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Chapter 129: “Treasure”
🕑 Added 2024-04-21 16:10:44 +0000 UTCThe school day after the skirmish in the ice vault was hell. James was pale and dying of sleep. He didn't even have an hour to sleep.
His pallor was largely due to being in that icy cold for so long, and he noticed that his temperature was lower than normal. Closer to that of a corpse.
The marauders and more students asked him if he was okay, and he could only nod lazily. He had no energy for conversation. Through sheer willpower, he managed not to fall asleep in class.
"The Room of Requirement gave us everything we needed for our school news business. Paper, pens, ink, and even a magical printing machine!" said Sirius as he walked beside James in the direction of the common room.
James didn't hear a single word Sirius said. He was walking on autopilot. With only one destination. His bed. Today, he would give himself permission to not study and sleep until it was time for dinner. About 3 or 4 hours or so.
"Hey, are you listening to me?" asked Sirius as he noticed that James remained silent.
"Yeah... we'll talk later. I'm going to bed," said James, passing through the Fat Lady's portrait and heading to the dormitories.
"What's wrong with him today?" asked Sirius, watching James leave.
"His skin is very pale. He looks like a zombie," commented Toby.
"He's been weirder than usual these days. Although since we started the year he's been weird," said Peter.
Peter like everyone else had noticed the change in James' routine and that he barely spent an hour or two with the marauders. He didn't like it so much, as it was more boring if James wasn't with them.
He knew he was doing it to study and train like crazy, but the last week he was weirder. Lupin had noticed, as James stopped going to the Room of Requirement for his nightly study, and he always went with him.
He got no satisfactory answer as to why James so suddenly stopped going to the Room of Requirement. It was strange. He was neither in the common room nor in the Room of Requirement. Where would he be? In the Forbidden Section of the library? Why wasn't he telling them anything?
This bothered Lupin more since he was James's study partner, unlike the others.
...
James slept until dinner time. He ate as fast as he could and then went back to sleep. His condition was not good. He had to recover to get back to his routine and school schedule.
The next day, he sent a letter to Regulus. To meet in the evening in classroom 11 on the second floor. It was time to claim the reward they almost died for. Although Regulus didn't fight and was more of a dead weight, he deciphered the encrypted message and found the entrance to the vault. So he had his merit and should keep his share.
During the day, he only had his mind on what treasures the treasure chest would contain. He didn't notice the stares of the marauders, who seemed to be angry with him. Especially Lupin.
Room 11, First Floor - 11:30 PM.
When James entered the classroom, he noticed that Regulus had already arrived. Their gazes met, and they were silent.
Regulus couldn't believe he was fighting side by side with James Potter. A blood traitor and best friend of his older brother. However, he was very thankful that he had run into James. Otherwise, his memories would have been erased by Allan.
Also, he saw James' battle skills, and these days, he replayed the battle scene. Over and over again in his mind.
How did James save him from the axe knight? He didn't see him cast any spells. An invisible outside stopped him and sent him flying.
A few seconds later, he saw a flying sword come out of the cloud of smoke and hit the back of another knight's neck. Then that same sword flew out of James' hand and hit another knight.
At no point did James use his wand to control the sword or stop the axe knight's movement.
"You know how to use wandless magic?" asked Regulus, breaking the silence.
That a twelve-year-old could use such powerful wandless magic was unheard of to Regulus. He knew that only the most experienced wizards had such an ability.
James' eyes stared at Regulus. He wondered if he should erase his memories and put fake ones on him. The Slytherin boy fidgeted at being watched and it was a rare thing for him. He was usually haughty and very confident in his abilities.
"I won't answer that. You'd better keep it a secret. Otherwise..." said James without finishing the sentence, but Regulus understood very well what he meant.
"I understand. I don't want to end up as one of those knights," Regulus said.
"Any news from Allan?" asked James as he pulled out his wallet and started looking for the chest.
"He didn't tell me anything so far. It seems Professor Eustace still hasn't visited the entrance to the vault," replied Regulus.
"That's good," said James, pulling out an icy chest and resting it on the table.
The chest was medium-sized and adorned with beautiful magical patterns. It gave off a cold air even though it had left the icy vault a few days ago.
'Let's see if this chest was worth risking his life for,' James thought as he slowly opened the chest. Regulus at his side stared. He had been thinking all day about what could be inside the chest. He would finally know.
Despite the size of the chest, it wasn't very full. Something that disappointed James and Regulus. There were no galleons, no jewels. Though neither of the boys was looking for money, as their families had plenty to spare.
There were only five items. A long, thin, worn black cloth. A shiny light blue book. The cover of the book had no writing on it, and the pages that could be seen were a bit yellowed. A small mirror with a couple of cracks in it.
A beautiful necklace that appeared to be made of ice and finally a simple crystal key. Similar to the one dropped by the first knight James defeated.
"This appears to be an invisibility cloak," James said as he pulled out the cloth and examined it. He did not doubt that this was what it was.
He owned an invisibility cloak and knew what they looked like. Though his wasn't worn and the fabric was of better quality than this one.
"An invisibility cloak!?" asked Regulus, trying to control his excitement. He'd never had one before, and certainly not at Hogwarts, as it would be forbidden because of the uses students could put it to. His family could buy him one, but his mother couldn't see the point for her son to have one.
James after seeing that the cloak didn't seem to have anything wrong with it, passed it to Regulus to look at. When he had it in his hands he covered himself and could see how his body disappeared. All that was left was his head floating.
'Great!' thought Regulus.
James while Regulus was experimenting with the cloak, continued to examine the other objects. The mirror looked normal, neither magical nor evil. It didn't seem to have anything out of the ordinary. He could see his cracked reflection and nothing else.
The book was old and had hundreds of pages. He opened it to a random page, and it talked about ice charms.
'Oh, this could be useful for a battle,' thought James, reading a variation of the Glacius charm.
After flipping through it for a bit, he closed it and moved on to the necklace. The moment he grabbed it, he quickly pulled it off. The necklace made a slight noise as it hit the table.
"What happened?" asked Regulus, stopping fiddling with the cloak.
"That necklace has a curse on it," said James, showing his index finger to Regulus. James' index finger touching the necklace had a slight frosting on it.
He had only touched the necklace for a few seconds, and it had already left his finger with frost. If he held it for too long he could end up with a completely frozen hand.
Why was a curse so strong? It should be a little lighter. That way it would be effective against a victim. Since he would put on the necklace and then freeze and slowly die.
Since it was so powerful from the start the person touching it would quickly release it like James.
Finally, he picked up the key and noticed the kinship with the previous one, "What will this key be for?" asked James.
"It is identical to the key you used to open the vault. On the parchment, it didn't mention any more secret rooms. Maybe we missed something inside the vault," said Regulus, looking at the key.
What Regulus was saying made sense. They had not examined the hexagonal room carefully. After defeating the knights and taking the chest they fled quickly because of the cold.
When James returned, he only tried to close the door and grabbed the weapons of the defeated knights. He didn't explore the hexagonal room. Maybe there was a secret door or something and this key was the key.
"Should we go back and take a look?" asked Regulus.
"No. We may run into Professor Eustace, and he doesn't seem to have good intentions. We'd better wait for the moment," replied James, and Regulus nodded.
"That's four objects, not counting the key. Two for each of us," James added.
"You choose first. Even if I found the entrance, it would be impossible for me to have obtained the chest. With two objects, I'm already fine," said Regulus.
"Looks like you have some conscience," James said with a slight smile as he almost died for saving him. Regulus wanted to frown but controlled himself.
"I'll keep the book and the necklace," James added.
"What? You don't want the invisibility cloak?" asked Regulus with surprise.
James shook his head with a look of disdain. Regulus thought it was because he knew how to use the disillusioning charm and didn't need a cloak, though this wasn't why.
"Be careful with the mirror. It might have a curse on it like the necklace. I'll keep the key for the time being," James said as he put his things away in his wallet, including the chest since they couldn't just leave it in the classroom like it was nothing.
"If you're going to go to the vault again, let me know, please! Next time, I won't be so useless!" said Regulus, looking at James' back, who was about to leave the classroom.
James stopped without turning around. He was a little surprised by Regulus' words. Mainly because according to Sirius, Regulus is the perfect heir molded by Walburga Black. So, he should consider the Potters a disgrace for being in favor of the Muggle community.
So he found it curious that Regulus was willing to follow him on another deadly adventure.
'Maybe life and death situations make the supremacists see you in a new light,' James thought with a grimace. The same was true when he saved Gwen. Thanks to that they became friends.
"In the next few days, try to put pressure on Allan to get them to go to the vault. Otherwise, he will get suspicious," James said and left the classroom. It would not be good if he gets suspicious, and this suspicion is told to Eustace.
