Year Three at Hogwarts
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Chapter 19: The Potion of Fecundity
Jacke still stood there, completely shocked that his best course of action so far failed him. Yalcone was able to shrug it off. Sure, he was doing the same to Yalcone's but they did still hurt a little while it looked like Yalcone wasn't feeling anything close to sore. Yalcone started to glow again and when he extended his two hands right behind another, he let out a sphere of energy that Jacke felt was stronger than any he'd fired so far. Jacke let out a scream that would've been loud had it not been for the Silent Scope's effect. He didn't even make a sound when he hit the grass.
"Come on Jacke, get up!" Brad yelled.
"This is bad. Yalcone looks as tough as a rock. His agility and magic is unbelievable. How's Jacke supposed to beat him. His talent is in his dueling charms and spells but he can't use them here."
Tyler didn't say a word. He was busy staring at the form of his friend suffering from the pain of that last attack. It looked like Yalcone was holding back a little to see just how strong Jacke was. His dueling strategy was similar to Reggie's; hold back and observe how your opponent fights to see his moves and his strengths and weaknesses. He knew that Jacke was capable of beating Yalcone but the big problem was that would he be willing to use what he had to in order to beat him.
Back at the fighting floor, Yalcone was on his feet with an air of superiority on himself. He raised his hand and all of a sudden, letters of a glow like his attacks started coming out of the palm of his hand.
"Well Mr. Walker, I must admit that I'm quite dissatisfied. From what I've heard about you, I expected a spectacle but instead I'm finding a regular weak wizard boy toying with things he has no grip on."
Jacke looked up and gritted his teeth at reading that. Of course, Yalcone couldn't tell that his teeth were gritting because they weren't making a sound. He continued with his message with the magic words.
"I am perfectly willing to stop whenever you want. All you have to do is cross your hands in a way saying "That's enough" and I'll let you free without getting hurt further. Of course, you'll be cast out but I don't see you having any choice. After all, you don't have anything else that could be of use as I've shown that your previous attempts were ineffective." Yalcone then waved his hand and the words vanished in puffs of glowing sparkled smoke.
'I don't know what else to do,' he thought in despair. Jacke looked at Yalcone and looked at his friends, especially at the injured Brad and wounded Reggie. 'But, if I give up then Reggie and Brad got hurt and went through all that pain for nothing. I'm not going to be selfish and give in when I can still keep going. But…I might as well pick at the grass and throw it at Yalcone because all my other attacks were useless. If only I could say incantations then I could fertilize the grass with him.'
Jacke fired a fireball from his hand and Yalcone didn't even flinch when it came toward him. He simply knocked it away with his right hand and Jacke looked with horror as his attack hit the ground right of Yalcone. Yalcone took his hand and rubbed it softly like someone gave him a slap there. Then he started to glow and let out a magical energy that looked the size of the fireball Jacke fired; Jacke took this as a sign to leap away as the blast hit the ground making bits of the ground shoot up four feet and give off a dusty smokescreen.
'I can't take this anymore,' Tyler thought scratching his head. "No more!" This caused both Yalcone and Jacke to turn their attentions from each other to him. "Look, I know a way for Jacke to at least stand a chance. There is a spell strong enough to use in dueling that you don't need an incantation to use. It's his best bet to beat Yalcone so we could move on. The problem is, it's a class of spell that I know he would detest using but you have to understand that if Jacke doesn't use it then he won't even scratch Yalcone. It's a spell of the dark arts that I showed you all: The Fire Whip. You're going to have to trust me in saying that it's the only hope. If he doesn't want to use it then he doesn't have to but if I were him then I wouldn't want to be the selfish one that let Reggie's and Brad's hard work go to waste because of having cold feet at using a kind of shady spell even though my best friend uses it and isn't any different. Is the Gryffindor seeker going to have to say that to them? Well?"
Reggie turned his head to Jacke with a bemused expression and thoughts ran through his mind. 'Tyler's spell would be able to give Jacke a chance to beat Yalcone but I don't think Jacke would use it. He did tell Tyler that he would try not using any dark spells when he taught it to us. He said that he'd stick to his charms and to dueling spells that weren't dark. I guess Jacke is going to have to bend a little for this. The fire whip is his best chance to win but it doesn't look like Yalcone is going to give Jacke time to think on this so he'll have to choose quickly.'
Brad wasn't looking at Jacke like Reggie does but looking at Tyler. 'I think Jacke would do good and listen to Tyler,' he thought. 'When I used it, I didn't really think any differently and I knew it was a highly dark spell. It felt like I was using a regular whip but the only difference was that it was of a yellow, hot glow. I know Jacke's feeling to using dark magic but he has to see that the dark spell the Fire whip is really no different then using his elemental powers and that's supposed to be a very high bit of dark magic. And why the bloody hell is Tyler yelling like Jacke doesn't hear him since Yalcone said that they would be able to still hear noise from outside the arena's boundary but couldn't make noise inside it.'
Jacke had looked down at his feet but not really looking at them considering everything Tyler had just said. 'I…I don't know.' Jacke then looked over at Reggie still suffering a broken arm and Brad who still was hurting from broken ribs. 'Tyler is right about Reggie and Brad. They suffered so much to give us this chance and if I don't try everything that I can then I would've made them go through all that for nothing. The fire whip is my best bet and Brad used it and he's still the same and Tyler's used it a lot and he's still the same guy too. But, dark magic has caused so much suffering and I don't want to use anything that done so much wrong for the wizarding world already.' He looked at Yalcone and saw that he was getting ready to attack again since he was starting to glow meaning another magic attack. He also looked back at Tyler and caught his eyes. Tyler had a look of determination and concern in them and with that Jacke made his decision. 'Okay, now how do I use the Fire whip without saying the incantation again?'
FlashbackThe Seekers were inside the Slytherin Chamber on a past weekend and Tyler was in front of them demonstrating the spell while the other seekers were sitting on the floor watching.
"This Fire Whip Curse is one that I find really handy. I even used it against that slimeball Arnold last June. Shame he blocked it. If you aren't skilled for using whips you don't have to worry since your own fire whip can't harm you if you accidentally get it to touch you when you're using it. Anyway, the whip comes out with the incantation Inferro Cracke." Suddenly a whip that looked like a string of red fire extended from the tip. "It's makes a whip of fire, (it's color is varies from wizard to wizard), come from your wand. After you get it out, keep hold of your wand and swing it at the opponent like it was a regular whip and to make it go away you just have to wish it away." He made it go away. "But this spell has more to it. You could use it without an incantation just by concentrating on it. The best way is to visualize that you have a whip in your hand that just glows and it'll come out for you. The drawback of that is that is won't have the fiery pain of the fire but it will still hurt greatly and the victim would probably have to stay in the hospital bed for about a day than with the incantation which would've been around a week." He brought his wand down like it was the handle of a whip that he just cracked and suddenly the fire red whip came out again.
Then Jacke got on his feet. "Thanks for showing us that spell mate but dark spells aren't really my style. Sorry."
Tyler looked at him and nodded. "Sure…but it's still good to know if you ever need it."
End of Flashback'Looks like it's that time,' Jacke thought as he brandished his wand. He visualized himself holding a whip and suddenly he saw a glowing light coming from the tip of his wand and soon appeared a stream of emerald green fire escaped the tip about 4 feet long. "Wow," he said inaudibly from his soundless mouth.
Yalcone was still glowing and his eyes traveled to the whip of fire that was connected to Jacke's wand but he seemed to have regained his composure and extended his hand where he let out another of his magic energy attacks. It came at Jacke like an orb but Jacke moved his fire whip to get in it's way and the whip made contact. It looked like the whip knocked the ball of energy away like in baseball. The energy ball made contact with the ground and shattered it. Jacke took Yalcone's moment of surprise and ran at him and swung his wand making the whip hit him on the side. Yalcone's eyes popped out from pain, his wolf ears twinged and he staggered a little backwards before he charged at Jacke Rams did with Brad.
Tyler saw that Jacke would need a little more help so Tyler yelled as hard as he could. "Here, catch this!" Tyler threw his wand over in Jacke's direction and using his seeker reflexes, caught it with his free hand.
Jacke took his right hand with the fire whip in tow and swung at Yalcone. Yalcone was a little too far for the whip to reach him unless it went straight. 'Hmm…since this whip is of fire then…" He concentrated on getting his whip to move straight forward instead of a curve like he did with manipulating real fire and to his astonishment, the whip moved forward on his command. The tip struck Yalcone in the chest making him stop and wince. Jacke used that to concentrate on having a fire whip in Tyler's wand and just like a natural, a blood red whip came from Tyler's wand and he struck Yalcone from the left making him spin on his feet. Jacke then raised both wands above him as high as he could go and brought them down hard. The red and green whips struck down on Yalcone's shoulders and his eyes rolled back and he fell to the ground. Jacke fell to his knees breathing hard from exhaustion and saw that the passage to go further into the temple was now unsealed.
Tyler ran into the arena and pulled Jacke out and then spoke once they stepped out of the boundary. "Jacke, you did it!"
"Yeah, oh and here," he said handing him back his wand. "Thanks for the loan. I appreciate it. You know, it's good to finally hear the sound of my own voice again."
He helped Jacke over to where Reggie and Brad were and Brad spoke out. "Jacke, can you walk by yourself?"
"Yeah, I'm a little sore but I should be able to help one of you guys walk like before." Jacke cast one last look at Yalcone's unconscious form before he went over to Reggie to help him up since he was still to injured to go anywhere on his own.
"I can't figure out why you didn't lose," Reggie said stroking his chin in thought.
"What do you mean Reggie?" Jacke asked as he helped him up and started to help him walk.
"Well, didn't Yalcone say that we couldn't interfere in your fight?"
"No he didn't," Tyler said as he helped Brad up. "Yalcone specifically said that we couldn't DIRECTLY interfere in the match. All I did was yell my opinion and throw my wand into the ring. I never directly helped in any way right," he said with a devilish grin.
"So much like a Slytherin," Reggie said shaking his head.
"Slytherin, check my name and house," he said thickly causing everyone to laugh.
"Honestly, Tyler, you are a sneaky genius, you know that?" Jacke said to him helping Reggie go up a flight of stairs that they came across in the passage.
"Stop, you're all going to make my head big," he said trying his best to sound modest.
"You mean that it's not already," Brad chuckled making Jacke and Reggie stifle laughs too.
"Very funny, really funny. I think you want to get up these stairs and passageways by yourself with those broken ribs." This shut Brad up.
Jacke held Reggie tight as they went up the steps but his vision got foggy and then he slipped out of reality. He was greeted by the sight of a beautiful woman that seemed to be glowing in warm light.
"Jacke Walker, I have decided to let your powers of flame be unshackled to realize your true potential."
"Wait, this sounds familiar, aren't you the spirit of the earth?"
"Yes. I see your friends have told you of me. You have proven your worth to me Jacke Walker. You manipulated fire created from your natural wizard casting powers like it was regular fire. Impressive."
Jacke blushed a little from that comment and before he knew it, he felt himself fall back where he was standing on the steps and heard Reggie's voice.
"Are you deaf Jacke? Can we keep going please?"
"Oh sorry, I lost myself."
"The spirit of the earth huh?" Brad said looking over to him with knowing eyes and a smirk to match.
"Know it all."
"Hey, I recognize the symptoms. Spacing out, no responding to anything in the outside world, having a dazed look on your face, an elemental. All those things point things point to the spirit of the earth. I mean I've seen it two times already and it's happened to me."
"Great," Tyler said breaking Brad's rant. "Now everyone's powers get idolized but mine."
"Relax, I'm sure you'll get yourself accepted by her soon enough."
As they went on, the passage seemed to include more stairs that went up and down. The time was passed by Jacke talking nonstop about his fight with Yalcone. He made comments like "Did you see me with those whips?" or "I liked how I hit his attack away like a baseball." This comment surprised Brad since he didn't think Jacke knew what baseball was but told him that he'd seen the muggle kids in his neighborhood play it from time to time. They kept going on through the path until they came to a large statue of what seemed to be Orichai. There was a metal lever coming from his left hand of the statue and Tyler reached out and pulled it. The statue flew up the wall as it was a doorway and behind it was a stone passageway that maze like because they could see corridors and directions ahead.
"Greetings," came a voice. A sphere of light appeared before them and it was hard to keep staring at it without blinking away. The voice seemed to be coming from it like it was alive. "Welcome to the final test. It is very simple to follow. You must simply find your way through the maze. At the end lies what you've been seeking. May you have good luck." Then the light simply blinked away leaving the four of them ogling the spot.
"We just have to cross the maze? That doesn't seem so bad," Brad said shaking his head.
"I wouldn't be so sure. Either this maze is endless or there are things in there to make it hard for us to go through. This is the last trial and you could bet that this is supposed to be the hardest of them all." Then the way they came from sealed itself up again leaving them with only one option. Tyler turned to face the three of them clearly. "Look since all three of you are too hurt or tired for fighting anything then I'll have to do it. If we run into anything then let me handle it. Try not to draw attention to yourselves if you do, alright?"
Each of them answered yes in their own way and they went into the maze. Jacke pointed his wand to the floor and said "Colvis White" which made blops of white paint splatter on the floor like oversized raindrops. "This way we'll know if we take the same way twice."
"Better than leaving bread crumbs," Reggie said looking at the paint.
They continued walking through for five minutes without seeing anything until they saw blobs of white paint again.
"This is no good. We're not going to find the end of the maze this way. We don't have a clue which way the exit is anyway. For all we know it's right next to us." Reggie said with a hopeless tone.
"There has to be a way," Tyler said stroking his chin and looking around. He spotted that the walls of the maze only went up around eleven feet. "Reggie, transform into an eagle please We're going to see over the maze walls.."
Reggie looked at Tyler like he was a slow learning, aggravating person. "Tyler, in case you forgot, my arm is still sprained. I won't be able to fly around and find the exit."
"No, I know that. I'm going to transform into a snake and become as big as I could get and you'll be on my head getting a look where the exit is."
"Whoa," Jacke said nodded his head. "Smart move."
"Thanks. So Reggie, you ready?"
Jacke loosened his grip on Reggie's shoulder and let him transform into his eagle form. Then Jacke carried Reggie and put him on top of Tyler's head where he started to become a long spiny snake. He reached his maximum size and rose himself as high as he could to let Reggie see over the maze walls. Reggie saw a glimmering light far off to the right and cawed to let Tyler know he found it. When they went back to their human forms he spoke.
"Tyler, I saw it. The exit off in that direction," he said pointing the direction of where he saw the exit doorway.
"That way," Tyler said pointing his finger to meet where Reggie was pointing too. After a nod from Reggie, Tyler released a sparkling thunder ball and fired it in that direction. It stayed in the air like it was a star. "I'll leave that orb that so that we'll be able to see the way we have to go at all times."
"What a well lit idea," Brad said chuckling.
They walked over in the direction that Tyler's orb was shining with Jacke still leaving his paint trail behind as they walked. "This seems easy Tyler. I'm sure we'll be at the end in no time now."
As they turned into a corridor they found a suit of armor with a long silver sword walking back and forth blocking the path ahead like a guard. When it heard them, it turned to them and raised it's sword above it's head.
"You and your big mouth Jacke," Tyler said softly. The armor went toward them with clinking metal footsteps. "Get back, let me deal with this." He prepared his wand and readied himself for the fight. "Averte Stature!" His spell went and knocked the headpiece of the armor off but it was still charging at him. "Expelliarmus!" The sword flew out of it's hands but the suit of armor didn't stop running at him. Instead, it just put its hands out looking like it would want to go and choke Tyler instead. Tyler froze at how it still came at him.
Jacke pointed to the floor ahead of Tyler and shouted "Scourgify!"
The suit of armor slipped from the soapy floor and landed with a clang on the floor.
Tyler let out of breathe of relief. "Thanks."
"Don't mention it," Jacke answered back.
Tyler went to the suit of armor and yelled "Reducto!" The suit of armor shattered apart like a puzzle masterpiece was crashed into. 'I don't know why I didn't just do that from the start.' Tyler thought to himself as they continued walking with him leading the way. "Well since there was that guard then we must be on the right path."
"Yeah, which would mean that we should expect to run into more," Reggie said.
"I wonder what else is there in this maze," Brad added trying to walk on his own without Tyler's help since they needed Tyler up front.
When Tyler left at a fork, he was slammed to the wall by a big figure but it didn't seem alone. The others lingered back to see what it was and saw that it was some kind of giant bull creature. It reminded them of Rams but instead of looking like a huge boar, it had a bull's head, snout and two little horns sticking out behind its ears. It had a hungry look in it's eyes and was exhaling roughly. Right behind it, was a copy of it but instead had an elephant's head with small tusks behind the small trunk. These creatures looked so strange since they had the shape of humans but had animal heads and skin.
Tyler collected itself and stood up just in time for that bull to collide his elbow with Tyler making him fly a few feet down the passage. 'No matter what…I still got to have enough focus to keep my lightning orb in the air,' he thought through the sting from the collision.
The bull and elephant monsters let out big puffy breaths as they slowly walked toward Tyler that would've made anyone's spine tingle in intimidation. Tyler sent a Reductor Spell at the one with the bull's head that seemed to cause a great deal of pain to it. He was letting out sounds like a cow clutching his chest but the elephant started to charge at Tyler when this happened.
Tyler didn't waste a second, as he raised his wand again and shouted "Serpensortia!" A snake erupted from his wand and flickered his tongue, waiting for a command. "Quick! Hiss as hard as you can at that elephant and if that doesn't work, use you teeth on him!" He commanded. The snake made it's way up and gave off a deep hiss causing the elephant to let out a blow and run the other way. It ran smack into the still hurting bull creature where they flew off past the doorway where the others were and started fighting one another.
"What are you guys gawking at? Let's go while they're having their little fight."
They took off in the direction where the lightning that Tyler realized to guide them as the bull and elephant headed creatures were having their disagreement. Soon their sounds were gone allowing Tyler to catch his breathe.
"Are you alright mate?" Jacke asked with concern on his face. "You got rammed hard back there."
"I'll be fine. That was nothing compared to the ramming I get from my dad's snake Serpentine when we have a parsel duel. Are you all alright?"
"Yeah."
"We're okay."
"Fine."
"Good, alright then let's get moving."
They walked on and noticed that the number of corridors that were available without dead ends were shrinking, meaning that the end of the maze was near. To help save them time and surprise attacks, Tyler used his Snake Creation Spell to make more snakes and commanded them to fan out and search the corridors and report back if they found the exit. They stayed there waiting for any snakes to return until Tyler caught a scream from one of his snakes that he ran toward with his friends yelling for him to slow down. Tyler looked up and saw that they were coming to be almost directly under the lightning orb he sent up meaning that the scream could've been one of the snakes had found the way out. Tyler didn't really need to look up since he could sense his own lightning attack but it was still reassuring to look at.
Tyler turned one more direction and saw the lit up point that Reggie found. In front, he saw the snake being devoured by what seemed to be a zombie. It had leaf green skin with blood red circles here and there and had blond hair at ear level. It had two eyes that were twice as big as normal with one nearly out of the socket. It let off a stench off rotten meat and had slime dripping off it's skin. Its teeth were all covered in the snake's blood and it was chewing the snake skin in its mouth like a hippo with grass.
When the others got there, Brad let out a surprised scream that made the zombie walk toward them.
"Stay back and don't do anything to draw its attention to you!" he ordered at his friends. Tyler pulled his wand fast and shouted, "Inferro Cracke!" His red flaming fire whip appeared from the tip which he drove at the zombie knocking it's shoulder clean off with blood splattering from the wound and broken appendage on the floor. The zombie didn't even seem hurt as it just bended down, picked it's arm up and snapped it back to where it belonged and let out a sick roar from it's mouth.
Reggie and Brad had shocked and scared expressions on their faces after that while Jacke looked like he was going to throw up.
Tyler felt disgusted by that display and fired a Reductor Curse but it simply went clean through the zombie leaving a hole where it hit at his stomach. The zombie ran for Tyler and grabbed him by the throat.
Choking sounds escaped his mouth but his friends were rooted to their spots. Even if they could remember how to move their legs, Tyler told them to stay away and that's just what they were doing.
Tyler couldn't raise his wand through the pain and through the stench that smelled stronger than before. Tyler felt his wand slip out of his hands as his eyes started to turn red and water. Tyler looked up and saw the light from his lightning orb guide and his eyes opened up at it. He focused as best as he could through the pain and made the orb come crashing down and manipulated it to go into the zombie's mouth. The zombie let go of Tyler and clutched his throat. He manipulated his lightning orb to expand and implode from the inside of the beast. Then, suddenly, without warning, the zombie exploded from the inside and his body spread everywhere and the front of Tyler's combat robes were splattered with blood and zombie slime.
Jacke, Reggie and Brad would've laughed at the sight had it not been so sickening. They all wanted to hurl right then and there, Tyler included but they felt that getting away from there would be the best way to shake off the grotesque sight of the zombie's destruction. Jacke muttered "Scourgify," at Tyler and cleaned him up from the blood and grime that had covered him which Tyler could've dropped to his knees and begged thank you for.
They made their way through the lit up exit and saw another statue of Orichai. Tyler repeated what he did before and pulled the lever and the statue rose up revealing the path ahead.
They came to a circular room with a light shining from the top and concentrating on one point in the center, far side of the room. Before they could walk toward it, the glowing light that they saw at the beginning of the maze appeared before them.
"Well, I am surprised to see that all four of you have made it. I had my doubts but thou have shown me that you are worthy." The light suddenly made an outline of a person and the seekers saw the familiar figure of an old tiger faced, butterfly winged, human shaped figure step out of the light.
"Orichai!" they all yelled at the same time.
"Yes," he said nodding. "I'm here to say my congratulations at your skill. To think that you could get past my brethren and our tasks. You are wonderful wizard children. Now for what you've come here for." He led them off to where the light was shining at in the middle of the room and there was a huge golden goblet encrusted with gems, about big as a human head, standing on a stone pedestal. "Here is the power of creation or more commonly known as The Potion of Fecundity."
They looked inside the goblet and saw a thick, syrupy, yellow liquid. For the first time since they reached the temple, they let their guard down and just stared at the wonder around them.
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End of Chapter 19Nightlit: Thanks for your review. As for the obstacles being ridiculous. It was rather hard to think of things guarding something like this. The fact that these obstacles were more than a thousand years old also made limitations on what I could bring in. Sorry.
Tigercub15: Great to see you've caught up. I hope you don't miss more in the future and sorry about your computer problems.
Author Notes:
Well, they did it. They finally got to the potion. But now that they have it, what do they do with it? They already have a plan on what to make but how exactly will they use the potion to make it. And how will the rest of their year go. In case you've all forgotten, it's still the day after Christmas for the Seekers. You'll have to stay tuned for the next chapter to find out the answers.
Also, hope you all had a happy new year. Goodbye 2004 and hello 2005. Please review.
High Serpent King