To Love a Serpent - Ominis Gaunt

Catacombs

Nearing the end of January, Sebastian sent me an OWL to meet himself outside a catacomb located conveniently next to his Hamlet of Feldcroft. He stated that the relic he was researching the book we found in the Scriptorium gave hints, like a treasure hunt. Sebastian of course needed my good scavaging skills.

Within the short time that Sebastian and I were exploring the dusty rooms of the catacombs to find the artifact for Sebastian, we finally stumbled upon a room covered in spiderwebs. We both looked at each other, slowly walking around with our wands up. 

"You know, by the looks of all these webbings, there might be more spiders about." He said to me. I glanced over at him and noticed how unreasonably dark it was. Hmm. Usually, the braziers would be magically ablaze but I guess something must be preventing it. 

Suddenly, I cast Lumos, and behind Sebastian were a pair of giant black eyes staring back at me. I froze but then gathered my composer. Sebastian looked at me and immediately without thought cast Confringo, behind him, causing the spider to shriek in pain.

Suddenly the grounds began to rumble and the dirt shifted, revealing more 8-legged creatures coming towards us. "Shit. There must be at least dozens of them about us. Have a plan?" I asked Sebastian as both of our backs were to each other. He nodded. "You take that lot nearest to the webbing, I'll handle the exit." 

I dodged and rolled over to the mass amounts of webbing, casting Incendio to burn it all. This only angered the spiders and then, using my ancient magic struck at least 2 lighting bolts from thin air onto the spiders, blasting them to ashes. 

"Sebastian, behind you!" I yelled while dodging and casting Confringo and Diffindo on more spiders. Sebastian however seemed angrier with his spell castings. Each time he swung his wand, it was as if he was itching to use Crucio or Imperio. I tried not to focus on that instead I finally with my last bit of Ancient magic to mass Accio the rest of the spiders, shrinking them, and squishing them with my feet. I sighed, bending down, my hands on my knees, catching my breath.

"I never thought that was going to end. Seemed like it was going to go on for ages." I commented, wiping the sweat from my head and then walking around to what seemed like a dead end. "Ugh. Great a dead end. It seems we did all that fighting for nothing." He groaned. I quickly collected the leftover amounts of galleons and searched around the empty compartments where the coffins should be. "Just give me a moment. We might find something." I said to him but he seemed too preoccupied with his own thoughts.

"Aurora, do you hear that? I'm hearing the same noises again." Sebastian said while looking around. He seemed more off today. More skittish. I shrugged while still looking around. "We are after all in a tomb, like I said before, there are bound to be strange eerie noises," I responded.

My eyes then moved over to a crumbling stone table with a journal entry. I pick it up and skimmed it. "Sebastian! Look, the Artifact!" He immediately ran over beside me and he laughed in relief while patting my back. He immediately picked it up and I swore something in him changed, once again. I was worried and didn't join in his happy celebration.

"Sebastian, this journal entry is from the student. He said that the artifact required a dark sacrifice and that it shouldn't be taken. Maybe we should listen." I said looking at him but he didn't listen. Instead, he scoffed and rolled his eyes. 

"Look, I didn't come here with you, just to not take it. I need to discover what it could do for Anne. Okay?" He says abruptly before we both began walking out of the room. I nodded.

We both stopped when we saw a figure pacing back and forth. "Is that? Is that Ominis?" Sebastian asked looking at me. It occurred to me just now what the noises he was hearing were. "The noises...Ominis that was you?" I asked.