In The Shadow of Our Choices

Chapter 28 - Hallowed Havoc

Back in the Undercroft, Sebastian fished out the cursed laughing necklace they'd bought at Zonko's nearly two months ago. He placed it on a crate and started to roll up his sleeves.

"Hold on," Elizabeth said, "Shouldn't you practice a bit first?"

Sebastian paused, looking at her.

"I'm quite familiar with the spell," he said, raising an eyebrow.

"Your wand, Sebastian," Ominis said, rolling his eyes.

"Ah! Right. Lizzie, how about a quick duel then?"

"And get blown up when the wand explodes? No thanks."

Elizabeth joined Ominis, leaning against the far wall while Sebastian ran through his repertoire of spells on a training dummy.

"So, apparition classes start next weekend - are you ready?" Ominis asked.

"Ready? Probably not, but I am excited," Elizabeth said, "What about you?"

Ominis shrugged.

"We'll see," he said.

Sebastian's new wand seemed to be working well, performing even a few of his more complex spells with ease. After a few minutes, he turned back to them.

"Alright, let's give this a shot," he said eagerly.

Elizabeth watched anxiously as Sebastian planted himself in front of the necklace. He took a deep breath and raised the wand. He began the intricate motions, moving with an easy grace. His voice was steady as he chanted the incantation. As the air began to crackle with magic, the wand began to glow with familiar blue light. The spell cut off suddenly as Sebastian dropped the wand with a hiss of pain.

"What is it?" Ominis asked sharply.

"It got hot," Sebastian said, nudging the wand with a finger before scooping it up. "Surprised me mostly. Must be the disruption of the spell structure Ollivander mentioned. I did tell you it looked like it was meant for a single core."

Gritting his teeth, Sebastian began the spell anew. Elizabeth started to protest, but Ominis put a hand on her arm. As the wand glowed blue once more, Elizabeth thought she could see smoke trailing behind it. When the incantation came to a close, rather than flashing and dissipating like it had in the past, the blue light shot away from the wand. There was a crack like lightning as the light missed the necklace and began to ricochet around the room. Elizabeth ducked, pulling Ominis down with her. She heard Sebastian's wand hit the ground.

"Did it break? What happened?" Ominis asked.

Elizabeth looked up in time to see the blue light slam into the training dummy. Hastily, she cast Revelio. Sure enough, the magic protection of the dummy was rapidly fading. Her heart lept in her chest - it had worked! But the blue light didn't stop there - once the protections were gone, the training dummy began to disintegrate too, slowly crumbling into dust. Elizabeth stared at it in horror. When the dummy was nothing more than a pile on the floor, she looked at Sebastian. He had dropped to one knee, panting heavily, cupping his wand hand in his free hand. His eyes were also on the dummy.

"God damn," Elizabeth swore. "Are you okay Sebastian?"

"Yeah," he said, "That was... unexpected."

"What happened?" Ominis asked again.

Sebastian shook his head, still trying to catch his breath.

"The spell worked," Elizabeth said, "...Kind of. Bounced around the room before it disintegrated the training dummy." Ominis' eyebrows shot up at this. "But it did remove the enchantment on it first - I checked."