After they had extracted themselves and their rucksacks from the reeds and mud, Harry, Ron and Hermione collapsed, coughing and spluttering, on the grassy bank.  

"I think we can safely cross Trash and his mountain off our revisit list," Harry said and convulsed. All three of them were laughing. Harry laughed till his throat was sore. 

"Oh my god, Trash and his elves will be rebuilding his place for months!" Ron was giggling hard.  

"At least the rats will have gone," Hermione chuckled, then hiccuped herself back to seriousness. 

"We'll have to dry our clothes off, otherwise we'll be freezing tonight." 

Harry cleared his throat and nodded. 

"You dry yours off here, Hermione. Ron and I will do our drying farther down the bank." 

"Aw, can't we all just strip off together?" Ron said, with a cheeky grin. 

"No," Harry said firmly and staggered to his feet, pulling Ron up with him. "Let's take a walk, Ron." 

Still wearing their wet clothes, Harry and Ron began walking. Harry's legs ached and he was about ready to drop. Still, he felt honor-bound to put a decent distance between Hermione and Ron and himself while she was undressed.  

The lake gleamed beside them, lapping against the shore. The sun was sinking and a breeze had whipped up. Dark clouds were scuttling across the sky. Harry suddenly had a weird fantasy that he and Ron were walking hand in hand. 

"Where shall we get our togs off?" Ron said. 

"Here'll do," Harry mumbled, and removed and laid out his wet jacket. 

Ron took his coat off, then slipped off his shirt and jeans.  

Harry began peeling off his own jeans, but suddenly felt awkward and stopped. He was embarrassed at the sight of Ron's near-naked body. 

Ron, his underpants around his ankles, noticed him looking. 

"What is it?" 

Harry reddened and quickly pulled his jeans up. 

"I don't know...I feel weird. I think I'll kep mine on and let them air-dry." 

His voice was choked. "Excuse me, I've got a thing about seeing another guy naked." 

Ron shrugged and stepped out of his underpants. 

"Please yourself. I want mine dry before I walk to those ruddy caves." 

A half-hour later, the three travelers were walking away from the lake toward the top of the bank. Beyond it was a rocky escarpment and then the Lupus valley. They trudged on until they reached the escarpment and began climbing. Harry's aching feet shuffled to a halt of their own at the top of the bluff. Days of long marches and fierce confrontations with zombies, werewolves and fire rats had taken their toll. He was exhausted and knew the others were, too.  

"Let's find the nearest bit of shelter and roll out our doss bags. I'm ready to drop." 

As soon as he spoke, the heavens opened and it began raining hard. 

"Great, that's all we need!" Ron grumbled. They turned up their collars and began the descent of the rocks. 

The rain made the dark sky darker and the climb down the escarpment was a struggle. Harry led the others to a stretch that was thick with vegetation. Halfway down, he noticed an opening in the tangle of bushes. 

"What do you make of that?" 

He pointed it out to the other two, who looked in the direction of his dripping arm. 

"Looks like the entrance to a cave," Hermione said. 

"Whoopee, shelter!" Ron yelled, and they all clambered inside the opening. 

"At least it's dry in here," Ron said. The sound of his voice echoed off the walls of the cavern. 

"Let's keep our voices down," Harry whispered. "We don't know what strange creatures might be here. Also, let's get our flashlights out." 

Flashlights on, they shuffled down a long dirt-floored passage that had been hewed from the rock. After twenty minutes they arrived at a solid wall. Harry swished his flashlight around. It was a dead end. 

"What's that sound?" Hermione hissed. 

"Someone's singing or chanting behind this rock," Ron said. He leaned on the rock and pressed his ear to it. 

Harry gasped. "In the Book of Secrets that King Godfrey gave me, there's a chapter about a group of people who live underground called the Korals. They sing and make beautiful music. And that's not all they do..." 

"Like what?" Ron and Hermione said together. 

"Um, they believe in free love," Harry said, his face turning red. 

"Oh yeah?" Ron said, his eyes wide. Then he glanced at Hermione and added: "Well, I'm more interested in some nosh. I'm hungry." 

To emphasize his point, his stomach rumbled. 

"Oh, they provide wonderful food!" Harry said excitedly. "For their guests, that is." 

He noticed a small red button set into the rock and scratched his forehead. Stepping back, he signalled to the others to stay clear and pressed the button. 

A rumble of sound shook the rock face and a slab of rock slid back to reveal a large cavern. Inside the cavern, paper lanterns glowed. The three weary wizards blinked, bleary-eyed, at the sight of a group of handsome men and beautiful women in shining white robes who were grouped as a choir around a choir leader, an energetic, fair-skinned woman with long blonde hair. They were singing chords of unsurpassable beauty. When the singing ended, the leader of the group turned and smiled at them. 

"Welcome. Please join us. We have food and drink for you." 

The three travelers stumbled forward, switched off their flashlights and unslung their packs. A long table was laid out with sweetmeats, fruits and juices. They slid their packs to the ground, sat and feasted. 

The group waited on them, bringing more food and drink until they could eat no more. 

"Now let us sing for you, and with you," the group leader said. Logy from their blow-out, the three turned their chairs around to face the group. 

With a great shout of joy for an opening chord, the singers launched into a complex, overlapping repetition of gorgeous melodies. Their voices soared upwards, speeding to the roof of the cavern, before radiating downwards in great spirals of echoing sound, over and over again. 

Harry, Ron and Hermione gradually began adding their voices to the coruscating chorus, at first raggedly, then more and more in harmony with the singers. As great blasts of singing gusted across the cavern, Ron and Hermione began to shed tears. While singing, they wept uncontrollably, their bodies shaking with emotion. Harry held out, stiffly trying to control his features, but soon he was weeping loudly, his face wet with tears. 

After the very last note had died away, the group leader turned to the three moist-eyed wizards and raised her arms. 

"We warmly welcome you to our company," she said. "Now that you have released your deepest feelings you are in harmony with us, and we cordially invite you to partner with whichever member of our group you are drawn to, one on one." 

She lowered her arms and members of the group approached the three of them, laughing and loosening their robes. They began chatting with Ron and Hermione, while Harry stood as if in a daze. 

"Allow your partner to bathe you and prepare you for rest. Those of you who wish to make love, feel free to do so." 

Harry felt as though he had slipped into another dimension, one he couldn't fathom. He watched, bemused, as Ron and Hermione parted company, each partnering with one of the group, a sandy-haired young woman with a slender body and hazel eyes for Ron and  for Hermione, a well-built young man with vigorous features and dark curls around his temples. 

Then he felt gentle hands relieving of him of his clothes, as each singer in the group shrugged off his or her white robe and padded naked to a bathing area at the back of the cavern. From a rocky crevice, a waterfall gushed into a sparkling pool. 

Harry was being led by the owner of the gentle hands to bathe with the others under the waterfall. He turned to see who the owner was and was startled to find a young blond-haired man with a well-packed frame and deep pools of dark in his blue eyes smiling at him fondly. 

They bathed under the waterfall, Harry soaping and rubbing down the young man, his smooth skin glistening, and being washed in return. Then they dried off, using towels that were folded on a rock near the pool. The group leader put the lanterns out and pressed a button that caused the slab of rock to slide back, concealing the cavern from the outer passage. Meanwhile, couples found resting places on blankets laid out on the cavern floor. Soon many of them were beginning their amorous labors.  

Harry gazed into the eyes of the blond-haired man, totally unable to cope with what was happening. One by one, couples were reaching the point of satisfaction and settling down to sleep. 

"I - I don't think I can do this," Harry said. "It's not that I don't like you. Actually I do, but I'm supposed to marry a girl. Her name's Ginny and she's the younger sister of my best mate, Ron." 

The man's blond eyebrows rose. 

"Ron? Is he the ginger-haired boy? That's funny - he was the one who told me you were gay."

Well, that's it, beautiful readers. We've reached crisis point. Ron has outed Harry, but is Harry gay? And does it matter? Let me know your thoughts on this chapter, because I'm thinking of making it the last one.