Warnings: Mentions of character death(s).

Setup: Katie Bell dies of the necklace AU. Also, Katie is a muggleborn and has a younger sibling AU. Everything else remains the same.

Prompts (QL): Main: Write about someone trying to solve something, figure something out, or understand something.

Optionals: newspaper (object), hopeful (emotion), teal (colour)

Other Forums:

Prompt (IWSC): Write about someone who has gotten themselves into trouble and find that they have no possible way to get out of it

Prompt (TGS Ollivander's Shop): Elm: Write about a Muggle-Born.

Approx word count: 1780 (Google Docs)

I refuse to believe what they're telling me. Mum and Dad have been lying about too many things related to Katie for far too long now. I was suspicious in the beginning when that strange old bearded man came to our house, and she ended up going to a boarding school up in Scotland. I barely ever saw her after that. She would come back home, but more often than not, she'd have those bruises and scars all over her.

I once asked her what they were. "Quidditch," she replied, winking. Mum had given me the glare from across the table that said 'Grown-up things, Riley, don't pry.', so I hadn't pried.

I hate it when she does that. I'm only a few years younger than Katie! I am not a child!

But look where we are now. Doesn't Mum wonder… how could neither of them ever question it? They just accepted it when the bearded man told us… how Katie died?

Yes, Katie is dead. Saying it aloud seems so strange… so final. But I don't have time for this now. I need to find out what happened. I need to find out how my sister died.

The only lead I have is the few things I heard from her about her school. I try my best friend, Google. Quidditch. Hogwarts. Potions. I get nothing. Well, nothing out of the ordinary. Nothing that will help me find her. I try again, with some of the weirder things I've heard her say. Wronski's feint. Parkin's Pincer. Porskoff Ploy.

I groan in frustration, and Mum hears me. She comes by to offer her usual brand of reassurances and consolations, which are not what I need right now. I need concrete information. I miss Katie so much, and I have to find out what happened to her. I cannot just blindly accept the story we have been fed. And I am hopeful that it will not be very hard to find if I know how to look.

"Mum. About Katie-"

She doesn't let me finish, she is shaking her head and walking away. She never does let me finish, so I don't. But something comes to my mind as I think back to the day the bearded man had come by. He had stuffed something into Mum's hand...in fact, now that I come to think of it, I see it clearly in my memory. Something looking like yellowed paper.

Mum never mentioned it after that day. I think I've seen something similar recently; she keeps it under the stone paperweight she keeps in her office.

She will be in the kitchen now, I realise and quickly make a quiet, but efficient run towards her office.

'Yes!' I mutter under my breath as I see the little paper peeking out from under the weight. I snatch it as fast as I can, stuffing it into my pockets. I make my way cooly back to my room.

Only after bolting the door and making sure I'm safe, do I take it out of my pocket and examine the crumpled fragment of paper. It looks like a newspaper, printed on thicker-than-paper paper, which says the name of a newspaper I've never heard of before. 'The Daily Prophet'. It has a headline on it.

'HOGWARTS STUDENT DIES OF CURSED NECKLACE', it says. It then proceeds to tell the story of how Katie, my big sister Katie, was given a necklace. This necklace was apparently cursed, and upon touching it, she went through terrible, agonising pain and died days later. Apparently, she was taken to some hospital called 'St Mungos,' which is only meant for witches and wizards?

I crumple the paper in my anger. They lied! They knew all about this, and they lied to me.

I unfurl the paper again, carefully. It might be useful later, I decide. I might have to wait a bit first, but I will find a way to bring my sister back.

Well, since they clearly thought lying to me about my sister's death, and even everything about her life: being a witch, being enrolled in a magical school, being a player of a magical sport, and this whole wizarding world, was all right, then I shall lie to them too. They needn't know that I found out about everything, but this newspaper could be my guide into this so-called wizarding world.

I got a letter. The same kind that Katie got, from the school called Hogwarts. The old bearded man came by too. He spoke to Mum and Dad again. They haven't made a decision yet, but I can see they are scared. They're scared that I am going to be gone, for months, if not years on end, the same way Katie was. They are frightened that something might happen to me too.

I pulled him aside, the old man who is apparently called Professor Dumbledore. I asked him about the weird dreams I'd been having lately, about a beautiful glittering necklace with teal stones that just drew me towards it.

'Yes,' he told me with a lot of hesitation, 'it is the opal necklace that... killed your sister.'

That's all I had wanted to know, really, but I pretended to be interested in the rest of the things he told me. Blood magic. Visions. Deaths of Muggles. The last of those, I learned, meant that people without magic died instantly on touching it.

Well anyway, if anything, that conversation settled it for me. I needed to go searching for the necklace and destroy it, and so I am. I am hopeful that I can find it if I go about it the right way.

Hiding and running away from my parents is not very hard, especially in a place like Diagon Alley. Mum and Dad thought I was in Madam Malkin's buying robes for Hogwarts, but I took the chance to slip away. They'll understand when I show them the necklace. I will show it to them broken into pieces. It might be the only way I know to bring Katie back if I've understood my dreams correctly.

I have enough Galleons on me to get me by for about a month, I think. But first I need to lay low; when my parents leave, I will find a bookstore or library, and a book that'll tell me where to look for the necklace, and more importantly, how to destroy it.

I hope I can. I hope-no, I will get my sister back. Magic can do anything, right?

I don't know where I am, or how to get out of here.

The books I found said that every time the necklace is not in someone's possession or is considered 'lost', it ends up in these caves. I was also right about bringing Katie back by destroying it. So I traced the necklace through the Prophet newspaper for a while, and I checked the previous issues, all the way back till the day Katie died. There was no mention of the necklace being in anyone's possession. It must be lost.

So I came to these caves.

I'd been walking for days in this maze now, and I don't know where I am, or where I started. I cannot see even a flicker of light anywhere. I've also started running out of the food and water I brought with me.

I can't sleep, because all I see are nightmares about that terrible teal necklace that stole my sister. It seems to want to take me too, and those dreams wake me up screaming.

I am so tired, and I don't even know where the necklace is, and I have no way to get to- wait! I see something. I'm positive I saw something glisten in the light of my wand.

Right there! I saw it reflect in the light again! I am not sure what it is, yet.

Oh. It's...I can't believe my eyes! It's the necklace! It's right there, in front of me! I recognise it from the books and the pictures, but also from my dreams. I finally have it. I am so tempted to reach out and touch the shimmering stones, but I know I have to restrain myself. I know the teal stones have an ancient charm placed on them that is making me want to touch them, if just once. Teal is the colour of spiritual grounding, I remember the book saying. Apparently, that is why the spell on the stones has lasted so long. But I don't touch them. The books prepared me for this.

I take out a piece of cloth and carefully wrap it up, making sure I don't touch the teal stones or the shining metal.

Now that I have what I came for, I can start looking for the exit properly. I suppose I feel a little bit more cheerful and hopeful too. I just need to get it out and take it to a place where I can cast the necessary spell under the moonlight to destroy it.

I'm almost there, Katie. Just hold on.

Months. It must have been, but I don't care anymore. I can barely walk because of how weak I am, let alone find my way out of here.

I'm trapped here forever, and I don't have any clue about an exit. I wonder if my parents or anyone at all is looking for me. I wonder if they know I came here, and why.

I really don't think so, though.

A small thought has been crossing my mind these days. Well, it is not a small thought anymore, because I have been thinking about it a lot, truthfully.

It started when the nightmares began to get worse, more frightening. Shortly after I got the necklace they became more vivid and harder to ignore. The necklace wants me to be its next victim, I know it does. It's like it is alive.

That's why I've been thinking about it so much. It's better than the other kind of death I'll be dying if I stay here. And if stay here I will die, because I have no other way. So why not, I tell myself these days, as everything slowly gets worse, because perhaps the maze is cursed, or maybe I'm just too stupid to figure it out. A short painful death, versus a longer, slightly less painful one. And all I have to do is touch one of the teal stones. Why not, indeed.

The necklace wants me to do it. I wonder if it will take me to Katie if I do? Maybe, I want to touch the necklace too.