Magic Within Us - An Ateez Hogwarts AU

Eternal Flames

The one you seek is closer than you realize
When the snow stays he shall arrive
Walking through Aconite, carrying Sweet Briar
Brains and brawn will not help you
He must bathe in eternal fire

Wooyoung sat in the library, one of the tables in the back corner so that he wouldn't be desterberd as he stared once again at the crumpled piece of appear in front of him. On a separate sheet he was attempting to take it apart.

Quietly he muttered to himself, thinking out loud as he scratched the side of his head. "The one you seek, Mortem, of course. If he's arrived of course he's closer than he realizes. Aconite and sweet briar. Could still be a potion. Brains and brawn will not help you. If not brains or brawn then what else is left? Is there no hope?"

The more he seemed to stare at the prophecy the less sense it seemed to make. Everything in it was basically saying he should give up. Maybe San was right and he should be less worried about this than he was.

The final words 'he must bathe in eternal fire'. Different fires were listed underneath the last line on his notes page.

The words seemed to be the one salvation. To defeat Mortem they need only make some sort of fire. Or could they, none of the different fire types he had listed seemed to fit the words eternal.

With a snarl Wooyoung crumpled up the page and then tapped it with his wand where it lit into controlled flames.

Maybe if he wasn't so stupid and consumed by other things his brain might work enough to actually piece two things together.

He started to gather his things into a pile and pushed them into his bookbag before standing and lookingk around the section of books he was in. Slowly, he made his way up to the front where Madam Pince was reading at her desk.

"Excuse me, I was wondering if we had any books on fire types? Perhaps any of them are known as eternal fire?"

"Books as destructive as those are kept in the restricted section, I'm afraid you'd need a permission slip from a teacher to look at one of them."

"Couldn't you go and grab me one? I would even keep it in the library. I am just doing some personal research."

"On what?" Madam Pince looked up at him over the glasses that sat low on her nose. Carefully, she closed her book and set it down to look more carefully at Wooyoung.

"Flames." He really felt as if he was grasping at straws here.

"Yes but what about Flames? Eternal Fire is a very rare form of magic and not many possibilities lead to its uses."

He was stuck. He couldn't give a valid reason without being dismissed or written off. Saying 'I think my best friend has a prophecy that mentions eternal fire spoken to him and if I don't solve it something really bad might happen' seemed like it might fall under one of those categories.

"I read about it in relation to," he faltered, his mind desperately trying to remember anything he had ever heard about fire magic. "Rebirth with Phoenixes." Phoenixes were fire birds. It had to be close enough.

Madam Pince narrowed her eyes as if she didn't quite completely believe him but grabbed a ring of keys off the hook next to her desk and made to stand. "Stay right here and I will see what I can find that fits with your research."

Wooyoung couldn't help letting out a sigh of relief as she walked back to the gated restricted section. He leaned on the desk and looked around. His eyes wandered over the sparse students here or there around the library. It was almost empty, everyone was too concerned about packing for the break or had finished their classes and wouldn't subject themselves to a second longer in the library than they needed.