RP: The Running of the Maze (5th Festival)

[the_anon_entity]

Date: 1 May 2003
Character(s): The Entity, others
Location: The Maze outside the Mansion
Status: Very Public
Summary: The Fifth Festival
Completion: Incomplete

Comments

[anon_katie]

The light breeze was comforting on a day that was repulsing her to the core. The weather seemed at odds with what she was feeling. Katie slipped her foot out of her thong and ran her toes through soft grass. She listened to It speak and tried to keep a cap on her emotions. George’s presence was comforting as Katie tried to avoid looking at the massive amount of shrubbery that sprawled before her. Mazes were just puzzles waiting to be solved.

She glanced over at him, pulled out of her own reverie by a word she didn’t quite recognize. She shook her head and rested her head on his shoulder. The past few months had been interesting. She’d never been engaged before, or, for that matter, in a long term relationship. A herd of Kneazles romped through her stomach as she thought about their future together. Shaking off her nerves she sniffled, her throat itching and her eyes watery.

She looked at the hedges in disgust. “I’m not worried about the maze,” she murmured. Katie had an excellent sense of direction and her near-photographic memory helped her in situations like these. It was the details that always mattered. Her contemptuous feelings probably reverberated through its thoughts but she didn’t care. She felt as thought she were nothing more then fodder for a parasite. Her essence was fueling this town. Feeding it. It disgusted her.

Katie yawned and scratched the top of her runny nose. She didn’t want to be here. She deplored these ridiculous, egocentric gatherings that rarely seemed to have a positive outcome. The past few weeks had her busy with research and reconnaissance. She couldn’t, in good conscience, not participate in a festival. A reluctant sigh escaped her and she tucked her hand into George’s.

An overwhelming sadness flowed through her when he jumped in without her. That sense of abandonment filled her and she hurried in behind him.

[anon_george]

He most definitely was not a happy little Wizard, knowing that his most lovely fiancée was probably gallivanting through this maze by herself without George there to protect her. Of course, it would have probably been Katie just as much protecting George as George would protect her but that was all water under the toilet seat. He shivered at that thought. This was not what he’d suspected when they’d entered the maze.

It was stifling in here and the still air was oppressive. George had seen others enter the maze, yet he didn’t hear a sound and it seemed the labyrinth had taken on an eerie, ghost-like quality that made him begin to sweat, even though it was a cool spring day with a breeze that had wisped gently across him as they had approached the maze.

“Only there is no ‘we’ right now and I need to go on ahead and find Katie Bell before I go nuts in here.” His voice rose a few octaves, screaming as he wondered if others would hear him. He doubted it though and the sense of being alone was maddening, especially for George who had grown up in a large family and had Fred by his side through most of his life.

It seemed that even the shrubbery lining the pathway was closing in on him, adding to the sense of forlornness. George was just about to yell again when something thwacked his arse. He hopped up and grabbed his bottom before he turned around and looked for his attacker. George didn’t see anything behind him and he began to walk again.

smack

George yowled and he was sure that his perfect little bottom was marred for life as he whipped around again and this time caught a rustling behind him. He began to run, the rising sense of panic gripping him as he churned down the pathway and felt suddenly the sense of loneliness was gone, replaced by a scary arse panicky thingy like one of those Muggle movies. A branch brushed against his arm and then another seemed to grab his ankle and he toppled forward, doing a half roll before hopping up and running again.

The pathway narrowed once more and George realized that somehow, the hedges had come alive and were in hot pursuit of him. Twigs and sticks smacked him in the face, sharp ends cut up his hands and arms while he turned sideways, slicing through the formerly pretty bush like structures that now seemed to hate him for some unknown reason.

A particularly large hedge fell on his head and George yelped as the roots dug into him and he wiped the dirt away from his eyes to see he’d emerged into a small clearing. He skidded to a halt when he saw an overly large bloke, dressed as a knight or some what standing before him, looking quite ominous and making the oddest sound.

George gulped as he looked up at the man with the tangled beard and beady eyes hidden by a full helm with the oddest horns sticking out of it. He smiled weakly as he gazed upon the man and asked, “Who are you?”

“We are the keepers of the sacred words: 'Ni', 'Peng', and 'Neee-wom'!” The knight bellowed and a chorus of voices joined him. “We demand a sacrifice.”

George held out his hands, knowing he was in a tough spot and pleaded. “I am but a simple traveler who seeks my hot arse girlfriend…well, fiancée mind you who is somewhere in these woods…I mean maze.” He held his ears as a chorus of odd sounds seemed to pummel him and he was about to beg them to stop but instead asked, “What do you want?”

“We want a shrubbery!” The knight demanded.

He was about to beg off, telling them he didn’t know where to find a shrubbery when his eyes lit up and he reached up, plucking the attack hedge from his head before he asked, “Will this do?”

“Sure.” The voices replied in chorus.

George smiled. “Alrighty then.”

He moved past the tall knights and continued on his way.

[anon_katie]

Katie's feet hit the ground but the dust that she had expected didn't rise. Instead, she found herself barefoot on a tiled floor. The bright, whiteness of the blinding tile had her squinting. She looked around, confused, unable to see George. Katie trailed her fingers across the cool tile. It was decorated with red brooms and gold snitches.

Again, Katie frowned. She didn't recognize anything about this place. She began a leisurely stroll through the maze. It smelled odd. Like cleaners and, she sniffed. "Is that sewage?" she asked aloud. Katie sighed as she looked around the tiled room. "It's a bathroom."

Katie stepped around a corner, her wand drawn and found herself standing in the throne room itself. A bright, white light shown down on a golden toilet seat. It was burnished and smooth and sparkled in the light. The tank was decorated with a red lion Her brows knitted together in a frown and she stepped closer. Evidently that was a bad thing to do. The golden toilet opened, the lid slowly creaking, barely making a sound.

SPLAT! Katie looked down in horror as she stared at the excrement that had landed in the center of her chest, covering her skin with a disgusting concoction of bodily waste. "Merlin's pant!" she gasped.

SPLAT! This time it hit the side of her face and her stomach rolled from the stench. She heard the grumbling from the toilet and ducked as another bout of, well, shite, hurled itself at her. "Oh God," she muttered, ducking behind a column. Katie waved her wand, muttering a cleaning charm.

"It's still there," she muttered, trying to get the messy substance off of her. Sighing, she stood up and took a deep breath. Katie had battled worse things before. "Course nothing smelled this bad," she gagged.

"I come for you Katie Bell!" the toilet roared. She peaked around the column as the toilet gurgled and snarled at her. The lid gleamed and beckoned to her. She couldn't help the pull and she slowly walked towards the toilet even as it continued to hurl poo at her.

The lights seemed to dim and the only thing in her sight, the only thing she could see was that beautiful toilet. It called to her and she stepped closer and knelt before it. The seat moved slowly, opening as the crystal clear water gurgled at her. She didn't under a sound as she felt an invisible hand push her head into the cold liquid. She sighed into the water, happy and content. Her eyes began to darken and suddenly, George's face flashed before her.

Katie gasped and began to struggle as the waves of blackness began to take her into a dark place filled with toilets and regurgitating feces. She felt, what she thought, was the familiar touch of George's hand on her shoulder and it was his memory, his presence that pulled her out.

Gasping for air, Katie dripped over the tiled floor and raised her wand at the roaring toilet. Something struck her as odd. So odd in fact, that she began to laugh. The toilet seemed confused by this.

"Stop!" it growled. But Katie continued to laugh. "My God," she gasped, trying to catch her breath. "It's a bloody toilet." Her laughter seemed to stop it from throwing poo and it also seemed to confuse it, much like a boggart.

"Like a boggart," she murmured, still laughing. "What do you want?"

The toilet said nothing, it just gurgled at her. Katie looked around and then it dawned on her. She stepped towards the toilet and slowly turned her back and sat down on the polished gold.

She heard a sigh of contentment that came from the toilet. Katie sat there for a few minutes, hair wet from toilet water and covered in shite. "What the bloody hell is this?"

When she felt it was safe, and the toilet content, Katie stood and gave a feeble wave. Another gurgle of contentment bubbled up from the water and sent a spray of water at her, cleaning the feces from her clothes.

[anon_george]

George was still brushing the dirt off from his first quest when he looked up and saw that he was standing in a dungeon, the stone walls making him feel as if he were entombed. He looked down and saw that he seemed to be covered in some type of animal skin thing that molded to his female form very well. “I look stunning.” George commented to himself and ran his hands over the lacquered black supple leather. He had breasts, nice breasts, familiar breasts and he pulled out the slim sword he was carrying, looking into the steel of the blade. “I’m you.” He said with more than a bit of wonder in his voice and took off the midnight dark helm he was wearing when he noticed he was Katie herself.

“This is odd.” He chuckled and thought about stripping off his armor to see if it was true but something whizzed by his head and George jumped away, his long blonde hair flouncing into his face. George heard another clatter and felt something prick the back of his arm. “Youch!” He yelped, then twisted his arm around to see an arrow sticking out of his flesh. “Bloody Hell!”

He threw himself behind an overturned table and then peered around the surface to see two blue trolly like things firing arrows at him. George took inventory and was surprised to find a lacquered bow that matched the rest of his hot arse outfit. An arrow appeared in his hand and he nocked it on the bowstring before he stood up and pulled back on the string. George hadn’t really shot an arrow before but somehow he knew instinctively what he was doing.

“Brilliant.” He fired an arrow and watched a troll spin around before falling to the dungeon floor and an assortment of purple numbers appeared over the body’s head. George felt a bit bad until he heard a clang and another arrow bounced off his head. He shook his head violently and cleared out to cobwebs before he noticed the other troll charging him with a knife in hand. George looked down and saw that now the sword was in one hand and a shield in the other. “What the hell.” He groaned, lifting his shield just in time to block a vicious slash at his…well, her pretty head.

George sure wasn’t going to allow any trolly thing to mar her pretty, he meant his pretty face and he brought up his sword and heard a gurgling sound before he looked up and saw his attacker running away. He shook his sword, wait fishing pole at him and then waited before his bow appeared again.

He took off running and splatted face first into a wall before he turned around and ran over a table, did a spinning jump across a bench, then landed near the troll he had hacked at earlier who fell down and a bright yellow glow flashed around him, then he felt instantly stronger and more…ummm…vital. “Nice!” He jumped up, then turned around and saw what he thought he’d been brought here to do.

[anon_george]

George gripped his bow tightly when he noticed himself lying on a stone slab, his body curled up and around him on similar tables were others, some he recognized, some he didn’t. He understood now that this was Katie’s fear, one she’d never expressed, at least to him. There was Oliver, Ang, Alicia, and Fred along with people who he didn’t know and George realized what he needed to do to complete this task.

He ran over to Ange and set her free as he felt something with viciously sharp teeth bite him. George tossed off the creature and pulled out his bow, firing arrows in between releasing those who were held prisoner. He soon had everyone free except for himself and he was running over to do just that when a darkness filled the room. George looked up and saw the monstrosity standing in front of his own body, encased in an armor that seemed to suck every bit of light out of the room.

George fired an arrow, then another at the creature, watching as its armor seemed to devour each one. The creature’s blade slashed at him and George danced to the side before a mailed glove slammed into the side of his head. He took out his sword and shield and struck a mighty blow, watching the thing stagger, then hit him with another and another, his blows raining down on the creature until he looked out of the corner of his eye and saw his own body convulsing on the table every time he hit the beast’s armor.

He stopped then, breathing hard, Katie’s lithe body heaving and he realized that he was completely exhausted. The creature struck a blow and he fell to his knee, terror running through him as the full realization of Katie’s fear came to fruition and he knew exactly what helplessness meant. His mind raced but in the end, he realized there was only one thing he could do and rising up, he dropped his sword and felt the blow cleave her chest before he fell to her knees and pitched face forward onto the floor.

George woke in his own body an instant later and sat up before he jumped off the table and ran over to Katie. She opened her eyes and blinked before she asked weakly. “Did I save you?”

“Of course you did.” He answered with a soft smile although he didn’t just mean now. George pulled off her helm and his hand stroked through her hair. He knew this wasn’t real but the pang of loss still radiated in him and he leaned over, kissing her forehead, something pulsing between them before he said, “Now, it’s time to save you.”

[anon_katie]

Katie felt a squishy sensation between her toes and gagged when she looked down. She’d managed to step, barefoot, into a pile of poo. She shot a dirty look at the toilet and ducked around a corner and sat down, waving away the mess. When she looked up, her thongs sat in front of her and she carefully slipped her feet into the comfortable shoes. Heaving herself to her feet, she looked around, unable to decide which way to go.

In the end, she chose the left path and he noticed immediately when the maze began to change around here. The gleaming tile had disappeared and the bright light slowly dimmed around her. Sadly, the smell of raw sewage still permeated the air and Katie didn’t think that smell would ever leave. The air became cold, bitterly so. The wind picked up speed and bit rapidly at her bare arms and toes. The sky was grey and dark, the clouds swollen and the smell of snow seemed to permeate through the air. Pregnant clouds moved rapidly towards her and began to rapidly give birth to hostile snowflakes that danced around her in an unmitigated and antagonistic dance.

As the air grew colder, Katie’s instincts heightened. Her steps became slower, her heart beating just a bit faster. She found herself standing in front of WWW Redux, the bright, cheery lights were at odds with the foreboding atmosphere that perpetuated outdoors. The flames from the candle danced in the windows, calling to her. Warmth filled her body and she hurried up the icy steps and into the comforting surroundings of Fred and George’s shop.

[anon_katie]

The bell tinkled above her head as the door creaked open. The sight that greeted her stopped her in her tracks. Those happy lights, the dancing, warm flames were engulfing the back of the store. George stood in front of her, shaking, terrified. He wept openly and Katie gasped.

Ginny Weasley lay; face down on the floor, her head turned to one side, eyes unseeing. Molly and Arthur, clasped in each others arms, blood dripping grotesquely from their mouths. Bill, his body mutilated and torn to shreds and who she could only identify as Charlie, burned to a crisp. Percy was hanging by his neck, his fingers tightly coiled around the rope as though he had struggled to break free.

The site that had her nearly retching was the one of innocent and delicate Victoire Weasley. Her pale face stared unseeing into her non-existent future. Those bright, blue eyes were lifeless as she sat, slumped against the wall. Her dress was ripped and blood-stained. A small, dribble of blood the only thing to stain her porcelain skin,

“Oh God,” she gasped, trying to push her way through the monstrosity to George. He was kneeling in front of something, crying. Her heart broke with each sob of desperation as she felt the pain and loss of his family.

A long, thin and unmoving arm peeked out from behind the register counter. That familiar strand of blonde hair easily identified who it was. Katie stared down at her dead body, her stomach ripped open, brutally slashed. She shuddered, repulsed, she fell to her knees next to George.

“It’s not real,” she cried, desperately clawing at him. “None of this is real.” She was trying to convince someone who couldn’t hear or see her but with each shout she knew she had to get through to him.

“George,” she cried, shaking him, tearing at him. “Come back. Please. It’s not real. I’m right here! George please.”

Her cries of desperation and despair seemed oblivions to him and the heat of the flames began to move closer to the bodies and to them. She pulled him from the burning building, her lungs filled with smoke and her eyes burned from the flame soot. The smell of blood lingered in her nose, mixed with the scent of burning flesh and death.

He tried to break free from her, tried so desperately to save them, to not lose them. She felt helpless as George’s fear filled her up. They knelt in the snow, the cold air whipping around them. She moved in front of him, blocking the view as he stared unseeing through her.

“I won’t leave you,” she whispered, taking his face in her hands. “I’ll never leave you.” Her lips tenderly brushed his but her soft kiss spoke of love, and life and their future together. “I love you.”

She watched his eyes flutter shut and she knew her words, her love had reached him.

[anon_george]

Silence

It seemed it was all George would ever know, the indeterminable depths of solitude, the eerie quiet stretching into infinity.

He screamed.

There was no sound.

The moment stretched.

He was alone.

George refused to open his eyes and he struggled to move his body, his limbs, his hands, a toe then decided all he wanted to do was blink. But there was nothing and he realized that he was to forever be trapped inside his body. He could hear, the bustle of people around him, then it tapered off until there was no one and he was alone.

Katie.

He realized this was her, this was her agony, her pain, her torture after the incident in Hogsmeade, the cursed necklace and he understood in some infinitesimal way the pain and suffering she had faced.

His heart wanted to reach out to her but it couldn’t escape the cold, harsh reality of his own body, his mind, his thoughts, his love forever held captive in the tomb his own physical self had become.

This was a living death and he remembering visiting her, asking her to come back and he realized he was wrong. He should have come more because in the dim recesses of the void he existed in now, he took temporary solace in the comfort of the voices around him. But always they disappeared too soon and once more…

He was alone.

Minutes turned into hours that stretched into days which soon became weeks. The visits began to taper off, the well-wishers given their last bit of hope, the mourners sharing their last wistful memory.

The silence was deafening as weeks became months and George longed for one gentle touch, one soft word.

He fell within himself, the spiraling chasm opening below him as he plunged into the void and the world became him, his memories, his thoughts all he could cling to as the world passed him by.

The seasons changed and one spring day or at least he thought it was spring because the air seemed crisper and the feel of the room light, he did as he was prone to do. He spent hours trying to open his eyes until he failed and fell back into utter despair. George was quiet within himself, concentrating for a time before he tried to force his eyelids open. He could feel the strain on his muscles but he kept on, knowing he could rest tomorrow, then next day and the years after that.

He was about to give up when stretching in the distance in front of him, he noticed a pinprick of light. It seared his eyes, the ache in his head excruciating but he fought on and with a dull roar only he could hear, his eyelids rolled open and the sharp twinge that tore at his corneas was painful beyond belief But George reveled in it, the exquisite sensation tearing through the darkness where he had lived for far too long.

George stood up on shaky legs and looked up, seeing that the sun had barely moved in the sky, yet he felt as if he’d been away for months. “I’m never letting her go.” He muttered as he slapped his thighs to get some sort of feeling back into them before he began to jog along the maze’s path once more while he shouted. “Katie Bell, I’m finding you.”

[anon_katie]

Katie wandered around the maze, the images of death firmly imprinted in her mind. She shuddered, the cold terror still trying to desperately cling to her. His fears had become hers and in a way, she had become inexplicably linked to his mind. She realized that he’d be seeing her fears, her terrors and even though it was George, her mind felt violated at the thought. The effort it took to reign in her emotions, to keep silent, to hide had taken her years to master. Now, it was out in the open for him to see.

“Mummy,” a small, feminine voice said.

Katie looked down to see a little girl, no more then seven or eight years old with strawberry-blonde ringlets and bright hazel eyes staring solemnly up at her. Looking around, Katie didn’t see anyone and she brought her hand to her chest, her breathing becoming ragged when she realized she was looking at her daughter, or rather, what George pictured their daughter to be.

“Mummy,” the voice said again, this time a bit impatient. The little girl tugged on Katie’s hand. “Mummy, Gerard and Caleb are fighting again.”

Unable to think, Katie let this beautiful child lead her toward, what she could only assume, were her sons. She gasped in surprise when they rounded a corner and she came face to face with three boys. The eldest, Caleb, was lanky, built much like his uncles Ron and Bill. He had a light reddish-blond hair that stuck up every which way and was no more then eleven years old.

Gerard looked to be the same age as the little girl who was clutching desperately at Katie’s hand. His hair was flaming red and he was currently in a headlock. “Twins,” she murmured, her hand running through the soft ringlets of her daughter.

Caleb looked up, his face turned sheepish when he saw his mother and then he stuck his tongue out.

“Emma you tattler,” he said, letting go of his brother. Gerard took the advantage and grabbed his older brother by the knees, sending him to the ground.

Katie stood there in shock as the little boy pounded furiously on his brother’s chest. “You take that back Caleb Weasley! Just cause I haven’t gone to Hogwarts don’t mean I’m stupid like Dad.”

“Wait a minute,” Katie said, her hand tucked around Emma’s. “What did you say young man?”

With her free hand, she pulled the boys apart and they both looked at their mother with big, tearful eyes. She dragged them over the couch and sat them down on the plush, brown sofa. Emma crawled up into her lap and burrowed her head against Katie’s chest.

[anon_katie]

”What’s going on?” she asked, giving her sons a stern look.

They both started talking at once and it took a full three minutes before she could figure out what they were talking about. She caught words, dad, stupid, N.E.W.T.S, O.W.L.S. and Hogwarts.

“Your father is not stupid,” she said, shocked they would think so.

“But mum,” Caleb said stubbornly crossing his arms. “He never finished his school and Terry Finnegan said that made him stupid.”

“Yeah,” Gerard said, nodding in agreement. “Mummy why’s dad not smart? He should have gone to school. Nana said so.”

His little face looked earnestly at her as she raised her brows at her son. “What did Nana say?”

His freckled cheeks scrunched up as he tried to remember. Little Emma rolled her eyes and looked up into her Mum’s eyes.

“Nana said that Papa wasted his talents in the wrong place and that he was ‘upposed to finish Hogwarts and get his Boots so he and Uncle Fred wouldn’t maim the family.”

“His N.E.W.T.S. Emma, not his boots.” Caleb sighed. “And she said shame the family.”

Katie’s heart nearly broke. She never realized that this is what George feared. That his family, those he loved with all his heart, was secretly ashamed he didn’t finish school. “Oh George,” she whispered, trying desperately not to cry. Steeling her resolve, Katie looked at her three children.

“Your father is one of the most intelligent, one of the brightest men there is and I don’t want you to ever say otherwise. Do you hear me?”

They looked at her and then at each other before they took off running. Katie, startled by their actions took off after them. As she chased down her children, she noticed the maze became what it had been when she’d been looking at it in the beginning.

She heard George’s shout and she hurried toward him, relief flooded her as she threw herself into his arms. She cried into his neck, sobbing, trembling in his arms before pulling away and giving him a watery smile.

SMACK! She slapped him hard on the shoulder. “Toilets!?”

[anon_george]

George didn't ever think he'd been so happy to see someone...well, since he saw Fred for the first time. But he sure couldn't run up to Fred and give him a huge hug along with a soft kiss although he might have kissed Fred but he couldn't remember their reunion. But this one was much curvier and sexier and well, more blubbery. George just wrapped his arms around her though and held Katie, wondering what type of ordeal she'd gone through.

"I'm sorry. I hope it wasn't too bad." He said soothingly, then stroked his hand through her hair, letting the presence of her calm his own rapidly beating heart. "I'm sorry for what you've been through." He kissed her forehead and then smiled. "But I'm happy you're back with me." George ran his hands along her sides just to make sure it really was her..and it was.

When she swatted him, George let go and grabbed his arm. "What was that for? You hit hard, you know!" He stepped back and grabbed his shoulder with his other hand while he muttered. "You and your damn Auror super duper strength training." Her words finally registered before he replied, "Oh, toilets...I'd forgotten about that." His voice filled with a bit of wonder. "I was three when I went to the use the loo by myself I might add because that's what big boys do. Well, it seems my perfect little bottom was just the right size to slip down the little hole thing and get stuck...for two hours." He shook his head and shivered. "Seems mum thought Fred was both me and him. He must have been active that day."

He felt something in his trousers and reached back, tenderly sliding a rather large branch that must have been hidden some where that George didn't want to mention. George did hold it out though and shook it at Katie before he said, "You and shrubbery, love? Or was it the seven foot knights. Whatever it was, I think me and the owner of this branch are dating now."

[anon_katie]

She shook her head, laughing at his story. “I’m sure you and your brother drove your mum to distraction.”

Katie laughed as she remembered her terrifying ordeal with what she’d always thought of as the Shrubs. “I was eight,” she said, wrapping her arms around his waist. “I’m not sure how I managed but my magic got away from me when I fell into some bushes and I suppose I thought if they had hands they could catch me. Well, they wouldn’t let go.”

She shuddered in his arms. It seemed easy to laugh and joke about their silly fears but the other two, the ones she’d experienced, she didn’t find very funny. She felt closer to him and at the same time wholly exposed. Letting someone see into your fears, your terrors, was profoundly terrifying. She didn’t like it but at the same time was glad he’d seen hers. It, perhaps, meant she’d never have to voice it again. For some reason, she wasn’t ready to talk about what they’d witnessed.

Part of her wondered if It was able to see everything that they had experienced in the maze and what It would do with that newfound information. Once someone had your fears, they had you, mind and soul until one could overcome those terrors. She shivered again and coughed. Her eyes were itchy and watery and she still felt a little stuffy.