decided, –before the students start waking up.â€
They had arrived at her door, and she turned her head to address Scorpius and Rose.
–I think you two can go off to your dormitories now. You have been up much longer than intended, and you must be very tired.â€
Scorpius was appalled. To be dismissed now, after all they had been through!
–Oh, no, Professor!†he blurted out. –We can’t leave now, not after what has happened. We have to see this through to the end.â€
–Yes,†Rose pleaded. –We’re part of this too. Don’t send us away.â€
The professors seemed startled by the vehemence of their protests. –Well, I suppose we can let them stay,†Professor Sinistra suggested. –They’re both of age.â€
–Yes,†Scorpius agreed promptly. –I’m already eighteen years old.â€
Rose kept her eyes fixed on the professors with a pleading expression on her face.
Professor Sprout looked back and forth at the two students. –All right,†she said finally, –you can stay. We will go back up the tower at sunrise, and you may come with us.â€
Gratified by their reprieve, Scorpius and Rose followed their teachers into the headmistress’ quarters again, where the rose basket and the telescope were sitting on the floor, seemingly forgotten, left there when they had all gone out to check the courtyard. What a bizarre night!
Rose and Scorpius sat down on the settee, and Professor Sprout offered to make tea, and opened a box of biscuits. Soon Rose was beginning to nod; her head drooped lower and lower, then suddenly she jerked awake again, and after this cycle had repeated a few times, Scorpius murmured to her, –Just let yourself nap for a bit,†and she laid her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes.
He tried to follow the professors’ conversation; they were mentioning the Chamber of Secrets, but he seemed to be missing portions of the conversation, and the next thing he knew was that Professor Sinistra was shaking his shoulder. He opened his eyes to see that the room was bright with early daylight, and he realized that he had fallen asleep.
Professor Sinistra was bending over him. –We are going up to the tower again to investigate your mysterious staircase. Do you still want to come?â€
Scorpius was instantly alert. Of course he wanted to come. –Wake up, Rose. Time to get up. We’re going back up on the tower.â€
Professor Sprout appeared with a camera, saying she wanted to photograph the damage, and Professor Sinistra picked up her telescope. Rose and Scorpius got stiffly to their feet, and they all set off for the Astronomy Tower, Professor Sinistra stopping briefly on the way at her office to drop off the telescope.
–Whatever we find at the bottom of that staircase, we won’t need a telescope to see it,†she said.
Scorpius was tense with anticipation, and his mind was working at double speed. What would they find? Skeletons? Treasure? A basilisk? A closet with dusty odds and ends of broken equipment? The professors too were discussing what lay ahead. From their remarks he inferred that they were continuing their conversation of the previous night when he had fallen asleep. They had apparently concluded that it was not the same as the Chamber of Secrets because the tower had been built too late, after the era of the Founders. But they seemed eager to penetrate this mystery.
Scorpius was surprised at how fast old ladies could walk when they wanted to. When they reached the bottom of the stairs up to the tower, their pace hardly slowed. They began to climb, and it occurred to Scorpius to count the steps as they went up. Then when they started to go down the newly discovered staircase, they could count the steps going down and have an idea of how far they had gone. So he balled one hand into a fist and began to count in the back of his mind: one, two, three… When he reached ten, he released one finger and began again with one, two, three…
They passed the entrance to the celestial sphere classroom. Was it only less than five hours ago that he had been in there playing with Magman? It seemed like an eternity.
When all five fingers were released from his fist, they were fifty steps up, and he started over. By the time they reached the locked wooden door at the top, he had counted eighty-one steps.
–I counted eighty-one steps up to here,†he told Rose. –Remember that.â€
Professor Sinistra unlocked the door, and they stepped out onto the platform in the light of the barely-risen sun.
–Merlin’s beard!†Professor Sprout exclaimed. –Look at the destruction! This reminds me of the Battle of Hogwarts. Doesn’t it remind you too, Aurora? You’re right! There’s a big chunk missing.â€
It looked so different in the early morning sunlight. The clear sky was a vast light blue dome, starless, though Scorpius knew that up there, blotted out by the sun, were the stars he knew so well from the winter sky. The early morning sun bathed the scene, the tower, the rest of the castle, and the far hills and trees, with hues of apricot and gold.
–Right over there,†Professor Sprout said, pointing to the opposite side of the parapet, –we took a stand and threw deadly plants down on the heads of the invaders. I had some students with me — Professor Longbottom was one of them — they were brave.â€
Scorpius was immensely glad that she remembered brave students doing heroic deeds on the tower; that history legitimized his and Rose’s presence there this day. In fact, some of those students had been younger than he was. If they had been allowed to fight, surely he would be allowed to go down the stair. He and Rose would be able to participate fully.
–It will take some strong spell work to repair all this damage,†Professor Sprout went on, and Scorpius vaguely wondered if she would be willing to teach him those spells so that he could assist. He liked being competent, having a large arsenal of tools at his disposal, and feeling that he was in control.
She took out her camera. –I’ll just take a few pictures here,†she said, and she snapped images of the stone-littered platform, the partially demolished parapet, and the view of the courtyard below. –Now show me the staircase opening.â€
Scorpius moved over to the broken parapet. It was much easier to navigate around the rock debris in the daylight than it had been at night. He pointed to the location in the jagged stone.
–This is the place. It is obviously a staircase.†What had been hard to characterize in the dark was easy to identify in the light, and the three women clustered around him and peered down into the hole. They could all see the steps going down. Scorpius had been able to see barely four steps the previous night with his wand light, but now he could count six steps before the stair wound out of sight. Gravel was scattered over the surface of the treads. They all stared for a minute or two.
Professor Sinistra broke the silence. –Well, what shall we do?â€
–It needs to be investigated,†Professor Sprout answered. –No reason to think it’s any more dangerous than any old abandoned closet or attic.â€
Time for me to speak out, Scorpius thought. –I suggest that I go first. I’m the biggest of us all, and if I slipped while standing at the back of the line, I would take you all out like ninepins.†Who knows? Maybe it’s true. –It’s very narrow. We’ll have to go single file. Accio gravel on the stairs!
The gravel rose up and hung before him in the air, and he scooped handfuls and dumped them onto the platform until the stairs appeared to be clear of particles that could roll under their feet.
–Very well, Mr. Malfoy, you may go first.†Professor Sprout agreed. –You seem to have a proprietary interest in this stair, having been the first person to identify it.â€
He looked back into the hole of the stairwell, envisioning the descent, and then conjured a belt to tie around his robes and cinch them close to his body. Seeing this, the others did likewise. Scorpius stepped up onto the stub of the parapet, trying not to look over the edge, and began to descend the first few steps.
"Lumos Maximus!"
The treads were narrow, and his feet did not fit on them unless he turned his feet a little to the side. I wonder if people had smaller feet when this stair was built. They were probably smaller in general.
Down a few steps more, one by one, slowly. The stair was beginning to curve around the tower and the morning light was receding behind him. The stairwell was becoming very dark, now lit only by his wand. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten…
He was acutely aware that one misstep, one overbalance could cause him to fall. There had been a time, a few years ago, when he had fallen headfirst down a flight of stone steps at home and had hit his head at the bottom. It had been only seven steps, but he had cracked his skull, and the blood had come pouring out of the crushed bone, instantly forming a big hematoma under the skin. By the time he could be seen by a mediwitch, it had been too late to ameliorate the injury completely; his eyes had blackened and had swollen shut. It had taken two weeks for the hematoma, the bruising, and the swelling to resolve, and even now, three years later, if he drew his fingers lightly across his forehead, he could feel the outlines of the bone callus that had formed above his right eye. He had absolutely no desire to repeat that experience.
Scorpius stopped descending and called back to the women above him.
–There’s no handrail, and I’ll feel a lot safer if I brace both my hands on either side of this stairwell. So I’ll hold my wand in my teeth, which means that I won’t be able to talk so much. Let’s stay about ten steps apart. I’ve gone ten steps now. It was eighty-one steps up; we’ll see how many steps it is going down. Okay?â€
Voices floated down to him. –We’ll do that.†–I’ll go next, okay, Professor?†–What do you see?â€
–Rough stone walls,†Scorpius called back up. –Be careful; the treads are narrow. Nobody’s in a hurry.â€
He gripped his wand in his teeth, braced his hands firmly on the rough stone walls, and carefully descended another step. And another. And another. Lower and lower. Twenty, twenty-one, twenty-two.
A memory flashed into his mind; people said that if you went down into a deep well and looked up, you could see the stars in the daytime. He wondered if it was true. But this stairway curved; you could not look straight up. He would not be able to see the stars from here.
Thirty, thirty-one, thirty two. He sincerely doubted Professor Sinistra’s theory, expressed the previous night, that this stair had been an escape route from the top of the tower. No one could flee down this stair. In fact, it would be easier to go up than down because at least you could place the ball of your foot squarely on the tread.
Forty, forty-one, forty-two. He stopped, took his wand out of his mouth, and called out, –I’ve stopped momentarily to talk. I’m at step number forty-two. Maybe we’re halfway down. Are you doing okay?â€
For a horrible moment he feared that there would be no answer, but in a few seconds he began to get answers, and he deduced that they had been carrying their wands between their teeth also.
–What do you think?†he called to them. –Do we keep going?â€
–So far, so good.†Rose’s voice came down the stairwell. He believed that she was the next one behind him, and the professors were farther back. He could hear faint voices without being exactly able to understand the words, and then Rose’s voice again said, –We’re good. Let’s keep going.â€
So he did.
Fifty, fifty-one, fifty-two. His entire body was tense as he lowered himself, step by step, placing both feet on each tread and moving his bracing hands on the rough cold walls with each step, gripping his wand in his teeth.
Sixty, sixty-one, sixty-two. Dear Merlin, let there be something down here that makes this trip worthwhile. Let it not end in a solid wall!
Seventy, seventy-one, seventy-two. Surely it won’t go any farther than the base of the modern Astronomy Tower. Let it not go any lower.
He stopped again, removed his wand from his teeth, and called out, –I’m at step seventy-two now. Merlin willing, I’m close to the end.â€
–Oh, I hope so,†Rose’s voice answered. –Did you hear that? He says he’s at step seventy-two now.â€
Scorpius could hear other voices farther up and instantly felt encouraged again. They were all still coming; they had his back. He started down once more. Surely this would be the final stretch.
Eighty, eighty-one, eighty-two. To his dismay, the stairs continued down, in violation of his expectation that step eighty-one would be the last. Now his previous conviction was thrown to the wind; he had thought — no, hoped — that he would be able to predict what would happen, but now he realized that that had never been true.
It was decision time. If I turn around now, it will have all been for nothing. I can’t do that. I can’t throw this all away. I am Scorpius. What did I say, that I learned to leave my comfortable home and travel far away? I never meant far into the depths of the castle, but what do I know?
Yet even as his mind debated, his hands and feet kept moving forward. Down, down.
Ninety, ninety-one, ninety-two. And his wand light finally showed him something different. No longer was it the endless descent of steps; it shone on a flat surface, the floor of a passage. He stood there, at the base of the ninety-second step, and stared down the passage, then took his wand out of his mouth and held it forward. The passage was no wider than the stair had been, and as he took a few steps forward he noticed that the roof of the passage was scarcely higher than his head.
People were shorter in those days, he thought.
At the end of the passage, about fifteen feet away, he could see a stair going up again.
What in the world?
He started along the passage. It was a relief to be able to walk on the flat, without having to brace himself and lower himself down, step by step, always fearing a catastrophic fall, but the respite was only for a few seconds, a half dozen strides, and then he was at the foot of the new stair. It was different from the stair he had come down; it was a little wider, and instead of curving, it went up straight.
Thankful for these changes and interpreting them as a sign of progress, he clamped his wand between his teeth again and started up. One, two, three…
But this flight of stairs was short. By the time he had climbed six steps, he could see that they ended a little farther up. And a few seconds later he was at the top. He took his wand in his hand and held it out, and the light from its tip spread out in all directions, illuminating a large, still, and empty chamber.