Far beneath Hogwarts, beyond numerous magical traps, there is a room where both the front and the back are sealed off by flames.
Inside the room were one boy and another person, a beautiful girl so stunning that anyone who saw her could not help but sigh. With a sultry, sorrow-tinged expression, she clenched her teeth in frustration at the hopeless situation. Just who might she be?
Yes, it was me.
…Sadly enough, it really was me.
"Now that we're here, what should we actually do about this situation?"
Flames block the way forward, and flames block the way back. All we can do is endure, wait, and hold on.
The bottles left behind are poison and nettle wine. For the record, nettle wine is a type of herbal liqueur, sweet and fragrant with herbs. I have seen my mother drink it now and then when she makes homemade cocktails at home.
With nothing else to do, should I just give up and have a drinking party with Neville using the nettle wine?
"Neville, want a drink?"
"We're underage."
"Right."
On top of that, I am worried about Harry, who has not made a sound for a while now.
To add to our problems, if these flames keep burning, we will be in danger as well. They do not seem to be spreading toward us, but if fire continues to burn in an underground chamber, we could suffer from oxygen deprivation or carbon monoxide poisoning.
"Aguamenti, water!"
I tried casting the Water-Making Spell for now, but it did not produce enough water to extinguish the flames.
"What if we just pour water over ourselves?"
"If we soak our robes, they might offer some protection against the fire, but…"
Because our heads and other parts would still be exposed, I honestly cannot shake my unease.
"If only we had a bigger piece of cloth or something… ah."
Come to think of it.
"Neville, weren't you holding on to Harry's Invisibility Cloak?"
When I asked, Neville began rummaging through his robes and exclaimed, "I've got it!"
"When Harry played the flute in front of the three-headed dog, I held onto it so it wouldn't get in the way. That was about the only thing I could do…"
As he said this, Neville pulled out the Invisibility Cloak, which he had carefully rolled up for storage.
"There's no need to put yourself down. At the very least, because you were holding onto the cloak, it looks like we won't burn to death."
Harry's Invisibility Cloak is large enough to cover both Neville and me. If we soak it properly, we might be able to force our way through the flames.
"Sorry, Harry."
It pains me to burn something I borrowed without permission, but I do not want to die from lack of oxygen either. I will compensate him for the cloak later, so he will just have to forgive me for now.
"Aguamenti, water!"
I cast the Water-Making Spell again, but the Invisibility Cloak did not get wet at all. If anything, it seemed to repel the water.
"That's strange…"
"What should we do? Are we completely out of options…?"
"No, we're not."
When I said that, Neville looked at me in surprise.
"But, Elaina, the cloak isn't getting wet at all…"
"That's exactly why."
I picked up the Invisibility Cloak and flicked it lightly so that its edge dipped into the flames.
"Elaina! If you do that, the cloak will burn… huh? It's not burning?"
Just as I expected, the Invisibility Cloak was completely unharmed.
"Neville, I don't know why, but it seems that Harry's Invisibility Cloak has powerful protective enchantments on it. That's probably why it repelled the water."
Of course, it could have simply been treated to be waterproof, but it seems this gamble worked out in our favor. As a clever witch, I guessed that it was likely enchanted with the convenient Impervius spell, which works against both water and fire.
"If it has protective magic on it, then water or flames won't matter. Just to be safe, we'll soak our robes thoroughly and use the Invisibility Cloak to cover any exposed parts. Then we should be able to push through."
"Then…"
Just as Neville's face lit up with hope, a loud scream echoed from deeper inside.
"Harry!? Elaina, we have to help him!"
"Yes, let's hurry!"
Neville and I slipped under the Invisibility Cloak together and stepped into the black flames. Thanks to the cloak, we were not affected by the fire… or rather, that was not quite true. Only the cloak itself did not burn. We, inside it, could still feel the heat normally.
Even so, the fact that the cloak did not burn meant it worked like a fireproof blanket. With our soaked robes underneath, we were spared from being burned alive. Fortunately, the flaming corridor was not very long, so both of us made it through with nothing worse than blisters and redness from minor burns.
"Episkey, heal!"
After administering some quick first aid, we continued on through the passage and entered the final room.
＊＊
In the final room, Harry was already there, along with someone else. However, it was not Professor Snape.
"Professor Quirrell?"
What we saw was Professor Quirrell straddling Harry, trying to strangle him. Worse still, after removing his turban, there was another face on the back of Professor Quirrell's head, twisted into a terrifying expression.
"Kill him! Kill him!"
The face on the back of Professor Quirrell's head continued to scream madly, and as if obeying those words, Professor Quirrell tightened his grip around Harry's neck. However, for some reason, the part Harry grabbed began to blister and burn, and Professor Quirrell let out a scream.
"Elaina, we have to save Harry!"
"Y y yes… you're right. Um, then… Petrificus Totalus, turn to stone!"
Though shaken, I cast the Body-Bind Curse, and Professor Quirrell, struck by the spell, stiffened like stone. Seizing that opening, Harry grabbed Professor Quirrell's head.
"Gyaaaaaaah!"
A scream that did not seem to belong to this world echoed throughout the room. The scorched face rapidly collapsed, crumbling and falling apart. It was too horrific to look at directly, and Neville and I instinctively turned our eyes away.
"What…!?"
The next instant, accompanied by a low, eerie cry like a dreadful curse, something ghost-like emerged from Professor Quirrell's head and slipped past us, disappearing beyond the flames.
"Elaina… w what was that…?"
"I I don't know. And honestly, I don't really want to know…"
The skin-crawling sensation that made my whole body tremble when that ominous, vengeful spirit passed by us was unforgettable. Just recalling it sent a chill down my spine. One thing I knew for certain was that it was not something to be touched lightly.
When we turned our attention back to Harry and the others, what had once been Professor Quirrell lay collapsed on the ground, and Harry was not moving at all.
"Harry!? Don't die!"
Neville rushed over in a panic, shaking Harry's body as he cried. I knelt down beside them and, praying that the worst had not happened, checked Harry's pulse and breathing.
I took his limp wrist, placed my fingers on the blue veins, and felt for the rhythm of his heartbeat. I could tell it was pulsing at steady intervals.
"Thank goodness… it's all right, Neville. Harry is just unconscious."
"R really…?"
"Just as Miss Elaina says."
At the moment Neville was about to say something, a voice spoke from behind us, one that should not have been there. We hurriedly raised our wands.
"Easy there. I am on your side. So please calm down and lower those wands, will you?"
Standing there was Headmaster Albus Dumbledore. As Neville and I stared in astonishment, the headmaster spoke with a gentle smile.
"Neville, she is quite right. Harry is not dead. He is merely asleep."
At Dumbledore's words, Neville finally looked relieved and let out a breath he had been holding.
"Headmaster, did you receive word from Hermione by owl post?"
"No, it seems we passed each other in midair. The moment I arrived in London, I realized quite clearly that the place I needed to be was where I had just departed from."
"I see… is that so."
To be honest, it would have been easier if he had realized a little sooner.
"I truly am sorry. But do heroes not always arrive late?"
As if he had read my thoughts, the headmaster gave a wink, his bright blue eyes sparkling behind his half-moon glasses. On top of that, he even quoted the very words I had once used during the troll incident. At that point, I could not say anything further.
As expected, this man is unfathomable.
"Oh, and Elaina."
As if remembering something, Headmaster Dumbledore glanced at the Invisibility Cloak I was about to reach for.
"That Invisibility Cloak belonged to Harry's father. Since you might, quite inadvertently, forget to return it, shall I see to it that it is returned to Harry?"
"If that's the case."
I gazed at the Invisibility Cloak with just a hint of deep reluctance, then willingly yet reluctantly handed Harry's cloak over to Headmaster Dumbledore.
"By the way, Headmaster, would it be possible for me to borrow the Philosopher's Stone for a bit?"
"If you are willing to donate all the gold you create while it is in your care to charitable causes, I will consider it."
Albus Dumbledore, known as the greatest wizard of this century, turned out to be surprisingly stingy.
(End of chapter)
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