Entombed // Sebastian Sallow

two - the final battle

I was awoken the next morning startled to my owl dropping a letter on my bed. I brushed my now undone braid out of my face and unravelled myself from the robes I had apparently slept in.

Rubbing my eyes, I recognised that the letter was from Professor Fig. I struggled to awaken my muscles enough to get the finger strength to open the letter, finally managing to free the parchment from the confines of the envelope.

Meet me in the map chamber immediately.

How vague.

I replaced my old, dusty robes, skirt and shirt with some fresh ones and headed down from the Gryffindor tower to the Map Chamber, sadly walking straight past the Great Hall where I could smell the various scents of breakfast wafting through the corridors. No time today.

Upon entering the Map Chamber, Fig was already there, speaking with the Keepers.

"Good, you're here." Fig said, ushering me forward to speak. I had never seen him looking so flustered, even after the dragon attack when I first arrived.

"There is no time left. Ranrok has found the last repository. We need to go now." Fig pressured. "Here, I took the liberty of having this wand created for you under the advice from the Keepers. You'll know what to do when the time comes."

Fig handed me a long, green box and inside, a brand new wand sat carefully. I removed the wand from its confinement and tucked it into my robe pocket.

"You have done well, Lara. This will be your final challenge. Now go." Professor Rackham said to me.

As he spoke, I heard sounds of crumbling behind me and turned to see a stairway down even lower than the map chamber appearing. As if I thought we couldn't be any lower.

"Good luck." Professor Rookwood said.

Fig quickly grabbed my robe and we began to run down the stairs.

"I have told the other faculty, they will be here soon. This is it. This is the final fight." Fig told me as we jogged quickly, lower and lower beneath the castle.

"You told them? Professor Weasley too?"

"I did. We need their support more than ever right now. I just wish I'd done so earlier."

Fig and I were met with our first battle. Goblins upon goblins appeared in front of us, swinging axes and other weapons relentlessly. And then... a fucking armoured troll.

"Are they serious?!" I called, already growing tired from flinging spells all around.

We quickly managed to wipe out the goblins. The troll turned it's attention to Fig and began to run at him, club swinging wildly.

I shut my eyes and focused, my finger tips beginning to glow blue. I opened my eyes again, feeling my power surging. I focused my attention to the troll and produced large bolts of lightning, striking the troll and taking him down in one swoop.

"Thank you." Professor Fig panted. "I will never grow tired of watching you do that."

We pressed on again, running into another hoard of goblins prepared and waiting for our arrival but this time, two trolls were along side them. Fig and I were separated on other sides of the room. I felt myself being pinned down, unable to take on so many goblins at once. I peered around the troll launching itself at me and realised Professor Fig was also distracted with enough goblins.

"Imperio." I whispered, hitting the troll with the spell, its eyes turning green and drawing it's attention away from me.

The old bugger did my work for me. It swung its club around, taking out enough goblins for me to run over to Professor Fig to help him. Thankfully, he didn't see what I'd done, I didn't really feel like explaining why or how I came to know the curse.