Chapter 34.4- Doom Days

I spun to the side freezing a set that were coming from that angle in their tracks before taking the stones that made up the first statue under my control and transfiguring them into a series of round metal balls, dense as all hell. Levitating them was more draining than expected, even as my imagination, and knowledge did the bulk of the heavy lifting for the transfiguration. It made sense that that was the art Dumbledore focused on so much in his old age. The approaching statues were mowed down as the dense steel balls tore through them like they were made of paper.

While that happened, I continued to run towards th center. Something told me that once I made it there, they would stop. One made it through the chaos wreaked by my steel tools and swung a sword right in front of me. I stopped on a dime, allowing the blade bury itself in the ground before I flicked my wand with a hissed incantation. ‘Serpensortia’ was a powerful enough spell on its own, but when cast in parseltongue it could let the caster transfigure nearly anything into a snake of their choice with almost no power or skill required.

The sword turned into a giant constrictor that wasted no time in beginning to bind the statue and keep it still. I jumped over an axe that tried to cleave me in half as I rolled into a front flip and then rolled another step forward to reach the centerpiece ofmthe room. The statues that had moved to surround me suddenly froze and began to step backwards. Impressively, the ones I’d destroyed also reassembled themselves and returned to their position.

My transfiguration was forcefully undone and then the stone collected itself to form a statue that I could have sworn glared at me as it made its way back to its position on the wall. Once all the statues had reassembled themselves, the Dias at the centre of the room that I just realised was shaped perfectly circularly began to twist to reveal a set of stairs that went all the way down into the depths.

“Into the unknown” I vocalized as I cast a silent lumos that I deactivated in favour of Hermione’s favoured bluebell flames when I thought better about it. More magically draining, but they kept my wand free to fight whatever creature would be waiting for me there. I’d done air, I’d done earth, and next- next was fire.

I could feel the heat from the next chamber even before I made it to the bottom of the stairs. Whispered incantations flowed from my mouth in rapid succession. “Arresto ignis” I whispered over and over again. The flame freezing charm was one of the oldest pieces of magic still in use today, and so the incantation was in the style of the older magics, more like a song than anything else. When I felt the spell click in place, I continued my journey downwards. When I finished the next spiral of stairs, I began to notice a red glow coming from further down the stairway.