Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery Year 5

Chapter 28

As the exams crept up-and with their new theory about the vault-Bill, Dani and Merula were back to the training sessions they had in the good old days. (Even though they really, really, REALLY don't want to.)

"Honestly, can we do something more productive?" asked Dani.

"Well too bad, because when I took my OWLs the examiner didn't ask for something super out of the ordinary," said Bill as he steadied one of the dummies.

"Centaurs can't be the only creatures we can duel from the forbidden forest," said Merula, referring to how they decided to have some fun (well, kind of) with Torvus for their previous practice.

"We could always set free the chimaera again, now that we have Liz to bail us out," Dani said casually as she knocked over yet another dummy.

"Or maybe, we could experiment with some new spells," suggested Bill.

"Oh, I got it!" Merula suddenly jumped up. "I'll teach you guys the killing curse!"

"NO," Dani reacted immediately.

Bill was a bit shocked at first, then said rather calmly considering the suggestion, "Merula, you're 15. Or 16, can't remember which. And you're telling me you know the killing curse? Not only is that illegal, I believe it's REALLY advanced dark magic."

"Well, no, but I do know THIS." She waved her wand, muttered an incantation, and neither Bill nor Dani could believe what they saw next.

The metal dummies right in front of their faces burst into flames. Bill watched, pure terror on his face, as the dummies seemed to melt together and morph into a giant dragon made completely of fire, ready to turn them all into the bacon his mum makes the kids for breakfast with one burning breath.

"Fiendfyre," Dani gasped-Rowan had told her about it once when they were studying about lacarnum inflamari for their DADA homework earlier in the year.

Just then Rakepick came running. "FINITE INCANTATEM!" The flames died down, although the dummies had all been obliterated and the grass underneath them were scorched to a crisp, and the professor gave the students a stern look. "Get it together. Once we're in the vault you can't just gawk at a spell that's about to skin you alive. What happened?"

"Well, no point lying... We were bored, so I cast fiendfyre."

"Not before she offered to teach us the killing curse," said Bill.

"To no avail, I suppose?"

"Of course not."

"Not surprising, considering Miss Jackson here recently turned down my offer to teach her the cruciatus curse."

"Wait, WHAT?" Merula went into a fit of outrage. "Why HER? I didn't know you favoured her more-"

"As a matter of fact, I don't favour ANY of my students more than others, Miss Snyde. I just thought it'd be something Miss Jackson was capable of, and could find useful in the future. Anyway," she abruptly changed the subject for obvious reasons, "the three of you ought to think about who you'll be entering the vault with."

"How many people are you expecting?" asked Dani.

"I don't really have a number in mind, you can bring as many as you like."

"There's no way we're bringing the entire crew," said Bill. "Remember third year? Mandrakes, boggarts, nearly drowning. Plus, we have a lot more people now."

"I happen to agree with that," said Merula. "Two's a good number. We don't have enough time to bite off more than we can chew."

Rakepick counted her fingers and nodded. "Two's a good number."

"Alright, who to choose?"