Chapter 50: The Ultimate Sacrifice

After searching the shelves for several minutes, Claire and the others noticed one book appeared to be missing from the shelf across from the gate. So Claire placed the book onto the shelf, which seemed to match the other books on either side of it due to the brown leather covers they had. Then to Claire's amazement, sections of the book shelf lifted up one-by-one revealing a double wooden door on the other side.

"You did it, Claire!" Tulip exclaimed.

Just then, the gate to the Restricted Section opened and Barnaby stepped through looking beaten and bruised.

"Barnaby, what happened to you?" Rowan asked, while Claire used Episkey to heal him up.

"I just got rid of Merula and Ismelda," Barnaby announced, flinching from his wounds. "But if I know them, they'll run straight to Snape."

"Then we need to enter the Cursed Vault now," Claire insisted.

So the four of them used their combined strength to push the door open, revealing a room that was similar to the one in the ice vault. But this time, there were ghostly shadows depicting various images including spiders ghosts and wolves.

"Um, did the other vault look like this?" Tulip asked, blinking in surprise.

"Yes, but not as creepy-looking by comparison," Claire answered.

"Maybe the curse hasn't been broken yet," Rowan guessed. "And that's why these fearful images are around us."

Just then, the light coming from the glass column suddenly died down and the room was filled with a murky surface that rippled like dark water. Then from the waters emerged three versions of Voldemort with slightly different features. For instance, one had no eyes instead of red ones while another had no face at all.

Then the red-eyed Voldemort raised its wand and shouted, "Avada Kedavra!"

There was a blinding flash of light, and when Claire was able to see again she saw her friends being attacked by the three Voldemorts. While the red-eyed one intimidated Rowan, the one with no face was choking Barnaby who was hovering midair and the no-eyed one had grabbed Tulip and was pressing his wand against her neck.

"I know they're Boggarts, but…it feels so real," Claire muttered, then she shook her head. "No, I won't let you take them! Riddikulus!"

Waving her wand across the room, all three Voldemorts were quickly transformed into the same clown-like version as the Boggart in Jacob's room. While Rowan and Tulip immediately laughed and caused two of the Voldemorts to vanish, Barnaby seemed intimidated by the clownish Voldemort in front of him.

"Laugh, Barnaby!" Claire shouted. "It's the only way to make the Boggart disappear!"

So after some hesitation, Barnaby forcefully laughed which caused the last Voldemort to vanish.

"Thanks, Claire," Rowan sighed.

"Don't thank me yet," Claire said, seeing shadows moving along the watery surfaces. "It's not over yet."

"Jacob's research talks about facing your greatest fear in this vault," Tulip stated. "And by that, I assume he was talking about the Boggarts which you were able to beat, Claire. But clearly, there's more of them in here than we realized. So maybe, we should say all of our fears out loud in order to confuse them enough so they'll go away permanently."

"That might work," Claire concurred, then she said, "My greatest fear…is Voldemort!"

"Merula!" Tulip shouted.

"Failing my exams!" Rowan added.

"Clowns!" When the girls looked at him, Barnaby responded, "I can't have been the only one who thought the Boggarts looked more intimidating after Claire cast Riddikulus."

After a moment passed, the watery surface didn't go away and the shadows seemed to increase.

"We must've done something wrong," Claire realized.

"It's too late, Claire," Jacob's voice suddenly said.

"What do you mean, Jacob?" Claire asked.

"You have to fight!" Jacob's voice insisted.

Then right in front of Claire, Rowan Tulip and Barnaby vanished one-by-one. Afterwards, the red-eyed Voldemort appeared with his wand pointed at her.

This caused Claire to take out her own wand and shout, "Immobulus!"

Unable to move, the red-eyed Voldemort blinked in response. Then after Claire cast Riddikulus, it turned into a clown causing her to laugh at it.

"Claire, what's wrong?" Tulip asked.

Immediately, Claire stopped laughing. She looked around and noticed she was back in the circular room with the glass column while Tulip Rowan and Barnaby were behind her.

"Did something happen?" Claire wondered, seeing everyone giving her confused looks.

"You were frozen in midair, like a puppet," Tulip explained. "We tried using various spells to get you down, but nothing seemed to work. Then you started laughing, and floated back down."

"Were you guys hurt by anything?" Claire inquired.

Tulip shook her head. "No, we're fine. I'm not sure if the curse is broken or not, but we should get out of here."

"Before we go, we should check this out." Facing the glass column, Claire touched it. After a few seconds, nothing happened. "That's odd…when I touched the one in the previous vault, I heard my brother's voice and it opened automatically."

A series of words suddenly appeared on the glass.

"'To open, a wizard must make the ultimate sacrifice,'" Tulip recited. "Does that mean you have to die to access whatever's in the column?"

"I don't think so," Claire responded, holding up Jacob's wand. "It means you have to give up using magic. That's why Jacob's wand was broken, because he did it himself to open this column."

While no one said a word, Claire held Jacob's wand up to the glass column. As soon as the broken tip touched the glass, the column opened up revealing two new objects that were floating in midair.

"Unbelievable," Tulip remarked.

Claire then grabbed the two objects, which included a map and an arrow shaft with the arrowhead missing.

"This looks like…a map of the Forbidden Forest," Claire noted, looking at the map carefully. "But that doesn't explain the arrow."

"We'll figure these things out later," Tulip insisted. "But we should go before Pince or Snape find us."

To be continued…