Hogwarts Legacy: The Price of Power

It Begins

The trio wound through the trees, stopping before the rough, natural arch in the stone, half covered in moss and vines, light permeating only a few feet within, an uneven semicircle of bare stone before it.

"You reckon this is it?" Sebastian said, peering into the darkness of the cave. "It doesn't look like anything special."

"It has to be," Dracaena said. "We followed the markers, and here's a cave, just like Fotheringham's research said. There's no way anyone could know this was here unless they already knew where to look!"

"How can you be sure?" Ominis asked.

"Getting over those mountains is something only an idiot would do," Sebastian said, and Ominis hissed something, bitterly. "It's surrounded on all sides, impossible to get to on foot... what kind of wizard would fly this way when apparition and floo is faster to get to where you need to go?" he chuckled. "I bet the only things that know about this place are birds."

Dracaena nodded. "We still need to be careful, we still don't know exactly what kind of protections might be on it. Fotheringham's research said traps, but..."

"Easily remedied," Sebastian replied, and drew his wand, waving it in a complicated pattern as he muttered enchantments under his breath. After a long minute, he put it away, frowning.

"Well?" Ominis asked.

"I can't detect anything," Sebastian said, uncertainly. "But that doesn't mean nothing's there."

Dracaena squinted, peering at the tangled vines and moss curtaining the entrance, flowing over the rocks above. It almost seemed like there was something underneath. She raised her wand and cast Confringo, burning away the greenery and revealing runes carved above the entrance to the cave.

"Well I'll be," Sebastian said, frowning as his eyes traced the shapes. "It says abandon all hope, ye who enter here."

Dracaena shivered, the back of her neck prickling. "You're sure?"

"Of course I am. I'll be honest, it sounds a lot like my best mate."

"I beg your pardon?" Ominis said.

"Ominous," Sebastian grinned.

"Ha ha," Ominis replied, flatly.

"It's more threatening than you realise," Dracaena said. "In muggle Christianity, that phrase is supposed to be written over the entrance to Hell."

Sebastian's smile slipped, and the three of them drew closer together as a breeze rustled the grass at their feet. The cave, while distinctly spooky in and of itself, seemed to loom in light of this revelation.

"Maybe it's just there to creep people out, scare them away," Sebastian said. "Hell isn't real, it's a muggle concept to frighten people into doing what they're told."

"Quite," Ominis said. "I doubt it means anything."

"Well, Ominis, now's your time to shine," Dracaena said, nudging him with an elbow, and he shot her a dark glower.

"This is ridiculous," he muttered. "Just because I have a distant connection to the Peverells doesn't mean I can bypass whatever defences this place has! This won't work."

"What we know suggests you can," Sebastian said. "Go on mate, give it a try."

He hesitated, twisting his hands. "What if you two can't get in as well?"

"Then we'll try something else," Dracaena said. "We're not leaving you here to go through whatever it is alone, we're all in this together."

Ominis gave a grim nod. "Alright. If this doesn't work, and I end up horribly maimed, or something..."