Living in His Chess Game

Heart pounding, Hope took a staggered step back and stared at two people she could see but couldn't see her. It was as if she were a ghost to them, but she hadn't died.

Had she?

Her hands pressed against her chest and then squished the sides of her face. Having died before, she knew what it felt like, and it was nothing like this. No, Hope wasn't dead, but she wasn't precisely here either.

Flickers of shadow flames stroked Newt and Albus' rigid features. It was as if they'd both aged twenty years in a few hours. Newt sniffed and slowly shook his head before resting his forehead in his palms, the room depressing into a somber silence.

As if they were in mourning.

"Oh, Newt," Hope murmured as she moved forward, kneeling beside his chair, "I'm so sorry." Her voice caught in a thick wave of emotion, but she quickly battled it back with a harsh swallow. "I'll make this right." She nodded, standing to her feet. "I'll-I'll fix this…"

Glancing over at Albus, she watched him watch Newt. 

"It's going to be okay," Hope said to him, but of course, his gaze never wavered. "It was that water." She nodded to herself as she thought back. It had been so enchanting- so inviting. Hope hadn't had any other choice but to explore it. At least, that's the way it felt at the time. 

"I'll fix this." Hope muttered once more, her voice holding a little more steel as she glided across the room and reached for the gargoyle, but when she thought she might touch it, the world around her was thrown into a void of pitch-black darkness.

Everything spun violently yet stopped so instantaneously. Hope couldn't be sure if she'd been falling or not. Either way, she was now standing on a balcony of the Owlery. Blinking, Hope whirled around in a confused daze.

How had she gone from the study nestled deep in the castle to outside in the Owlery?

"Okay, one crisis at a time, Hope." She sighed and started down the spiral stairs to get to the ground.

The task would be simple, in theory. The pool of water had to be some sort of portal that transported her here, wherever here was, because while it looked like Hogwarts, it certainly didn't feel like it. 

It wasn't bright enough and didn't hold the same type of magic. Cold and desolate with the snow still present- it was as if someone had killed Hogwarts and brought it back as an undead creature. It was now a skeleton of its past self.

The quicker Hope could get out of this place, the better.

Passing the grounds, she could see the lip of the forest ahead where she'd earlier followed what she thought was Newt. The only thing between herself and her destination was the pen Wingedback had stayed in. 

Checking that the coast was clear of anyone with suspicious similarities to that of the Grim Reaper, she shoved the gate open to take a shortcut.

Spinning.

Spinning.

Spinning.

Spinning darkness.

Hope landed with a thudding smack against moonlit tile. This time, her head spun, and her stomach lurched, but nothing came up as she dry heaved. Moving to her hands and knees, she shook her head from the dizziness that threatened her vision and looked around.

It was the Prefect's bathroom.

With a frown, Hope got to her feet, knees shaking as she shivered and looked around. The mermaid in the stained glass looked distraught, flapping her tail and flinging water.

"What's got you all worked up? I'm the one falling through holes in the universe nobody bothered to fucking stitch." Hope growled and started for the door but paused. Staring at it. "Holes in the universe," she repeated to herself and bit her lip, "enter and exit. Well, every time I enter through or exit what might be considered an entryway or exit, the universe has a tantrum." Chewing her lower lip, she gave a shrug. "If the universe can decide to only let Vampires cross certain thresholds when they've been invited, it can decide to relocate you every time you cross any type of threshold. Running her fingers through her hair, she pulled at the roots. "So then, how did I get into the study…"

Combing through her memory, she sighed and nodded. "Newt opened it first. So then, the exit or entry has to be opened before I can freely move. Okay, fair enough if that's the game you want to play, but then who's going to open this fucking door!" Hope held her hands out, gesturing to the large door that shut the Prefect's bathroom away from the world. The cold was throughout the castle, ice coating everything in a thin sheen and making the tub look almost translucent, making it all appear covered in protective glass.

Students wouldn't be back for months, and the only one likely to enter the bathroom would be a House Elf or…

"WEEEEEE!" Bubbling laughter erupted as Peeve's flew into the Prefect's bathroom, slamming the door open, likely to make as much noise as possible. "Can't catch Peeve's! Weee!" He went round and round in a few circles before flying up one of the many tub faucets and disappearing with echoes of mischievous laughter.

Hope stared at the tub with a slow nod as it started filling with thick, foamy bubbles- clearly, Peeve's wanted to overflow the place.

"Okay then."

With a quick jog, Hope went through the threshold and sighed in relief as she remained firmly planted on the ground. 

"I just have to get back outside," Hope told herself as if Hogwarts wasn't a maze of doors and trick passages all along the way. "Avoid the doors. Use the stairs. It'll be fine." She lied to herself.

Hope must have been a fantastic liar because, for a little while, it worked. She was slowly threading her way downstairs while avoiding thresholds. That was until, while on one of the staircases, it began to shift.

"Oh no," she drew in a quick breath and looked around while holding onto the railing, but it was too late. Hope hadn't acted fast enough to jump from the moving staircase to the next, and now she was sandwiched between two options.

Continue climbing toward the door in front of her, or go back and start all over again.

What if the way forward took her outside, like when she'd ended up in the Owlery? It was quite the gamble, but the way she'd come hadn't had any other option than the way she'd chosen initially had taken over an hour.

Taking a deep breath, Hope climbed the remaining steps and braced herself before pushing open the door.

Spinning- rushing darkness.

Hope landed with another painful blow; this time, the chill in the air was so deep her bones began to ache instantly. She realized quickly she was in the dungeon, the dungeon where she'd been chained and…

She couldn't finish the thought.

Gazing up, her vision was met with a soft glow. The same flame that had flickered in her line of sight only nights ago was in front of her again.

It was the candle that had disappeared without a trace, but this time, the single candelabra had an owner.

Sheathed in black robes as dark as the darkest night- half his gray, pale face was covered, only revealing his yellowed, warped grin.

It was him.

The thing from her nightmares that had been tormenting her for so long was now in front of her. 

And he was within arms reach.

Hope's eyes shifted amber, and her fangs slowly grew as she spoke around them in a graveled voice.

"I'm going to tear out your fucking throat."

His cold laughter peeled through the air as she lunged forward, her fingers latching onto his shoulders and pushing off the ground with her feet with violent force. Slamming his back to the ground, they didn't stop moving where the floor ended.

They continued through it.

Spinning in vast nothingness before landing on the floor of a dimly lit corridor. 

Crack. 

He sent his heel against her jaw.

"Mother fu-" Hope started, holding her jaw, but he was already running down the corridor and turning the corner. Staggering to her feet, she tore down the hallway after him, turning left as he had, but she wasn't looking at what lay ahead and slammed into a wall with so much force it fractured the castle's stone.

Hope lay there, fading in and out of consciousness. She'd literally knocked herself out and only came to the realization after a few minutes of her brain healing itself. 

Standing on trembling knees, Hope laced a hand to her forehead, where she was sure it had been shattered a few minutes ago. Her body pounded with adrenaline as she pressed her hand against the fractured stone and looked behind her.

Hope's heart skipped a beat as she was greeted with the sight of another wall. Gazing alone at the wall on either side of the walkway proved no doors existed.

Not a single one. Instead, Hope was surrounded by vacant walls. There were no paintings- just herself, the walls, and one flickering light fixture.

The space suddenly seemed far smaller than it had been only a moment ago.

Yes, it was. 

She'd had to turn the corner to slam into the wall, but now the space was the size of a small rectangle without a turn.

Spinning in her spot, Hope tried to watch the walls to see if they were moving, but physically she couldn't see any movement. She couldn't hear anything but her own panting breath.

Before she realized something had changed, the room that had been a long corridor was now a tiny square spanning no more than four feet on each side.

Hope's heart raced as she spun around, and the room's illumination was snuffed out, throwing her into more vast nothingness.

Shuddering, Hope held back her scream of terror. It was like a nightmare that she couldn't predict the outcome of. 

It had no rules- no structure. This moment lived to torment her.

A chilled breeze caressed her cheek like cold fingers, making Hope remove her hands from her eyes. Honestly, she hadn't realized she'd covered her face til then, but miraculously, she'd been transported outside.

Hope was directly at the lip of the forest, and somehow, she just knew that everything that's happened was intentional. It wasn't a happenstance that she'd been waltzing through a living hell of a puzzle that couldn't be solved. It felt more planned, more involved than luck.

Shaking her head, she had no choice but to go beyond the thicket and search the blue glowing pool. It was the only chance she had of returning from whatever alternative dimension she was in.

She moved quickly and quietly, careful where she stepped so as not to set off another reaction that might make her start over again. It felt like a video game, respawning in different locations whenever she put a toe out of place. 

After ages of walking against the bitterly cold wind, Hope finally found the path that originally led her to the pool. She took no time following it, her pace quickening the closer she got, but the moment she entered the clearing, she stopped dead in her tracks.

Where the pool had been was an empty space of fallen limbs and decay from other foliage. As if it had never been there.

"No…" Hope murmured as she scrambled to the spot and collapsed to her knees. Thunder rumbled above, sending with it sheets of ice-cold rain that soaked through her clothes and drenched her hair. Using her hands, she began to dig. Pushing piles of dirt away until a hole was beginning to form. Hope started using her nails to loosen the soil and toss it out, searching deeper and deeper. 

"NO!" She screamed at the hole as it began filling with water from the rain above, but it didn't glow. It was just a mucky, muddy mess now. She was up to her elbows in it before shoving her face into the water and pulling her head back out with a resounding gasp and splutter. 

No dizzy effects.

There was no sense of falling.

"NO! NO! NO!" Hope shoved her hands into the water, thinking back to Newt and Albus. If this didn't work, if she didn't get back, she'd never hold them again or feel their soft touch against her skin. 

She'd never watch Newt's eyes light up when she entered the room or hear Albus amused chuckle when she'd done something questionable.

Shoving her hands deeper into the muck and mud, Hope growled and chanted.

"Phasmatos Obscuram, Ex Luces Estnes Qua Umbres. Natus Ignavum Evitem. Phasmatos Obscuram, Ex Luces Estnes Qua Umbres."

It was a stretch of a try, given she didn't have the other needed elements for a spell like this, but she'd given it her all.

Her all, it seemed, was never enough.

Supporting herself with shaking arms, the rain continued to fall, flooding the surrounding area. Hope couldn't tell the difference between the streaks of icy water and her own tears anymore- everything was numb.

Opening her eyes, Hope's vision blurred, and before she could understand there had been a change of environment, she sat up in bewilderment, staring at a fireplace.

Her fireplace.

Hope wound up in her room of moonlight, but why?

Still caked in mud, she looked around, and her eyes widened seeing Newt sitting on her couch. He stared at the hearth with eyes more red than she'd last seen.

"Newt?" She asked in a croaked voice. "Please see me." Hope started to crawl toward him, desperately trying not to let her emotional frustration get the better of her and send her into hysterical tears. Trying to place her hand on his knee, the force from before stopped her.

Fresh tears leaked down her face as she looked up at him. Reaching her hand forward, longing to touch his cheek. To stroke his freckles once more.

To see his green eyes alight with laughter.

Just one more time.

"Why's the floor wet?" Albus' voice sounded as he came from the bathroom around the corner and sat down next to Newt, staring at the spot on the rug where Hope had arrived.

"I dunno," Newt answered numbly.

Glancing over her shoulder, she blinked. 

Albus was right. The spot where she'd been lying had a stretch of wet spots.

"I thought I couldn't manipulate this world." Hope frowned and glanced at the two of them. They ignored her, naturally.

"There are no rules." She murmured, sitting on her heels as a sudden realization struck her. "This is his plain…" Hope trailed off, looking around the color-muted room.

A chill slithered down her spine.

"It's his chessboard, and I'm the pawn."

She looked up at them from her place on the rug and scrunched her features into a scowl. "How the fuck did he create his own Realm?"

More importantly, how do I get back to mine? She thought to herself.

He can't hold all the aces; it would be an imbalance of power, and no matter who it was, the universe of magic wouldn't allow that. There was a way out. 

A loophole.

Hope just had to find it.

Find the mistake and set herself free.

It was a sorry excuse for a plan, but it was the only one she had.

Shifting herself to sit cross-legged, she stared at the spot of the rug slowly being dried by the fire's heat. She wasn't sure what she could do with this new information, realizing she had a small yet evident impact on their side, but she felt it was a step in the right direction.

This was nothing more than a massive chess game, and Hope had to capture the King.