Previously, on the Caretaker...

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

You stop in an instant after hearing his voice, you didn't imagine it, that came straight from the pillar of light.

“Brandon! Into the light! Now!”

“But. Sir…”

You try communicating with him, but unlike when he was inside of your head, it doesn't feel like a 2 way road, you can hear him, and you can certainly try to talk to him, but you are almost positive he can't hear you.

“Quick! Brandon! We don't have much time!”

You look at the light, then back at the castle, then back at the light.

“...Fucking hell”

You look back at the castle and make up your mind.

“I'm sorry. Sir.”

You run through the gardens, around the enchanted hedges and into the castle just as the ground begins shaking again.

*KA-CRRRRRAK. CRUUUMMMMMM*

You hear something big splitting and rocks falling, you are not entirely sure what it was, but you are not staying put to find out.
Without stopping, you venture deeper into the castle, shouting her name with each turn you take inside the corridors.

“WILLOW! WILLOW WHERE ARE YOU?! WILLOW!”

Another powerful shake of the ground makes you tumble. You steady yourself next to a wall and wait for the tremor to end, but not only does it NOT stop, the wall cracks and splits.
Lucky for you, nothing collapses, yet.

“I need to get out of here fast, WILLOW!”

You remember the last time you saw her, it was when you just stepped out of your room, she was heading to-

“The Great Hall!”

You turn to make your way directly to The Great Hall, praying with each passing moment that she is indeed in there.

With each step you take, you see parts of the castle cracking. They make a thunderous and worrisome *CRACK* every time that you see a new fissure forming on the walls.

At the same time, you see the many pets of Hogwarts that were left behind in their hurry, each creature, regular or magical that students had as their familiars or companions, running, flying or slithering away from the chaos, heading straight to any of the many exit doors of the castle.
You continue running in the opposite direction, quickly looking inside empty classrooms in case Willow is inside any of them.

“WILLOW!...WILLOW!...WILLOW!”

You find nothing, each room that you pass making you more sure that you’ll find her in The Great Hall.

Soon enough, after taking one last turn and avoiding a falling piece of ceiling, you reach The Great Hall.

“WILLOW!”

“BRANDON!”

There she was, trapped in The Great Hall, balancing herself on top of the staff´s table at the end of the room, half of the floor gone and replaced with a drop so deep you can't see the bottom of it.

“BRANDON! VHAT IS GOING ON?!”

“That's not important right now! We have to get you out of there now! Can you make your way out of there?!”

That was a stupid question, there was no way to cross the chasm that went through the hall and there were no other paths to take out of the hall.
Yet, she looks around, searching for a way to get out of there.

“I-i zhink i can do a small wall run and hang from the pillars of the walls! but it's too far to make it all the vay across! Can you do any magic to catch me?!”

“I don't think that's such a good idea right now! The magic is acting weird!

“Vhat!?”

There is another shake of the ground and the chasm grows in size, the hole only widens and widens as chunks of the floor tear themselves from the ground and fall into the depths, followed by the Gryffindor table.
You see the heavy table fall and slam against the wall a couple of times before splitting in half when it takes a particularly strong hit. It then disappears.
The red tablecloth with the Gryffindor crest follows.

File: wallrun.jpg (41 KB, 1280x720)

41 KB JPG

You see the long tablecloth falling and swaying in the air as it does.

“...That can work…Willow! I need you to do the wall run and then JUMP towards me!”

“VHAT?! I just said it's too far! I'll never make it!”

“Listen! When you jump I´ll throw you one side of this!”

You go to the Ravenclaw table and take the tablecloth from it, just as long as the Gryffindor one but in its distinctive blue color.

“You´ll have to catch it and i then i´ll pull you back up!”

“ARE YOU CRAZY!? ZHAT VILL NEVER VORK!”

“We don't have the time to plan something else!”

“IM NOT GONNA MAKE IT!”

A big crack appears on the ceiling, both of you look up and see it split the entire thing in half.
Pieces of it begin to fall, crushing the Slytherin and Hufflepuff tables under huge boulders.

“JUMP!”

Against her better judgment, Willow jumps off of the staff table and runs as fast as she can towards the wall.
With her running start, she jumps into the wall, her feet twist in an almost unnatural way as she begins the ascending part of the wall run, her hand drags behind her while keeping it as close to the wall as possible.

When she reaches the highest point, she kicks away from the wall and jumps into the chasm, stretching her hands as you throw the tablecloth in her direction…

“CATCH!”

>Roll 1D2, 1=she grabs it, 2= she doesnt. need 2 out of 3 rolls to succeed.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
And now, we continue.

“CATCH!” you shout.

And she does.

She grabs the blue tablecloth, clutching at it for dear life.

Immediately you feel the pull of her weight on your arms as the tablecloth tenses and pulls you closer to the chasm, but you plant your feet solidly on the ground and begin pulling back.

The building continues collapsing around you but that doesn't stop you from using all of your might to get Willow out of the hole.
The both of you might end up with some rope burn in your hands, but you simply ignore the pain until you see Willow´s head peeking out, and as soon as she can hold herself from the edge, you grab her hand and pull her out, both falling back on the ground behind you and lying down for an instant.

“Zhank you!”

“Dont thank me yet, we still have to-”

A huge brick falls next to you, missing you by a few centimeters, it explodes when it crashes into the ground, sending debris everywhere.

“SHIT! OUT! NOW!”

You both turn and make a run for the big doors, there are a few boulders blocking the way but at this point you know that looking for another path is out of the question and magic is not an option, so instead you climb.

Willow cups her hands to use as a step and push you upwards, when you get on top of the blockade you detach your prosthetic foot, letting the hook where your real leg and the prosthetic foot connect exposed and lower your leg so she can hang from it and pull her up.

“Ugh zhat vas veird…” She says as you reattach your foot.

“Hey, it worked, i might to have to add some attachments to it later, looks useful”

You both jump down the boulders and finally exit the collapsing building.

>Perfect escape, Willow earns a +10 to her physical bonus and Brandon reduces his negative one by 5.

As you step outside into the gardens, you turn to look back and witness the emblematic building that houses the Great Hall, split and crumble, its great windows and century old arches, all twist, bend and finally break and fall.

It all collapses onto the ground with a thundering and deafening sound.

But just as you think that everything is finally over and you can focus on the next problem…
…The ground begins to rumble.

There is a weird sound unlike all the previous ones, it sounds like thunder but it's muffled, as if it were underwater.

The ground then shakes once, twice and then something finally gives.

There is splashing in the lake, you see the tentacles of its giant resident, the giant squid, flail frantically as if trying to get away from something, then simply go back underwater and disappear from view.
Then the Selkies followed, they could be seen swimming away from Hogwarts main island, splashing and dashing away from something, they jumped out of the water as they swam away, but one by one they all disappeared and never came back to the surface.

There was a moment of silence before you could figure out what was happening.

You see the water starting to move all in one direction, slowly sinking into a specific point before quickly turning into a whirlpool.

It's the point from where that pillar of light was coming from, the whirlpool surrounding it as whatever that was down there sucked and drained the water from the lake.

You hear his voice again.

“BRANDON! WHERE ARE YOU?!”

“I'M COMING, MERLIN!”

“Merlin?!” Willow asks.

*CRRRUUMMMMB*

The cliff where the Great Hall used to be, breaks away from the main island and piece by piece descends into the lake, from where it splits you could see the dungeons, the kitchens, the Hufflepuff and Slytherin rooms and some classrooms, all hanging from the face of the new cliff that was formed as the previous one gets devoured by the whirlpool and disappears into the light.

“Dont you even ZHINK about it! Ve JUST made it back from zhere and now “zhere” it's GONE! Are you CRAZY?!”

“Merlin is down there! we have to get him out!”

She holds your hand and doesn't let go.

“Brandon! Zhis is too much! Ve dont know vhat is happening and ve dont know vhat is down zhere! Please dont go!”

You look into her eyes and you see worry, genuine worry along with some tears of fear forming at the corners of her eyes.

For a moment, your world freezes and the entire weight of…everything falls on your shoulders.
It is now when you finally realize the scale and magnitude of everything you are currently involved with.

Without letting go of her hand, you turn to see the purple pillar of light coming out of the whirlpool.

You see a chunk of Hogwarts missing along with a piece of the island where that chunk used to be.

Far in the distance away from the castle, you see all the students and professors, all bundled together and getting away from Hogwarts territory.

During all this time, you knew and kept saying that everything you did for Merlin was to help avoid the end of the world, to help prevent some sort of beast being unleashed into existence.
You kept saying that, you kept hearing that from Merlin, but you never really understood the magnitude of it, not until now.

You think back on everything you have done so far, you learned some ancient spell, you stopped an evil wizard twice, thrice even! you lost part of your leg…but despite all that, it never felt like you were doing much, it never felt like your actions were making a big impact, never felt like you were in real danger.

But now, seeing one of the most recognizable fortresses of the magical world, crumble and fall into the lake that surrounds it…something clicks inside your head.

Hell! The most impressive thing you have done so far was to banish an annoying poltergeist! You are WAY out of your league here!.

How is it that you managed to survive until now?! you are just the caretaker, you are the guy that picks up trash and cleans up children's messes.

How did you get involved in all of this!?

“BRANDON!”

You hear him once again, Merlin calling your name.
The most powerful wizard of all time, and he is calling for you with fear and despair in his voice.

“BRANDON! WHERE ARE YOU!?”

You turn back to look at Willow once again.

One of the tears that formed in her eyes finally rolled down her cheek.
She is terrified.

“BRANDOOOONN!!”

Merlin keeps calling for you.
He is terrified.

You look at your hand, still holding Willow´s hand and you see them trembling.
You are terrified…

…

“No…”

Willow looks at you, puzzled.
“Vhat?”

“No, I have to do it, Merlin needs me”

“But zhis is too much! i vont let you go zhere!”
She hugs you tightly and shoves her head on your chest.
“Nein!”

You hug her back.

“Listen, I need you to go with the rest of the students and professors, if it becomes too dangerous then you can just-”

“NO!”

“Willow-”

“NO!”

“...”

“no…i vont let you go…not alone…not by yourself”

“...huh? no, no! you are not coming with me! It's too dangerous!”

“It's also dangerous for you! don't zhink im going to let my boyfriend go into who knows vhat all by himself, i either go vith you or you don't go at all, I don't care if it brings zhe end of the world, im not leaving your side!”

You want to be mad at her, but instead you smile.

“You are crazy…”

“Not more zhan you, so you can't talk”

You gently hold her head in your hands and look at her straight in the eyes.

“Are you sure of this?”

“Ve still have a long road ahead of us, but i vant to travel ALL OF IT vith you”

You kiss her.

“It will be dangerous, hell, im terrified right now”

“Im afraid too, but i vould be more afraid if im not vith you”

You touch her forehead with yours and give her a small kiss on her nose.

“You are incredible”

“VE are incredible”

She returns the kiss on your nose and separates from you.
“Lets go” she says

“Lets go”

You both run towards the edge of the lake, you have to slide down some steep slopes and jump over the broken stone staircase that takes you down to the boat house, but eventually you make it.

Near the shore, you see the whirlpool and the pillar of light coming out of it, inside the light you see a human figure, it has no distinguishable features, but you already know it's him.

“Merlin! Sir! we are here! what do we do!?”

Immediately, you feel the figure looking at you despite not having any eyes…or a face.

“Brandon! it's too late! The Beast! it won't let itself be conquered! It now wants to escape its prison and reform itself! I'm the only thing stopping it from escaping into reality!”

“H-How do ve stop it?!” Willow asks and you now realize that she can also hear him.

“It's looking to complete itself, we must not let it! I can no longer focus on obtaining the remaining pieces, not while stopping it from coming into reality! Now you must do it, Brandon”

“What!? Me?! but, i dont-”

“Brandon, it HAS to be you, only you have some form of experience with ancient magic, you have used it before, you can do it again, find the last pieces and put an end to this!”

“But how many pieces are there? we know where some of them are, but we don't know if those will be enough”

“They will, I saw it”

“Vhat do you mean?” Asks Willow.

“This place, it allows me to see…everything” Merlin begins, there is something in his voice that you can't really identify, but he sounds…in awe, start struck, at the edge of…madness?

“Its not perfect, i see…endless possibilities, i've seen places that shouldn't be, things that never happened, things that WILL happen, but its all too much, i cannot choose what to see, i just do, but in one of those things i saw, i saw us, you, in a perfect world, where everything is fixed, the dead come back to life, unbothered and perfect, injustice is over, evil never was, it was all i ever wanted…it was…paradise.”

“Umm…Merlin?” You interrupt him.

He remains quiet for just a moment too long before coming back to his senses.

“There are millions of pieces out there, but they are all scattered across the branches, each branch only has a few pieces, so you can only obtain a certain amount from an entire branch”

“By branch…you mean…”

“Time, the Beast became so powerful, so everpresent, so omnipotent that when it was shattered it dispersed across every different timeline it had access to”

“...So we are locked out…”

“Not exactly, there are ways to access other timelines, but not even i with all the magic in the world would be capable of jumping to another branch, there are some secrets not even i know”

“So, how many pieces are in this one?”

“There are 4 pieces in total, we already have 1, we know where the 2nd one is, we suspect where the 3rd one is, and the last one we still don't know”

“But, I need your help to get those pieces, only you can contain them”

“That is not true, you can contain them too, all I've ever done was to help you with the transfer process, you will just have to do it without my help this time”

“But, what about the magic? magic is gone now, Hogwarts itself is falling to pieces!”

“Its not gone, just relocated, its being absorbed back into its point of origin, the source of all magic”

“Hogwarts is the source of all magic?” You say, pointing at the whirlpool from where the pillar of light is coming out.

“No, not Hogwarts, this is just a point of access, an entrance to the true source of magic, there are many across the world, but it seems the beast managed to open this one as a way to escape, it created a wound on reality”

“Vait! so zhe beast's true prison is in the one place vhere all of zhe magic comes from?! Vhy is it in zhere!? Zhat's like locking down a guy in a cell along with a nuke!”

“I do not know why it was trapped in here, nor is it important, we just need to stop it from escaping and destroy it once and for all, and for that we need all the pieces we can get! Now stop wasting time and go! I can only hold it for so long!”

“Dont worry Merlin, we´ll get those pieces for you!

“Thank you, Brandon, now make haste!”

“Hang in there, Merlin, we´ll be back soon!”

You step away from the shore, Willow following close.

“So…vhere are the pieces again?”

“Well, we know Lockheart has one, that's how he became some sort of “seer” or whatever he is. The other one should be close or under St.Mungos if what we felt before was correct, the last one though, i have no idea”

“So, St.Mungos it is then?”

“St.Mungos, yeah”

“Just one problem…how do ve get zhere? magic is gone, that means the floo network vill not vork and ve cant apparate, its like a 10 hour trip by Thestral and I haven't seen any magical creature since the castle began crumbling down”

“...Wait…you are the Muggle studies professor”

“Umm…yeah, vhy? i dont zhink zhere is much i can do vith zhat right now”

“Dont you teach about cars in later years?”

“Vell, yes, but i dont-” She stops mid-sentence then bursts into a sprint towards the castle…the one side that hasn't been destroyed yet.

“Please be intact, please be intact, please be intact!” She repeats again and again the entire time she runs back to the castle. You follow closely behind her.

“Is it a fast car?” You ask.

“Its not going to vin any races soon, but it should be fast enough to get us to London before it gets dark”

“Can i drive?”

“Do you know how to drive?”

“...Fine, you drive”

You reach the training grounds where the flying classes are held and head straight for one of the castle's outer walls, in there you find a set of wooden double doors locked with chain and lock.

But the walls surrounding the door appear to have collapsed with all the shaking of the land.
There are some pieces of the wall near the doors, you also notice how the doors are splintered, as if they were slammed by some of the falling boulders or cracked under the pressure of the wall.

“...Please be intact” Willow says one last time before opening the lock and removing the chain.

>Roll 2D100
>1st roll to see if the car has any damages
>2nd roll to see which car she got for her class

Thanks to everyone who has stuck around for my shitty quest!
with this thread, i think we have officially entered the homestretch for this quest...i think, we might still have another thread for later, but we´ll get there when we get there

Rolled 69, 19 = 88 (2d100)

>>6317390
inb4 it's her parents' old Trabant

Rolled 2 (1d2)

>>6317380

>>6317405
you did the wrong roll, anon.
that was the recap of the last update from the previous thread

Rolled 91, 76 = 167 (2d100)

>>6317390

Rolled 51, 52 = 103 (2d100)

>>6317390
"not going to win any races" my ass.

File: opel blitz.png (391 KB, 640x430)

391 KB PNG

She struggles to open one of the doors due to the damage it took from the falling rocks, but eventually, between the both of you, you manage to open up the doors all the way.

Inside you find an olive green, bulky looking…car

“Is…is that a good car? i-i dont know much about cars to be honest”

“You are looking at peak German engineering, it vas from my grandpa, me and my dad restored it vhen i was younger but never ended up using it, used most of the class's budget to get it here all the vay from home”

“Your grandpa used it? so it's an old german car then?”

“Ja! its called an “Opel Blitz”, strong, reliable, apparently it vas VERY popular in its time, but dad never explained to me vhy, i just know it good”

“Somehow looks…familiar, i think i've seen one of these in some muggle history lessons before…but i can't remember in what lesson it was…ehh, probably not that important”

She steps inside the improvised garage and gets into the truck. She seems to fumble around the cabin looking for something, a few moments later, the large truck roars back to life and rolls out of the garage.
The passenger door opens.

“Hop in!”

You have to climb in order to enter the cabin but you eventually sit next to Willow and close the door.
“Are there any damages?”

“Just a bump from one of those rocks falling on the hood, but other than that, it's in perfect shape, you can help me buffer zhat out after ve are done vith all zhis”

“Sounds good, now lets go, we don't want to waste too much time”

“Aye aye!”

She shifts the gear stick, steps on the gas and before you know it you are leaving Hogwarts and traveling across the dirt roads of the Scottish highlands.

The first thing you notice after passing Hogsmeade is how there is absolutely NOTHING even remotely close to Hogwarts besides a couple of tiny hamlets here and there, after that, it's all forest and small rocky plains which the dirt road snakes around.
An hour passes, the only changes in scenery are the mountains becoming smaller behind you and the purple hue of the sky slowly going back to normal the further you get from Hogwarts.

Another half hour passes, you see the bridge that holds the railway of the Hogwarts Express over a river and into a mountain. It disappears behind you as you both keep driving.

Right after you cross that 2nd mountain, you notice a shift in the sky, the purple light finally disappears behind the mountains, but you feel like it's only a matter of time before something more noticeable happens.

“Any idea how much longer until we reach civilization?” You ask, bored while letting your arm hang out the window.

“Ve are doing good time so far, i zhink ve vill reach Dundee in half an hour, so ve should be seeing signs of civilization soon, after that ve can take the A90 road and it should be smooth ride all the vay to london”

“And how long from Dundee to London?”

“6 to 7 hours, i could make it in 5 though”

“Please dont kill us…”

“Hah! relax, ve´ll be fine”

“Yeah you say that now, but im just waiting for the moment you take a weird curve and then we both will-SHIT!”

Willow slams on the breaks and you are thrown into the dashboard, you manage to put your arms in front of you to absorb most of the damage, but you already know you will be getting a purple bump later.

The truck skids for quite a bit before coming to a stop, the cloud of dust catches up with you and covers your entire field of view outside the car.

“HNNNNNGH!!!” You grunt while holding your forehead.
“Son of a bitch! that hurt! why did you stop!?”

“Look!” Willow points outside to the road in front of you.

You follow where she is pointing.

“Uh oh…”

Lying on the ground, a few dozen meters ahead of the truck, is a group of unmoving people, there appear to be around 6 in total, all of them wearing heavy dark coats.

“Stay here, i´ll go check it out, be ready to drive in case anything happens”

You open the door and step outside into the road.

Slowly, you make your way towards the group of apparently unconscious people.

“Hello? Do you need help?”

You instinctively reach for your wand even though you know it wont be of much help since magic is gone.

“Are you ok?”

The closer you get, the more things you start to notice.

The first and most important thing, they are all twisted into swirls, their limbs all bend in a spiral form around their bodies, stretched beyond what should be humanly possible even with magic, their clothes appear to have melted in that twisting motions and into their bodies, all converging in a singular central point of their respective bodies.

Then you notice their faces, also twisted and frozen in place after death, some have their eyes separated across their cheeks, others have them under their chin while their noses are where the forehead should be, the skin looks broken or about to be.

Finally, you notice that the bodies are all perfectly aligned in a row across the road, their heads aiming towards Hogwarts, like this happened the moment they crossed an invisible line.

“By Merlin´s wand…” You turn to look away from them since there was a pit forming in your stomach the longer you kept looking.

The truck honks

“Vhats going on?” Asks Willow from behind the wheel while peeking from outside the window.

You just wave at her, signaling to come and see for herself.

“HEILIGE SCHEISSE!! VHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED HERE?!”

“I dont know, but uugh…i think…”

You turn once more and walk back to them to investigate.

In the few pockets that you can access, you found wands, some notebooks, a chocolate frog and some miscellaneous items along with some ID´s and an envelope with its seal broken.

You check the ID´s first.

“...Aurors from the ministry, at least 4 of them since the pockets of the other 2 are fused into their flesh, but I'm willing to bet they were also aurors.”

“But how?” Asks Willow while putting a hand over her mouth, trying and failing to cover a gag from the gruesome sight.

“No idea, they are professionals, so splinching from apparating shouldn't even be a problem for them, something must have done this to them while they were traveling…” You notice the direction their heads are headed.
“...To Hogwarts…”

“Vhat could possibly cause zhis?”

“I don't know, but I don't want to stay here and find out, we should go.”

“Vait, vhat about zhem?” She points to the lifeless bodies.

“I don't know about you, but I really don't want to risk touching them”

“So vhat? are ve supposed to just leave zhem here?”

You look at them one more time.

>Investigate more, maybe there is something you are missing
>Leave them there and go on your way, you can't afford to waste time
>Other (Write in:)

>>6319054
>>Investigate more, maybe there is something you are missing

>>6319054
>Leave them there and go on your way, you can't afford to waste time
We're on a major time crunch.

>>6319054
>Leave them there and go on your way, you can't afford to waste time

You walk away from the bodies and back to the car, Willow simply looks at you, then at the bodies, then back at you.

“Are ve really…?”

“We don't have much time, we have to go. Now.”

She looks conflicted, looks at the bodies, grimaces one last time then walks back.

She hops back into the truck and turns it back on, drives around the bodies, getting out of the dirt path for just a second before getting back into it and driving away.

The plains and occasional boulders quickly transform into a dense forest that surrounds the path you are currently driving, creating a long alley of tall tree trunks and long branches.

“Vhat…vhat caused zhat?”

“I-i dont know, that was definitely splinching though…perhaps…”

She gives you a glance.

“Vhat is it?”

You pull out your wand and give it a little flick.

“Lumos”

And to your surprise, the tip of your wand flickers for an instant with the dimmest of lights.

“Vait, how did you do zhat?! i thought zhat magic vas gone”

She slows down the truck while looking for her own wand. She eventually finds it and also tries to cast some magic.

“Lumos”

Same as yours, the tip of her wand barely flickers to life, but there are signs of magic.
Nothing powerful, nothing complex, but enough to cast the most basic spells and barely make them work.
But hers flickers out and the light disappears completely.

“Oof, you really need to concentrate to make it vork”

She puts her wand away and goes back to driving at full speed.

“At least ve now know zhat it isnt entirely gone, right?”

“Yeah, that's great news, at least we won't be completely defenseless now”

You exhale a bit, feeling a small weight has been lifted from your shoulders, you have magic back again, it's very weak but at least its something.

The drive continues.

The walls of trees that surround you are imposing but they still feel peaceful, completely unbothered by the potential end of the world and magic.

That is of course, until you notice a few shadows suddenly appearing on the hood of the car.

You lower the window from your side just a bit more to poke your head out.

“Hey…Willow?”

“Ja?”

“Is it migration time?”

“Vhat?”

“Migration, you know, when the birds fly away to look for warmer places and stuff”

“I-i dont know, im not an expert on creatures, but…i zhink zhere is still some time left before zhat, vhy?”

“Stop the car”

She obeys and goes to the side of the road before completely stopping and looking out the window.

“...Oohh…”

Clouds of birds of all kinds are flying away from the mountains near Hogwarts, hundreds if not thousands of birds, all flying as if escaping from a predator you can't see at the moment.
They aren't even flying in formation, it's just clouds and flapping shapes all around.

Their shadows start catching up with you as they cover the sky above you.

Then you see a cloud of dust approaching you from where you were coming from.
Wolves, Bears, you see a few packs of wild horses and even beavers running away.
You aren't in any danger at the moment, they are far enough that they won't trample you or risk getting attacked by any of them, still, they appear to be running away from…something.

“I think we better start driving again, Willow. This is getting weirder”

“Ve might have to vait on zhat for a bit”

“Why do you think that?”

“Somezhing is coming, look”

She points ahead of the road and you can see another cloud of dust being kicked off by something.
It's big and it's approaching fast, faster than the animals running away from the mountains.

“Is zhat…a black car? vhats a car doing here? Muggles dont know of zhese roads”

“...i dont think those are muggles, Willow.”

“...zhen who?”

You look back at the road where you came from, there are only 2 kinds of people who would take a road like this.

Wizard families who missed their train to Hogwarts and are scrambling to make it on time…

…Or the Ministry of magic.

You then think of the dead aurors you found on the road. It's definitely the Ministry.

“Vhat do ve do?”

The cloud of dust is still a bit far away and thanks to the hundreds of escaping animals, you are sure your own cloud of dust created by the truck could still be confused for a bunch of panicking creatures.

>Hide and wait to see who is coming.
>Hide and continue driving through the forest.
>Wait and warn whoever is coming.
>Other (Write in:)

>>6321573
>>Wait and warn whoever is coming.

>>6321573
>Leave a message of warning for whoever is coming, then keep driving. Time is precious.

>>6321573
>Wait and warn whoever is coming.
Hol' up chaps. Go no further.

You stare at the cloud of dust coming your way for a few seconds then think back on the group of aurors that you left lying on the ground.

That was a particularly cold thing for you to do, you could have at least moved them out of the road to protect their bodies from the direct sunlight or predators, you could have done SOMETHING, but you didn't.

No, it doesn't matter if the end of the world is coming or if magic is in danger, you need to warn people to minimize any kind of casualties, if you can save people along the way then that is something you should do every chance you get.

“Lets wait until they get close and warn them, we shouldn't let people get close to Hogwarts, at least not without a warning, if they are really from the Ministry then they would appreciate all the info they can get.”

“Sounds good to me, lets vait zhen”

Willow parks the truck on the side of the road, leaving it perfectly visible but out of the way so that the people can resume their path after your warning.

“Vhat are you going to tell zhem, Brandon?”

Hmm, you think for a moment, no matter who they are, there is only so much you can say without ignoring all the warnings you have been told until now: “Dont let Potter know”, “Dont involve any more people than necessary” and “Hurry up”

You are sure you have been told more than that by this point, but everything basically boils down to that.

“I guess i´ll just have to warn them to be careful about the magic getting weird the closer you get to Hogwarts and how it gets unpredictable”

“Guess zhats enough of a varning as you can give”

“Yeah, not much else we can do…what are they doing?”

You look back at the black car in the distance and notice that it has stopped. Still far away for you to see who it is.

“Why did they stop?”

“Maybe zhey are having car troubles?”

“I dont think so…here, let me just…”

You walk to the middle of the road and wave your arms above your head, calling for their attention.

The car appears to start moving again.

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“I think they saw us, they are coming”

You wait a bit longer and you can start noticing details on the black car.
It is long, wide and flat, almost entirely black with the exception of a silver stripe going across the sides until the middle of the first door.
The windows are tinted, so even as it rolls down to a stop a few meters in front of you, you can't see who is inside.

For a moment, the car stays there, no signs of movement from the inside.

“Hello” You begin. “We just wanted to let you know, you should be careful going forward, there is some strange things going on the further you go”

The car gives no signs of movement for another minute before the driver's door finally opens.

From it, out comes Ronald Weasley and from the opposite door, Hermione Granger.

Shit…

Hermione is the first to speak.

“Thanks for the warning, Sir, Ma'am. Now, do you mind telling me what exactly are you doing all the way out here? these roads aren't exactly open to public”

“Right, they don't know who I am!” You think. “They still don't know that I saw them with Harry that night at the lake, i better keep this short”

But just as you are about to explain your excuse, another door in the back of the car opens.

“I don't remember giving anyone the order or permission to leave Hogwarts, Brandon”

Its Harry.

“S-sir! you finally show up, we were all wondering where you were”

“I was just out, figuring out how to solve this, what should we call it…Merlin sized problem we both know about”

How does he know?! How does he know that you know?!

“How-”

“How do I know? Lets just say a…mutual…friend of ours caught me up to speed, rubbish boy”

That stupid nickname again.

“Son of a bitch…how? he was-”

“And he still is, you must think im stupid if you think i would ever team up with him of all people, but we did reach a temporal agreement for now, worry not about the details, all you must do now, is to come with me back to Hogwarts, cooperate and I promise you that everything will be fine.”

“Sir. I don't know what he said, but you must know that he is full of shit”

“He is the founder of the shittiest house, of course i know that, now, be a good employe and come with us back to Hogwarts, we have things to take care of”

“Im sorry sir, but im afraid i cannot do that”

You slowly take a step back to Willow´s truck.
Harry pulls out his wand the moment he notices your movement.

“Dont take another step” He says and both Ron and Hermione pull out their wands and aim them at you.
You freeze.

“Last chance to cooperate, Brandon…”

You slowly turn your head to look at Willow, she is standing very still, hand ready to pull out her wand if necessary.
You weigh your options.

On one hand, this is going to be a 2v3 against the best wizards in the field and the Minister of Magic herself.
On the other hand, they might not know yet that magic is acting funky all the way here, but you also don't know if their magic is already affected by it or not…But if you…”take them all out” now then they will be out of your way for good.
On the other OTHER hand, you are already under very limited time, who knows how long a battle with them and barely working magic is going to last, so trying to escape is also an option, but if you do so, they will probably ignore you and go straight to Hogwarts and Merlin!
…Or perhaps they would chase you all the way to St.Mungos and steal The Beast from you, if what Harry says is true and he already knows about that.

What will you do?
>Fight Harry and his team (Start the battle with the first out of 3 rounds, roll a 2D100, best final result out of 3 rolls will go against Harry's and Co. opposing rolls (3D100, one roll for each member) (your best final result will go against each individual member)
>Surrender, cooperate and go back to Hogwarts.
>Try to escape (roll 2D100 against Harry's and Co. opposing rolls (3 rolls, one for each member) (Your best final result will have to beat 2 out of 3 of their rolls to escape)
>Other: (Write in)

Rolled 95, 59 = 154 (2d100)

>>6324188
>>Try to escape (roll 2D100 against Harry's and Co. opposing rolls (3 rolls, one for each member) (Your best final result will have to beat 2 out of 3 of their rolls to escape)

Rolled 81, 12 = 93 (2d100)

>>6324188
>Try to win them over. "It's very important that you listen to me right now. Lives are at stake here. Our very way of life may be at stake. I know that the three of you know what it's like to have to put your lives at risk for the sake of others, and what it means to have to keep secrets from others for the sake of your mission to save those very lives. I'm asking you to trust me here - I must not be delayed here and now, and Salazar must be as far away from here as possible and suppressed until all of this is resolved. I promise you, I only ask this for the sake of good."
>If that fails...fight. Fight for the lives that are on the line!

Rolled 79, 2 = 81 (2d100)

>>6324809
+1

Rolled 67, 84 = 151 (2d100)

>>6324809
+1, Not a chance in hell we beat them, might as well try to talk them down.

Rolled 96, 30, 30 = 156 (3d100)

ok, looks like the write in won, i'm interpreting this as "calming them down and convince them to join us or at the very least let us go"

i´ll take the rolls in order, so:
>>6324809
>93
>>6325065
>81
and
>>6325095
>151

now, lets see what Ron (+10), Hermione (+20) and Harry (+30) have to say about it.

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>>6325113
>ron doesnt fall for it
>Both Hermione and Harry completely eat it
nicely rolled you lucky bastards, update soon

“Last chance to cooperate, Brandon…”

You lift your hands agonizingly slow, letting them know that you are not armed and plan on doing nothing.

"Now, listen to me, Sir. It's very important that you hear what I have to say right now.”

“Why should we?” Says Ron while taking a step forward, wand always aimed at you.

“Because, lives are at stake here. No, forget that. Our very way of life could be at stake. Existence itself could be in dire danger”

“Yeah right” Continues Ron. “Surely you are just trying to weasel your way out of here, that is not going to work with us.”

“Ron, could you stop?” Interrupts Hermione. “You are acting crazy.”

“After everything Salazar told Harry, you want me to calm down?! This guy here is responsible for bringing the end of the world and you are just not going to do anything?! And I'm the one acting crazy?!”

“Look…” You continue. “I know that the three of you know what it's like to have to put your lives at risk for the sake of others, what it means to have to keep secrets from others for the sake of your mission to save those very lives. You have done that before when Voldemort was alive, you have probably done so many other times with similar scenarios after that.”

They all look at each other with knowing looks, as if they are retelling old stories that only they know with just their eyes.

“What are you saying, Brandon?” Harry lowers his wand just a bit.

“What I'm trying to say here is that you are not the only ones…Surely you don't think that the entire magical world has been protected all this time just by you guys and The Ministry of Magic?”

“Obviously not, no organization is capable of protecting the entire magical world on their own” Hermione says as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
“The Ministry teams up with countless other organizations across the globe, some smaller and some bigger than our own”

“Exactly my point, we need to team up, do the one thing nobody else did for you when you first encountered Voldemort, when everyone was in denial and called you crazy for even suggesting such a thing…I'm asking you to trust me here…”

At that, Harry lowers his stance even more.

“How can we be sure you are to be trusted?”

“I don't have a way to make you trust me, but you don't have to trust me if you don't want to, all you have to do is ask yourself: Am I really going to trust Salazar Slytherin?”

For a brief moment, you see the metaphorical bag of bricks hit Harry in the face.

“You said it yourself before when we were in your office, you don't trust the snakes. You haven't said anything to me about whatever it was that he said to you, but I think we both know the truth, don't we? What was it that he said? something about him wanting to stop the end of the world? Maybe something about prophecies and stars or whatever? …Maybe it was something about…Lily? what's making you work along the biggest snake that has ever slithered across this world?”

When you mentioned Lily, both Hermione and Ron flinched and turned to look at Harry, who is now staring into nothingness, as if questioning everything he has done so far.

“Did he offer to bring her back, despite all of us knowing that's impossible?”

“...I know it is not, but…i have to take the chance, i'll do anything i can do to bring her back”

“Sir…There is nothing you can do to bring her back…She is gone and you know who took her away.”

“You-…The horcrux…in the infirmary…”

You nod and immediately you can see him connect the dots inside his head.

“So you have known everything all this time…and you didn't say anything?”

“It's not like that, Sir. We actually did a couple of times, but each of those times something made you forget, we don't know if it's a spell, a curse or whatever, but something magical does not want you involved in all this.”

“There are…flashes…of memories I have of you…headaches, but besides paperwork and school topics…there is nothing before that.”

“Wait just a second” Hermione interrupts “If he is supposed to forget anything you tell him, how does he still remember this new information?”

“I think it's because I haven't said anything directly, all I've said have been “guesses and speculations” that he managed to “overhear”…he “figured it out” all by himself”

“That's a bunch of bollocks!” Says Ron. “We are not seriously believing this guy, are we?”

Harry and Hermione look at each other.

“Its your call” She says.

Harry completely lowers his wand and walks all the way from the black car to where you are standing. He stares directly at you.

“You might not be able to bring her back…but you may still be able to avenge her”

He taps the side of his hip with his fingers multiple times, a small distraction to keep him grounded while he processes all his options.

“If you try to do anything that we find suspicious, I will not hesitate to end you where you stand, got it?”

“Got it, Sir.”

“...What do you need?”

“Anybody got the time?” You ask while walking back to the truck.

Hermione checks her watch.
“It's…11:13 AM, why?”

“Hnnngh. We have already wasted too much time. I must not be delayed any longer, Salazar must stay as far away from here as possible and stopped at all costs if he comes close to Hogwarts…Do you guys know where he is? Where did you see him for the last time"

“He should be under custody and protection in a Ministry safehouse near St.Mungos.”

“Oh you didn't leave him unsupervised?”

“Of course not! We found the possible reincarnation of Salazar Slytherin! we are not letting him out of our sight for even a second” Hermione says, almost offended at the idea of the Ministry committing such a dumb mistake.

“Good, we will need all hands on deck if we want to stop him for good”

“We´ll take you to him, we need to interrogate him so we can avoid any of this happening again in the future” Harry says.
“Ron, head back to the-”

“Forget it! im not going all the way back to London just to assist in the end of the world, im going to Hogwarts and stopping whatever is happening there”
He says while getting back in the car.

“Ronald Weasley! Get down from that car this instant!”
Hermione commands but is ignored by Ron as he ignites the car and drives away before anyone could stop him.

“RON! UUGH! YOU STUPID, DAFT, INSUBORDINATE CARROT! I'LL HAVE YOU FIRED FOR THIS!”

“We need to stop him before he does something stupid! quick! after him!” Harry commands as he climbs into the truck.

“Forget about him, we don't have time, St.Mungos is more important right now”
You say as you push Harry away from the drivers seat.

“You guys go, I'll make sure he doesn't do anything stupid” Hermione commands.

Willow pushes you away before climbing into the driver's seat herself.

“Hey! My ride! I drive, now let's go!”

She steps into the gas and the truck burns rubber as it speeds away.
Hermione becomes smaller and smaller until she disappears from view.

It doesn't take long before the jitters from your “encounter” to disappear, now you are sandwiched in between your girlfriend and your boss while you ride through the woods.

“So…how is it that you find Salazar? we had him trapped with no way for him to escape” You ask.

“Oh yeah, zhere vas no vay for him to escape, how did you find him?”

“Well, it wasn't that hard to be honest, The Ministry received a few calls from St.Mungos, saying that they had a blond kid claiming that he was Salazar, as you can imagine, they got there pretty quickly, though they do claim to have had some problems getting there, the Flu Network is down for some reason and some of the Ministry aurors had trouble apparating”

“Wait, that doesn't sound like something Salazar would do, he has spent all this time undercover, I don't see any reason for him to blow his cover like that…”

“He must be planning somezhing”

“Figured as much, that's why they took him to a safehouse instead of the Ministry, in case he was the real Salazar.”

“Good thinking, at least it must have been easy to get him under control, with him being trapped inside Arty it shouldn't cause much problem, her body is too weak to do much of anything”

“...Hold on” Harry says.
“”Her” body? He wasn't in a female body”

“What?”

“Reports claim that the suspect is a tall, blond, male, Hogwarts student.”

“...”

You look at Willow and she immediately stomps on the gas, flooring it.

“How did he get out?! it's impossible!”

“why? where did you lock him up?”

Your internal debate lasts but a moment before deciding to change the subject, you are not telling him that you trapped an evil wizard supremacist inside the frail mind of a little Hogwarts girl.

“Nevermind that, we'll just have to get there as soon as possible, Willow, how long will it take?”

“I can get us zhere in 6 hours, 5 If I ignore all transit rules and roads”

“You have 4”

…

After half an hour of driving, you reach the main roads and take the fastest route to London. At the same time, you also feel your magic slowly return to you the further you go.

2 hours later, you are halfway there…you also heard on the radio some police reports of a truck matching the description of the one you are currently riding on.

By the 3rd hour, you have evaded a police chase and had to take a small detour to hide while Harry casted a spell to change the look of the truck so you can go undercover.

After 4 and a half hours of travel, you make it to London, it takes 20 more minutes to reach St.Mungos…

…Or what's left of it.

“Oh no…”

Several roads around St.Mungos are closed, cars are blocking most exits, creating an impassable traffic jam.
Several buildings have pieces of St.Mungos sticking out of them, exposed rooms and destroyed walls being held precariously by singular steel beams or straight up gone from the other buildings.
You count at least 23 flipped cars just on the first road, several people unconscious and trapped inside some of the cars…
at least you hope they are unconscious…

Half of the building where St.Mungos is hidden is now gone, it looks like a big explosion took half of the block with it.

Willow parks the truck a couple of blocks away before you all run to the entrance of St.Mungo.
There are several police officers redirecting people and firemen fighting the flames in some buildings.
Thanks to the chaos, it's not too hard for all 3 of you to slip through the cracks and enter the ruins of St.Mungo.

As soon as you cross the window that functions as the entrance to St.Mungo´s, you see a grim scenario.

Every witch, wizard and staff member of the hospital is trying their best to evacuate all the patients.
Some are hurt and limping, others are in better conditions and are physically carrying people away from the building.

It takes all of your will not to jump into action and help them carry people away to safety, instead you need to focus, there are bigger things happening right now.

“Vhat-vhat happened here?!”

“You know what happened, cmon, we have to find the pieces!”

“What are we looking for, Brandon?” Harry asks, ready to jump into action.

Right, Harry doesn't know what exactly you are looking for…and despite him figuring out stuff before, you think these are some of the things that you can't tell him or he gets his mind wiped…better to play it safe, you don't want to get all your progress wiped either.

“We need to find 2 things, Gilderoy Lockheart and…something under the basement”

“...What? don't tell me you are not even sure of what you are looking for down there…”

“I-its a long story, i´ll explain later, you just need to focus on…:”

>”...Finding Gilderoy Lockheart and his paintings, Me and Willow will go to the basement and look for…whatever is down there”
>”...Looking for something weird in the basement, Me and Willow will focus on finding Gilderoy Lockheart and his paintings”

sorry for the long wait, i struggled a bit to incorporate the write in into my plans, but i think i made it work.

>>6327222
>”...Finding Gilderoy Lockheart and his paintings, Me and Willow will go to the basement and look for…whatever is down there”

>>6327222
>>”...Finding Gilderoy Lockheart and his paintings, Me and Willow will go to the basement and look for…whatever is down there”

>>6327225
we're lucky we managed to bring Harry back to rational thought without a fight

>>6327334
you have no idea how incredibly lucky you guys are, the rolls you got vs what Harry got...Elliot wishes he had those rolls against Salazar in the main story

>>6327567
still can't believe the insane luck of Elliot geting multiple very high rolls against Salazar

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>>6319051
>it vas from my grandpa

Don't ask what he was doing in 1940


>>”...Looking for something weird in the basement, Me and Willow will focus on finding Gilderoy Lockheart and his paintings”

Damn. SHTF way quicker than I was counting on when I started reading.

>>6327898
>Don't ask what he was doing in 1940
heh, i knew you would get the small hint
>SHTF way quicker than I was counting on when I started reading.
yeah, i wanted to finally move the story along after the entire story being nothing but set up or teasing. its all finally happening.

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>>6327921

>heh, i knew you would get the small hint

Kek.

ok, big update coming soon...ish.
this one in particular is taking longer than usual because i had to go back to Disappearing Hogwarts and look for specific descriptions of some places, it took me a bit to find them but i did find them.
in any case, this next update should be around 10 posts long and should be out between monday and tuesday.
i also have been struggling with fucking breathing of all fucking things, so i´ve had an extreme amount of trouble just focusing on not loosing my mind due to lack of oxigen...or at least i think thats whats causing the trouble, i dont know yet
in any case, update relatively soon

>>6330495

Shit, man, I hope you are alright. Do you have asthma or anything? Hope it isn't like IDK, covid or something. I smoke so my O2 is always a little lower than normal, but I remember when I hid virus, I had to sleep in a recliner cause it felt like I couldn't get a breath.

>>6330496
i dont have asthma, but i do have allergies, i believe thats whats causing problems, its the santa ana winds, they are fucking me up right now, BAD.
in any case, im feeling slightly better this morning, so its only a matter of tanking this windy season.
also, im about to read your update right now.

>>6330656

Alright, glad it isn't anything too bad.

Thanks for checking it out. It did kind of get out of hand while I had to write it over several days.

“You just need to focus on Gilderoy Lockhart AND his paintings, Willow and I will go downstairs and look for the other thing since im more familiar with that”

“Lockhart? Why him?”

You debate whether or not to tell him about him, but you don't have the time to go into detail, so you keep it simple.

“Possible visions, might be important, save him AND the paintings, the paintings ARE important.”
Then you hear the sound of a section of an upper floor falling and crashing into the ground, lifting a thick layer of dust.
All 3 of you turn to cover yourselves a bit from the rubble that got launched into the air.
“Aaagh! Explanations later! Willow, let's go!”

“Ja! Right behind you!”

Harry has so many questions, but he seems to understand that that is not a priority right now, so you both go your separate ways.

You and Willow speed through some of the St.Mungo staff, evading a couple of fires and security staff, it's easier since they are worried evacuating patients too, they must be thinking you are going deep to look for whoever is left behind.

Soon enough you make it to the familiar abandoned looking hallway and run down the stairs, taking you directly to the basement.
Besides a cloud of dust floating in the room, most of it remains the same, the floating orbs that illuminate the room flicker, but they continue doing their job.

There it is, that familiar ancient feeling from the last time you were here. Except now it feels like it's calling you…no, not calling you, it's pulling, sucking you in, like being pushed by a gust of wind towards a corner of the room.

The corner has several muggle medical machines, all clumped together.

“This wasn't like this before, the machines were scattered across the room. Help me move them, please.”

“JA!”

You begin to push and pull the machines away from the walls, they are really heavy, so it might take a bit.
You try using your wand, but even with the help of a weaker than usual Wingardium Leviosa this still takes a considerate amount of effort and time.
After moving the biggest machine of all, you see a small hole that wasn't there before. Too perfect and smooth to be naturally made.

“There you are!”

After clearing a bit more space, you jump down the hole and make your way down a cave that bit by bit changes its orientation.
For a moment your grip slips and you fall and slide down the tunnel until you come to a stop when the floor becomes perfectly horizontal.

You dust yourself for a second before Willow knocks you down again after she slides down too and crashes into you.

“Ow!”

“Sorry! zhis place is slippery”

You dust yourself once again and cast Lumos to look around the dark cave.
Not too far in front of you, the cave opens up into a bigger room, it looks obvious to you that it was carved from a pre-existing cave, the walls are bumpy and the whole place is shaped weirdly, no straight walls and a few holes digged into them to create shallow “windows.”
Each window has a lit red candle in the center, but they are all almost halfway done, their wax has pooled at their base.

In the central wall, in between those windows and candles, there is a big stone “double door” with a carved frame around it.
Well, not a door, but the carving of one, there are no hinges, no door knob, no sign of it being able to open, just a huge double door that even Hagrid himself would find too big, it almost reminds you of the entrance to The Great Hall.

“Vhat is zhis?”

“No clue, I've never seen anything like this before…look, there is something written on the frame of the door.”

“Non es gratus, abi, serpens foedus, et redi ad locum exsilii tui.” Willow struggles to read.
“Vhat does zhat mean?”

“Well, it's obviously latin, but all I got from that is “serpens” which means snake. I didn't really used this language after i graduated, so im a bit too rusty to translate”

“Great, i'm no better at latin eizher…so vhat now?”

You look around the room, but find nothing that could give you any sort of clue or hint.
That is, until you trip on a small pedestal on the ground while you were walking around the room…that wasn't there before.

“Hey, where did that come from?”

You kneel next to it, Willow does the same a second later.

“Look, it has a circular hole in it, i zhink zhere vas somezhing in here before”

“Hmm…”
You slide your fingers across the circular indentation.

Then, you both feel a gust of wind running across the room.

You turn only to see that the “door” is now open, or rather, the doors are now gone, in their place is now pure and absolute darkness.

“That…wasnt there…”

You stand up and look at the void.

“Tell me it's not just me”

“No, I can see it too.” Willow says in what's almost a whisper.
“H-hey look, zhe text changed!”

You look at the frame once again and see that it has in fact changed.

“”Portae aureae…non sunt perturbandae…Festina”?...Something something…golden gates?...”

You give Willow a puzzled look which she returns.

“Vell…its a door, should ve just…valk in?”

“Not yet, let me just…”
You walk to one of the shallow windows, take one of the lit candles and walk back to the void.
You move the candle closer to it and slowly move it around to look for any sign of…anything.

But it shows nothing.

You muster as much valor as you can and pass the candle through the dark veil. It disappears into nothing along with your hand, but you feel nothing different besides the chillness of whatever room is behind the darkness.

You pull your hand back, the candle is still lit and your hand is intact.

After seeing your small experiment, Willow tries the same with her wand.

“Lumos”

Her wand and hand disappear into the darkness and she pulls back a second later.

“See you on the other side?” You ask.

“See you on the ozher side” she replies while grabbing your hand.

You both take a deep breath and step into the void.

___________________________________________________________________

Harry Potter climbs the broken stairs of St.Mungos while looking for Gilderoy Lockhart.
He runs past a couple of pleads for help, ignoring them because there are more important things right now.

He stops.

When did he become such a cold person? If his younger self could look at him right now, he would probably be disgusted at himself…
…No, he has to think of the bigger picture, he is not a bad person, he was just dealt an awful hand and must play with what he has.

He keeps telling that to himself as he climbs the barely standing stairs.

“Help! please!”

Harry walks pass the shouts for help

“Over here! I'm here!”

He ignores the female call for help, he is looking for an older guy.

“Oh the pain! The agony! when will the suffering end?!”

Harry recognizes that overly dramatic voice anywhere, even if it has been years since he last saw him.
It takes him a couple of minutes to find him by following his voice, but he eventually finds him in his room, lying on his bed and holding his hand to his forehead as if he were checking his temperature dramatically.

“Ohh this heat! it just wont cease! Oh woe me!”

“You have to be kiddi-Mr.Lockhart! do you not see the building is collapsing!?”

He walks up next to his bed and uncovers him from his sheets.

“Come on! we must leave now!”

He goes to grab him by the shoulders, but stops when he sees his eyes.

They are completely black.

“Mr.Lockhart?! Are you alright?! Mr.Lockhart!?”

Harry shakes him, trying to get him to react to him.

“Mr.Lockhart!”

He then blinks and the darkness in his eyes disappears in between blinks, coming back to his senses although a bit disoriented.

“Harry Potter? I haven't seen you in years!”

“Thank Merlin you are finally back, come, we must leave immediately, the building is just about to collapse!”

“Balderdash dear boy! I must paint!”

“...WHAT?!”

“I just had the most vivid dream! I must illustrate the wonders of my mind to share with the world!”

He then remembers about the paintings, Brandon specifically asked to save the paintings too, so they must be important.

The building shakes for a moment and is followed by the sound of something straining before stopping and ending up in silence.

“Sir, now it's NOT the time to paint! if we do not get out of the building, NO ONE will have time for anything else anymore”

“You worry too much dear boy! We are perfectly safe here! there is no need to leave-aha! there you are!”
Lockhart digs out a canvas from under his bed and begins sketching something on it.

“Wha-SIR! HALF THE BUILDING IS-”
He stops on his tracks, he wants to keep shouting at him. No, scratch that, he wants to STOP trying to convince him and just drag him out by force if necessary.
But he stopped thinking about that the moment he saw one of his paintings lying on the ground.

It had a very familiar face on it, it was missing a leg and was holding a bright light in his hands, offering it to a pillar of light.

“Brandon?” Potter asks himself in a whisper.

He then looks at another painting, the one with the kid with the blurry arm and a sword, he sees the nightmarish scene and has to turn it around to avoid feeling sick.

“Oh i know, that painting is awful, i tried fixing it but i just couldnt” Says Lockhart.

Harry decides to push the topic later, but for now, he has to get him out of there.

“Sir, you are coming with me. Mobilicorpus!”

He pulls out his wand and casts a spell over Lockhart, making him float a few centimeters off the ground, though he realizes that his spell feels unusually weak this time.

“Well that's just rude! Put me down this instant!”

“Not happening, not until we are out of here! and after that you are going to explain to me what are these paintings”

“Oh you are interested in my paintings? I would be more than glad to explain them to you!”

Harry takes Lockhart out of the room along with as many paintings as he could carry and goes back to the stairs still holding him in his spell.

“Woah, easy there boy! you almost dropped me, as i was saying, that particular painting was a wiiiiild dream! it was about this guy with the missing leg surrendering all of reality to some cosmic creature, we all died and everything ceased to exist! It was crazy! though now that i think about it, the guy in my dream looked a lot like that fine fellow that came to visit me before”

“You mean Brandon?”

“That's his name? hmm, must have forgot, anyway, in the dream-”

Harry suddenly stumbles when part of the staircase gives up and falls.
He flails and tries his best to regain his footing

>Roll 1D100
___________________________________________________________________

Brandon and Willow step into the darkness, still holding each other's hands.

“Willow? Are you still there?”

“I am, vhat about you?”

“I think i am, yeah”

“Good…I'm going to open my eyes now…Ahh! I can't see!”

“Wait, Willow, calm down, it's just really dark, give it a minute”

“Ahh, yes, i zhink i can…yeah, i see somezhing, vhat is zhat?”

“You also see the blue stars?”

“Are zhose stars? zhey look more like little bugs crawling in zhe ceiling”

“Look, there is one closer to us”

Both Brandon and Willow can see hundreds, thousands of blue spots, they don't produce any sort of light around them, they are just somehow visible despite there being no source of light anywhere.

It takes a minute of shuffling in the darkness and touching the blue spots, but they notice that they aren't stars, those are specks of magic and they are stuck to the walls of…whatever it is down there…It appears to be some sort of cave, at least that's what you can guess based on the position of the sparks of blue light. The walls are bumpy, curved, smooth in some places and raspy and rough in others, like rock.

“...They are showing the way, i think we have to follow them”

“Vait, hold on, let me try somezhing…Lumos”

She flicks her wand, but despite feeling the little bit of magic that she can still command moving across her body and into her wand, she still can't see anything.

“Nozhing…Ja, i suppose ve tried zhis before, looks like ve´ll have to follow the sparks"

“Yeah…now don't let go for any reason, if we end up separated in here, i dont think it will be possible for us to find each other, this is a darkness I've never experienced before”

“Dont vorry, i am NOT letting go off of you”

You feel her holding your hand, it was almost painful but she eased the grip on your hand just a bit when you let out a pained grunt.

“sorry”

“Its ok, just dont let go”

And so, you start following the path of blue sparks.

You walk down a spiral staircase, it appears it was made of stone, just like the walls, perhaps you are in fact in a cave.
You walk across something that appears to be a smaller cave inside this cave, though it looks too perfect to be natural, perhaps it's a man-made tunnel. It's when you are walking across this tunnel that you notice you can see all the sparks in front of you and the ones behind, despite knowing that you have walked around several turns and corners.

You focus in front of you, and that's when you realize you can see the rest of the way you have left to traverse.

It's quite the walk. You can make out some sort of bridge, a few doors that lead to more tunnels and winding paths, you can see it all thanks to the blue sparks…it's a bit disorienting, but at least you know you are not just guessing your way in here.

“Looks like it's a straight shot from here until we have to climb some…stairs? after that it looks like the sparks end…maybe an exit?”

“I see it…I zhink you are right, zhat might be an exit”

“Alright then, so far this has been easy, lets hope it keeps-” *CLACK CLACK CLACK*...*SPLOOSH*

You accidentally kick something, probably a rock, you hear it travel a bit and then…You see the sparks on the ground in front of you. It was a straight line of blue sparks…they bob up and down for a few moments, like they are floating in water and then they banish.
You can see the line of sparks disappearing in an expanding circle of darkness until there is a giant void in between where you are and the intact sparks that are visible way in the distance.

“shit shit! shit! SHIT! SHITSHITSHIT!!! NO!!!”

*NO!!! NO! NOo Noo noo*

your scream echoes…for quite some time, meaning its a big distance between the blue sparks at your feet and the sparks at the end of…whatever is this void.

“I zhink zhis room might be vay bigger zhan ve thought…”

You look up and see nothing.

“Taller too…no sparks on the ceiling, so this room might actually be massive, at least we can see the other side of the path…all the way there…”

“...Is zhis an underground lake?”

“No way, they wouldn't build an entire city on top of a cave with a lake…right? they either didn't know about this…or this isn't a lake…”

You then feel Willow let go of your hand.

“Willow? Willow?!”

“Calm down, I'm here, I'm just looking for-ah! found one! Now shh, listen up…”

You hear her shuffle for a moment.

“Nyeh!”... *PLOP SPLASH plop plop* “...Vater”

You feel her touch your arm, she feels all the way down your arm until she finds your hand once again and holds it.

“Can you swim?” Willow asks with an unusually cheerful tone.

“Wh-?! Y-yes, but not in pitch black darkness! Are you crazy?!”

“I mean, you saw zhe sparks, it vas a straight line, shouldn't be zhat hard, right?”

“Willow, I literally CANT see you and we are holding hands right now! It's a 100% guaranteed way to get lost in a lake and drown! Its suicide!”

“Vell then, vhats your plan? Ve obviously have to cross zhis somehow”

“Give me a minute…”

You “look around” the room, naturally, it's all absolute darkness besides the blue sparks that guided you to your current position and the blue sparks waaay in the distance with nothing in between, the previous path that connected the sparks now gone.

You could try…swimming...all the way there, but you know that's just asking for death by drowning in something you can't even confirm is water…

Maybe you could…walk around the lake? How big is this lake anyway? you can see the sparks on the other side, but who can say that is actually the end of the lake? maybe that's just where the ripples that the thrown rock caused ended, doesn't mean it's the edge of the lake...right?

You think magic still works here? you are not entirely sure, you tried Lumos already but you couldn't see it…but you felt the magic moving through your body, that means something happened, perhaps you could cast something? but what? and would it be enough?

What will you do?

>Swim across the lake (Roll 1D100-20) (Best roll against an opposing roll, have to beat it 3 times to cross/survive)
>Look for a way around (Roll 3D100-100) (DC: 175)
>Try to cross using magic (how?) (Roll 2D100, +10 for Brandon and +5 for Willow) (DC: 80 each)
>”Going back is also an option…”
>Other (Write in:)

i hate doing massive updates like this, but this one was necessary.
Now, bring your best digital dice, failure WILL bring very, very VERY bad consequences.

...are we dead? damn...and so close to the end

Rolled 79, 87, 45 = 211 (3d100)

>>6330980
I'm here, just been sick!
Here's a straight d100 for Harry, followed by the roll for my vote. Speaking of...
>Try to cross using magic (how?) (Roll 2D100, +10 for Brandon and +5 for Willow) (DC: 80 each)
Carpe Retractum at the blue sparks, perhaps? Even if the sparks are insubstantial, it might hit something solid and get us there.
For best effect, I think we should both cast it simultaneously and with arms locked with one another. That way neither gets left behind if one succeeds.

>>6333803
holy shit, i thought we were dead for good.
im gonna call /qtg/ for a vote again, i wanted 3 but we are gonna have to make do with 2 if we cant get any more

>>6334014
I am god's sickest quester, but by god do I see things through to the end

Rolled 29, 63, 26 = 118 (3d100)

>>6330980
>>6333803
I'll back this. He seems to have a plan. I was gonna suggest some sort of magic to make a solid thingy to have a reference or to cling to on the "water".

Rolled 27, 100, 49 = 176 (3d100)

>>6333803
+1

Rolled 80, 16, 91 = 187 (3d100)

>>6333803
+ 1

>>6333803

Rolled 60, 68, 61 = 189 (3d100)

>>6333803

>Harry: 80
>Brandon: 100+10=110
>Willow: 91+5=96
Holy shit, great rolls!
Update either tonight or tomorrow.

Thanks to anyone who is still reading and voting!
i legit thought that the quest got completely abandoned for a moment there.
Hope that everyone who was/is sick feels better soon!

Still holding Willow´s hand, you kneel down and touch the floor, you trace your finger around some of the few blue sparks that remain close to your feet.
You feel something sandy, coarse and loose.
You then gently slap the ground, making sure to get a feel for it. Its cold, hard and definitely rocky.

However, it also feels slightly slimy and wet, like walking on rocks near a beach but still not damp enough to be slippery.

“Vhat are you doing?”

“Just trying to get a feel of the area, we are definitely in a cave alright”
You stand up.
“I wanted to try finding some big rock or something like that to transfigure into some sort of bridge, but I don't have a clear enough idea of my surroundings to do it…”

“Lumos!”
Willow tries creating some light again, but there is no change.
“Vorth a shot, vhat now?”

You tighten your grip on Willow´s hand and take some very slow and careful steps, first tapping with the tip of your shoes to make sure the ground is solid before you commit to the step.
You repeat this until the tip of your shoe touches something warm and wet.

*Splash splat, splat*

It sounds like water, though it worries you that it's warm…

“Hey, easy zhere! Dont vant to fall into it!”
She pulls you back quickly and you stumble for a moment.

“Its ok, its ok, just trying to find the edge, im gonna need to get as close as possible”

“Vhy? Vhats your plan?”

“Im going to try and pull us to the other side, whatever you do, do NOT let go, ok?”

“VHAT?!”

You can feel her grabbing your whole arm with hers.

“We might have to swim across this entire thing, but if i hit something solid with Carpe Retractum, we could have a lifeline to help us cross the entire thing”

“I vas joking about swimming all zhe vay zhere!”

“Well, that's what happens when you say crazy ideas, some of them might work. Carpe Retractum!”

Harry stumbles on the stairs for a moment. The stairs right in front of him just collapsed and there is a big hole he must now cross.
Harry steps back a bit as a piece of the ceiling falls in front of him and down the new hole where the stairs used to be.

“Oh dear, that looks like a painful fall” Says Lockhart while still floating in the air. “Perhaps you might want to take another path, Boy”

The building lets out another strained groan.

“No time for that. Sir!”

Harry then floats Lockhart across the gap, he moves way slower than Harry expected, struggling a bit to maintain his magical grip on his body, until eventually he is safe on the lower floor.

“I'm good, boy! you can drop me now!” Says Gilderoy.

Harry ends his spell and drops him a couple of centimeters above the ground, Lockhart wobbles for a moment before regaining his footing.

A few of his paintings then land in front of him, followed by Harry himself, he lands with a loud stomp and roll before coming to an abrupt halt by the wall.

“A daring move, are you alright, son?”

“I think i landed a bit weird there, but i'll be fine, lets go, we have to go before-”

*CRUMB, CRASH*

“-MOVE! MOVE! GO!”

Harry takes the paintings while Gilderoy runs in his slippers, heading straight to St.Mungos's main exit.
There is one last rumble before whatever was holding that part of the building up finally gives up and crumbles.

Both of them burst out of the doors with a cloud of dust behind them.
A couple of Healing Wizards rush to them and pull them out to safety.

“Ahh, you managed to save some paintings from my Cosmic Fate collection! Thank you dear boy!”

“Your what?” Harry asks.

“My Cosmic Fate collection! paintings based on some very vivid dreams i´ve had! All of these depict wonderful and dire stories of the end times! Full of drama, high stakes and suspense! All dreams of course, its not like anything like this could ever happen”

“Here, take a look! what do you think? Pretty good, huh?”

Lockhart holds a few paintings in his arms for Harry to see.
He can now see them more clearly, clear depictions of the end of everything.
Brandon surrendering a small ball of light to a mysterious pillar.
Paintings of the founders of Hogwarts, half of them headless and scribbled over, the other two ominously looking at each other, the one clad in green with a dark creature behind him, the one in a yellow dress with a mournful and defeated expression.
The last painting, a kid, a blurry arm and a red sword in his other hand, that same woman in yellow being torn to pieces by some shadowy creatures that are too unsettling to stare for long.

It doesn't take long for Harry to connect the dots himself. Prophecies.

“What…what happened in your dreams after this? Do you remember any more details?”

“Not really, all dreams ended the same, with a white and infinite space, where everything and nothing existed, all at the same time, had some serious headaches after those dreams…Speaking of!”

He pulls out a small sketch book from his robes and begins to scribble something on it.

“Got to hit it while the iron is still hot!”

He moves the quill on the paper with perfect strokes, no line goes out of place, no detail too small.
Harry can only witness as Gilderoy Lockhart draws Brandon chained to a throne and several still bodies lying on the ground in front of him and surrounded by those same creatures he could not stand to watch in the previous painting.
He can recognize himself among those bodies.

“A shame we couldn't save an empty canvas, i'll have to remake this one later, ooh, you ok boy? you are looking a bit pale there”

Harry says nothing, he can't say anything, his mouth is dry.

He then turns around and heads towards St.Mungos basement.

“Be careful there! that place looks a bit unstable!”
Lockhart shouts as Harry disappears into the remains of the building.

One of the staff members of the hospital then escorts Gilderow away into a safer area.

“Oh, could I bother you for some tea and crackers, please?”

Brandon is currently holding Willow and she is holding onto him for dear life.

“Kick harder! I think the water is getting thicker the closer we get to the center of the lake!”

“Stop talking and pull! I can't believe I let you drag me into swimming on zhis zhing! it smells awful here! AAGH!! some of it got into my mouth! PUAGH!”

“Stop talking and swim harder!

Brandon pulls from his wand, magically attached to…something on the other side of the lake…by what should be a bright line of light coming from the tip of his wand, but the absolute darkness won't let anything be seen by anyone.
His only evidence that he is making progress is the fact that he can feel a tug every time he pulls from his wand, he feels himself and Willow being dragged across the thick water.

“I see some of the blue sparks getting closer, we´ll make it to the other side soon!”

“Not soon enough! I swear! Vhen ve get out of here i´ll make you take a veek long shower in industrial chlorine if zhis smell doesnt go avay”

“Almost there, just hang on for a bit-”

“AAAAAAAAH!! ETWAS HAT MEIN BEIN GEPACKT!! SOMETHING IS GRABBING MY LEG!”

“WHAT?! WILLOW! DONT LET-”

“CARPE RETRACTUM!!”

Willow casted the same spell at what appears to be a similar direction to where you are being pulled.

Her panic, while disorienting, makes her pull hard and fast enough to quickly free herself from whatever was holding onto her.

“IT'S A HAND! IT VAS A HAND!! I COULD FEEL THE FINGERS!!”

“KEEP KICKING! WE ARE ALMOST THERE!”

Finally, after what felt like the most tense eternity, your hand makes contact with that familiar hard ground.
You and Willow drag yourselves out of the heavy water and crawl until you are as far away from the shore as you suspect you can get without getting lost in the darkness, luckily for you, you are next to the path of blue sparks.

“Are you ok?! Willow?! Are you hurt?!”

You pant heavily while lying next to her, you keep patting her body to find her face.
Whatever it is that you just swam across, it isn't water…

Willow appears to be panicking, her breathing is fast and heavy, she sounds like she has trouble breathing, but eventually she starts to calm down, at least calm enough for her to start talking again while taking heavy gasps of air.

“If ve dont. Die here…I´ll kill you myself. For making me. Swim across. Zhat damn zhing!”

“Fair enough…lets. Catch our breath. For a minute. Before we continue.”

It takes you a moment to find her hand again, but once you find it, you hold it tightly.

“Are you ok? What was that?”

She doesn't say anything for a moment, but eventually she starts laughing, it then becomes small sobs and then goes back to a short laughter before finally settling for a raggedy breathing.

“Zhe vater vas varm, Brandon, it vas varm…but zhat zhing vas cold, i-i-i dont…”

You then feel her get closer to you, resting her head on your chest.

“Shh shh shh, its ok, we are out of there now, it won't reach us here, we can rest for a moment”

Again, she doesn't say anything, instead you feel her breathing finally slow down to a regular speed and for a moment, you can close your eyes…the darkness is still there, but this one feels familiar, it lets you rest even if for a moment.

But then…

*Sploosh*…*drip drip*…*drip*

You open your eyes, hoping you can see whatever caused that sound.

*Step…step…step*

“Willow?”

“a…a-ah…haaa…a”

That's not Willow.

>Slowly get up and walk away quietly
>Run away as fast as you can
>Stay quiet and don't move
>Other (Write in:)

>>6335779
>>Slowly get up and walk away quietly

>>6335779
>>Stay quiet and don't move

>>6335779
>Stay quiet and don't move

>>6335779
>Stay quiet and don't move

You freeze in both the metaphorical and literal sense, you want to move, run away from whatever is causing that dry heaving sound but find your joints completely locked up and at the same time your body temperature dropped incredibly fast.

It's a primal fear, its close, its there, but you just cant see it and from the sound of it, it seems to be very very close and getting closer with each step.

*step, drip…step, drip…step, drip drip, step…* “aahh-a…haa-ah…ahhh”

“Vhat is zh-mm!”

“HAAHHH!”

Willow was about to ask something, but immediately your hand slammed into her mouth to silence her.

*Step, step, drip drip, step…step…drip drip, step*

But the damage was done.
You try communicating using your quietest voice possible, calling it a whisper wouldn't even describe it. You were mouthing your words, hoping that whatever air that came out of your throat was enough to carry the message.

“Dont…make…sound…”

“aaah…” *step…drip…step*

The temperature around you feels like it's dropping, fast. Still, you stay put, holding your breath fearing that your lungs are being too loud.

And then…

If you were cold before, you could feel even your soul freezing up now.

Something slid across the side of your face, it was boney, cold and wet.

You wanted to scream but it died before it could even reach your throat, instead, all you could do is sit there and feel a hand caress your cheek.
At the same time, you could feel Willow´s hand grip on your coat tightening so much that you could feel the fabric tearing up a bit.

Whatever you are feeling, she felt it too.

You try and try to move but you just cant, even more so when you feel breathing in front of you

And then, 2 white orbs light up in front of you and Willow.
Cold, unblinking, magical eyes attached to a feminine, dried, shriveled, withered face.

“Haaahhhh!”

The walking corpse heaves as the light of its eyes shine bright enough to illuminate its face and a bit of the surrounding area, cutting across the absolute darkness.

It was thin to an extreme degree, just one level above being nothing but skin and bones, it was covered in soft yet soaked silks, all of them now a deep red or dark brown or black, you couldn't tell. What was left of its hair was braided into a single tail that reached the floor.

Thanks to the light of its eyes, you could see it clearly for just an instant. You, Willow, the corpse and the floor all around you, all soaked in a red liquid, and it's now when you finally notice a familiar metallic smell to it.

You don't even need to think about it, you know what you just swam through and whatever this thing in front of you was, it came from it too.

Like a fish out of water, you open and close your mouth involuntarily, you want to scream, you want to say something and at the same time you have nothing to say.
You know that you are in danger but you can't move, your brain is commanding your body to move, to stand up and run, perhaps not even stand up, just crawl away, do anything to create any amount of space between you and that…that thing.

But you simply couldnt…and the creature knew.

For a moment, it removes its hands from both of your faces and looks at both of you directly in the eyes, it stares unblinking for another eternal second before slowly but forcefully introducing its hands into your mouths.

You can only stare in horror as her entire hand begins to go down your throat, its face getting closer as its arms go deeper into your body each moment it passes.

You think of how to get out of this, you try to pull away but stay as still as a statue, you think of Willow and whatever is going through her mind at this moment, probably the same thing that's going through yours, you think of biting into the arm to stop it from going further beyond.

You think…you are not in any pain right now…sure, it's not the most comfortable experience ever, but you were expecting to be choking by now.

It tastes like blood and metal and salt and…rot.

Then you feel an emptiness in your stomach, and you feel yourself getting tired and more tired, a numbness in your soul and mind.

>Snap out of it and escape (Roll 2D100-75 Combined DC to beat: 110)
>Accept your fate and try to tank whatever its trying to do: (Roll 2D20)
>Other (write in:)

Rolled 84, 29 = 113 (2d100)

>>6338442
Yeah, there's no way in hell we're winning that snap out DC. Our best bet is either bolstering ourselves for what's coming next...or get creative.
>Attempt to cast a Vomiting Hex on yourselves wordlessly.

It's such a basic spell that even first-years might know it, so we SHOULD be capable of casting it wordlessly. I trust it more than trying to wordlessly cast anything else that could help - things like Depulso or whatever are probably going to be too difficult. And if we can force ourselves to vomit up the intruder extremely violently through magically-induced emesis, well, I think it's worth a shot if nothing else. Who knows, maybe it'll still power through the attempt but the spell will have us eject it later once it's fully inside?

Anyways, I'm not sure what to roll, so uh. Here's a 2d100?

>>6338665
>113
i think it worked?

>>6338674
Sadly, no, because he isnt rolling for the first option, he rolled for his write in, which im willing to accept but will have to beat a counter roll.
Besides, you still have to substact the -75 from the result, leaving them with a total of 38.
You can still roll for it if you want to give it a try, who knows, maybe you´ll roll what you need.
Or you can support his write in and also roll a 2D100 to boost it up.
actually, now that i think about it, lets do this:
If you decide to support his write in, roll 2D100, i´ll take the biggest number of each player´s roll and combine them, the final combined number will have to beat an opposing roll (this roll will change depending on the number of people who support this idea, so the more people who support it, the better chances you might have)

Rolled 69, 13 = 82 (2d100)

>>6338678

Rolled 54, 81 = 135 (2d100)

>>6338665
>>6338686
well, i dont want to keep on waiting for too long, so i guess we´ll do it with these 2 rolls. That means that the biggest numbers are 84 and 69 (nice) for a total of 153.
Thats the DC that the creature will have to beat with its own 2D100.
Lets see what happens now, good luck.

>>6339475
uff, that was getting a bit too close, but you made it.

Slowly, the creature appears to become stronger, as if it were syphoning your energy.
You see its skin gain some color, its eyes sockets slightly fuller, its arms become thicker inside your throats, it cuts your airflow even more now.

You are starting to feel desperate, fewer options by the second as you feel your energy draining away.
But then, as you feel your mind slip away further into oblivion, you become numb enough from the panic and fear to finally react and be able to do something.

You hold its arms with your hands and try to pull away, but you quickly realize that won't yield any meaningful results.
You try kicking it away, but your body is becoming weaker by the second, you manage to land a few kicks but it makes no difference.

Your eyelids become way too heavy for you to keep them open any longer, so you close them for just a moment.
This is it, you came far, further than anyone else, at least you think you did, you can't really tell, but you did what you could…

Your mind is fuzzy now, you can only see white inside your mind's eye…then, your life starts flashing before you.
You see moments from your life that you will always remember: the first time you ate a chocolate frog, learning how to ride a magic broom with your parents, visiting their tombstones in the graveyard, your date with Willow.
You see moments that you completely forgot about: That time you fell in a mud puddle, vomiting after eating spoiled cheese, the few friends you had when you were a Hogwarts student, the vomiting hex in D.A.D.A….

Wait…

You open your eyes and you feel a sudden rush of adrenaline running through your body.
You are not going down, at least not without trying!

Your grip on the creature´s arm tightens and in response looks at you.

You try your best to say the spell as clearly as possible
“EHG-HUHG-HO!”
When you notice that saying it like this won't do anything, you opt for casting it wordlessly.

And suddenly, your empty stomach feels even emptier.

There is a sudden rush of a warm liquid spilling from the sides of your mouth, you feel the pressure build up inside your throat and down into your stomach, making you feel full once again, though this time is in a more painful and uncomfortable manner.
You hope this works…

You are hoping that the pressure becomes so strong that it will force the creature´s hand out of your body, but all it's accomplishing right now is making a mess out of your clothes.

The creature only stares in both parts, confusion and curiosity, it tilts its head to the side as if trying to understand what's happening with you.

Then, the vomit comes out from your nose, and this, is what finally gives you results.

The creature suddenly appears to comprehend what's going on and in an unexpected twist, pulls out both of its hands in what appears to be disgust.
It shakes its entire arm, trying to remove the vomit from it while…whining.

“EWGH!!!”

And you, riding the wave of adrenaline inside you, manage to land a decent kick on the creature, creating a decent space between it and you.

While the creature stumbles and falls back into the ground, you expel the rest of the vomit from your body as fast as you can and then turn to Willow.
She is coughing violently after having an entire arm yanked from inside her.
The creature´s bright eyes cut through the darkness, enough for you to find Willow within seconds.

“Come on, let's go! Before it stands up!”

You hold Willow´s hand and help her stand up, soon after that, you both start running, following the trail of blue sparks of magic that venture back into the infinite darkness, deeper into the cave.
But just as you make a turn while following the sparks and start climbing what appears to be a set of stairs…

“Wait!”

A raspy but definitely feminine voice calls you.

You stop for a moment, Willow stops after she slams into your back.

“Did zhat…zhing just asked us to vait?”

You can only see the 2 small orbs shining brightly in the distance, they are staring directly at you.

>”I think that thing is smart, it's probably a trap, we must leave now that we can”
>”Wait, is it actually smart? maybe we can communicate with it…lets go back”
>Other (Write in:)

>>6340564
>>”I think that thing is smart, it's probably a trap, we must leave now that we can”

>>6340564
>”Wait, is it actually smart? maybe we can communicate with it…lets go back”
>"Have your wand ready and steel yourself. We were caught off guard last time - this time, if it tries anything, we'll be ready for it."

>>6340564
We can see her, right? And we have power to cast fuck off in her general direction? If so, she can say what she wants to say from where she is

> Wait from a distance, see if she says anything else. Fuck her up/run away if she approaches

Also, god I hate the 120s delay. I tried posting this three times, it hits me with "Please wait a while before making a post", I go do something else while I wait, and I forget to post

>>6341139
you can only see her eyes and what little they illuminate around her since those are the only thing cutting through the magical darkness of the cave, but yeah, its enough to give you an idea of where it is

>>6341516
shit, it was meant for him >>6341406

>>6341406
the key is to not try to make any other posts until the timer finishes, otherwise it resets

>>6341406
also seconding this