Echoes of Stone and Gold… Pt 5
Harry walked with the twins behind him, never once loosening his grip on his wand, while his other hand remained ready to release chaos magic at any precise instant. They moved through the dark corridor as the sounds of other rooms shifting echoed around them, accompanied by a constant tremor that grew stronger and weaker in ever shorter intervals, making it clear that the structure was moving at an increasing speed.
Harry examined every corner of the passage, noticing that this corridor was actually the junction of several older hallways. He realized this when he saw the portraits of various Potter descendants hanging along the walls, completely frozen, very different from how they usually were, when they always seemed alive and attentive.
Then Harry spotted a door that felt relatively familiar to him. The library door. He sensed that, with high probability, the library would be one of the places that would not change too much. Knowledge, intelligence, and memory were gathered there, so the creator of the mansion would hardly allow that room to be separated. Moreover, being one of the largest rooms in the mansion, it could also be the safest place and the best point to search for information.
The fact that the door still looked normal, and not golden, also told him that whatever that thing was, it was not inside, or at least it had not turned this place into gold yet.
Even so, Harry did not lower his guard. If the tower had learned to move the affected areas, then trusting a door's appearance alone could be a mistake.
Harry approached carefully and opened the door using his wand, without actually touching the handle.
He crossed the threshold slowly, then froze when he saw the person inside. Only then did he let out a deeply relieved breath, feeling even his legs weaken, not from fear, but from the sudden release of all the tension he had been carrying.
Edward, who was inside calmly holding a book in his hand, looked at him briefly. Then he shifted his gaze toward the twins behind him and immediately understood the reason for that sigh.
"You did well," Edward said softly.
Harry returned a sincere smile. In a dangerous situation, he had been forced to act as a reliable older brother, because he knew that if he showed even a single moment of fear or hesitation, his brothers would feel it immediately. And they still did not know the worst side of magic.
At every moment, he had been making an effort, not only to hold himself together, but also to be seen as someone capable of protecting them at any time.
More than trying to be the perfect brother, he was being a true protective brother.
Billy, upon seeing the enormous library, though now sealed off from many of the books that normally came and went every day, could not hide his amazement. Several volumes were still moving on their own, arranging themselves on the shelves each time the constant tremors knocked them down. Some books collided with one another midair before correcting their trajectory, as if the library itself were working against the clock to remain in order.
"Wow," Billy said with genuine interest, looking around. "This is really cool," he added as he watched the books fly as if they had wings, moving between shelves and staircases that shifted on their own.
"What's so cool about it?" Tommy said with a bored expression, just thinking about having to stay still and read.
Harry moved closer to Edward, feeling safer now that he had found him.
"Uncle Ed, we found something strange along the way," Harry began with a serious expression. "It was some kind of golden skeleton, and it seemed able to turn its surroundings into the same thing." He paused briefly. "I've never heard of a creature like that," he added.
Edward held the book in his hand as he adopted a thoughtful expression. He slowly shook his head, indicating that he had never heard of anything like that either. Coming from Edward, that was not reassuring at all.
"The main priority now is to get out of the mansion," he said, looking toward the twins. "It's too dangerous for them."
Tommy was far more interested in watching the books fly than in what they contained, while Billy seemed genuinely focused on the titles.
"We need to find the others," Harry said, nodding immediately, clearly intent on getting his brothers to safety as soon as possible.
At that moment, a new tremor, much stronger than the previous ones, shook the entire place. Several books fell from the shelves, the chandeliers swayed violently, and a loud metallic screech echoed through the library, like an ancient gear that lacked oil. The sound lingered for a few seconds before stopping abruptly.
Then the tower stopped moving completely. Harry felt a heavy chill settle in his chest. Until that moment, the tower had been moving the contaminated areas, pushing them farther and farther downward. If it had stopped now, it could only mean one thing: there were no clean sections left to move.
Strained noises could be heard, failed attempts at movement, until everything finally fell silent.
The entire tower had stopped trembling, making it clear that it had halted and could no longer continue changing.
No, it was not that the tower had decided to stop; it was that it had reached its limit. The silence that followed was not empty; it was heavy, as if the entire mansion had exhausted its final option.
Harry did not know whether that was something good or something bad.
At that moment, a door at another point in the library burst open. Sirius rushed in, his eyes completely red. His gaze immediately swept across the room, searching for an exit, another door, any trace of Remus.
"Remus!" he shouted, looking around desperately, until he realized that he was standing inside the library. Behind him, Draco and Wendell entered. Wendell wore a confused expression at first, but quickly understood what had happened when he saw that the previous room had shifted. He said nothing. His lips parted slightly, as if he wanted to speak, but no words came out. Where the room in which Remus had been trapped should have been, the library now stood.
Harry let out another sigh upon seeing that everyone was finally together, without having to search for them throughout that troublesome tower.
"Harry," Sirius said, looking at him for a moment with fragile calm, before his face once again took on that deeply pained expression.
"What happened?" Harry asked, frowning.
Sirius did not answer immediately. His expression tightened, clearly affected. Losing the last friend he had left was something that tore at his heart. Before Wendell could explain anything, the silence already said it all.
Harry lowered his gaze as well, his expression growing increasingly somber as he listened.
Everyone fell into a heavy silence. No one dared to ask the next question. Everything was different now. Death was no longer just a distant possibility.
"King Midas," Billy said suddenly, breaking the moment.
Everyone turned toward him. Harry felt that he had heard that name somewhere before.
"A being who could turn everything he touched into gold. Punished by the god Dionysus for his greed. He asked for that power as a reward and received one of the worst curses. Everything he tried to eat turned into gold before it could reach his mouth. It even reached the point where, when he tried to embrace his daughter, he turned her into gold."
Billy spoke seriously, holding a book on Greek mythology in his hands.
"King Midas."
A being who could turn what he touched into gold. But whatever they were facing did not behave like a simple legend; it made no sense within the rules Harry knew.
Harry's eyes widened. The skeleton was made of gold, but in the past it must have had flesh and skin.
"Are you saying that…?" Harry began.
Before he could finish, the door behind them slammed open violently. Sirius and Edward raised their wands almost instantly, ready to cast a spell, but stopped at once when they saw that what had entered was a golem with a familiar face.
Fleamont Potter.
The others released their tension upon realizing that it was not the skeleton they had been talking about.
"Grandfather," Harry said, letting out another breath. "How…?" he asked, realizing that, like the portraits, he should have been frozen as well.
"This is not the time for that," Fleamont said seriously. What looked like a projected screen on the golem's face displayed various data. "Follow me now to the highest point of the tower. Without the active protection, and with the tower trying to expel the intruder, it could reach this area at any moment."
"Was the tower sending the intruder downward to protect us?" Harry asked, surprised.
"Not now. Hurry," Fleamont replied firmly, turning and leaving through the same door he had entered.