Followed by Harry, Daphne, and Hermione lit up the tips of their wands, showering the tight space with light.
"Where are we?" Ron asked.
"It looks like a plant," Draco replied.
"Oh, no!"
Daphne had just let out a gasp, realizing what it was, when the thick, arm-sized tentacles began coiling around them with unmatched haste.
Hermione shouted. "It's Devil Snare!!"
Too late.
Their shoes glowed, making their figures blur, but the grip of the Devil Snare vine was just too tight. Not to mention, the sheer number of the vine's branches holding them down was too much to let them slip away.
One huge, tentacle lashed at Harry and Draco, coiling around their throats.
"Do…" Harry said, getting choked by the thing, "… something!"
Ron willed the gloves, hoping to punch them away.
Suddenly, several tentacles launched and grabbed his wrists, before covering his entire head as well.
Daphne struggled to breathe. "Use…"
"… fire!" Hermione finished.
Daphne and Hermione's wands lit up simultaneously.
A hissing screech echoed around them and then the tentacles began retreating, meeting their natural enemy.
One by one, Harry, Ron, Draco, Daphne, and Hermione, slipped down and fell on the floor which was previously occupied by the plant.
They huffed and puffed, catching their breaths.
"Wh.. Whoa…" Ron let out a relieved smile. "You are smart."
Hermione rolled her eyes. Everyone in the 1st year knew she was a bookworm, but because she was a Slytherin, they rarely asked her for help or even commented on anything related to academics.
Slytherins also kept their distance from her because of her muggle background.
And these things only brought her closer to Daphne.
"You can date her later, Weasley," Draco spat, rubbing his reddened throat, "if you can afford it…"
Harry poked Malfoy in the stomach. "Not now."
Ron and Hermione had gone red already, Draco's dark humor going well above their heads.
"This way," said Harry, pointing down a stone passageway, which was the only way forward.
They took a last glance at the plant, which had backed off against the distant wall, and took a deep breath.
The first defense was Fluffy — who had disappeared.
The second defense was a murderous vine — who was fortunately a coward against fire.
So, as they looked down the passageway, they knew the third defense wouldn't be any shorter than a near-death experience for them.
Gritting their teeth, and taking solace in each other's company, the group stepped forward, disappearing into the damp, dark corridor.
…
Once the children were gone, a silver mist engulfed the room, locking the space and effectively activating the magical creatures' battle scenario.
Then, a red-white ball hurled across the room and struck the magical plant.
The moment the ball hit the plant, it opened up, firing a red beam at it.
The plant got sucked into the ball and it landed on the floor.
Beep!
The ball stirred.
Beep!!
The ball stirred again, but the plant had already been weakened by the magical fires of the main storyline characters, ending its purpose in the story. Further, under Selene's Space Lock Skill, it couldn't even move, much less needed to be said about resisting.
Beep-whoosh!!!
…
[
Congratulations Contestant Kai D. Stormborn
You have caught Devil Snare!
…
Magical Beast: Devil Snare
Grade: C
Type: Grass/Dark
HP: 240
MP: 400
SP: 120
Attributes-
— Strength: 25
— Agility: 26
— Stamina: 24
— Perception: 29
— Correspondence: 40
— Breath: 12
Abilities-
— Shadow Stealth
— Ensnare
— Dark Vitality
— Growth Manipulation
Skills-
— Power Whip
— Synthesis
— Mana Drain
— Giga Drain
— Instantaneous Bind
— Vine Maelstrom
]
…
Gentle steps echoed in the room as the 11-year-old Black, in Hogwarts robes, walked toward the Pokeball and picked it up.
With one thought, the Devil Snare came out.
However, it wasn't as grand as before.
Black's eyes narrowed as he looked at the black tendril. It wriggled in the palm of his right hand like a worm and then curled itself around his ring, becoming a black ring.
Black's eyes became narrower as he saw his MP and HP bar losing points. The fall was incredibly minute, barely in a hundredth of a point, but a fall it was.
It's feeding on me… Black thought. My blood? My?!
The shocking thing wasn't that the Devil Snare was draining Black's MP and HP. The Stats clearly mapped this out in the Skills, listing them as Mana Drain and Giga Drain, respectively.
What was surprising was that the magical plant was sucking off Black's blood.
With Biokinesis, Black had already turned every drop of his blood into poison one could imagine — a trick barely worthy enough to be mentioned for something like Ad Infinitum.
Then there were bits of Kaiju Blue within his blood as well.
Let's not mention the presence of Kai's latest Ability — Advance Blood Corruption!
For Devil Snare to feed upon such corrupted, most heinous poison, and yet remain completely fine, was a true testament to its Ability — Dark Vitality.
Black rubbed the black ring on his right hand's ring finger gently and smiled to himself.
"Good girl," the Demon King praised, making the Devil Snare stir. "You will come in handy."
…
As they walked, all the children could hear apart from their footsteps was the gentle drip of water trickling down the walls.
The passageway sloped downward, and Harry, Daphne, and Draco were reminded of Gringotts.
With an unpleasant jolt of the heart, they together remembered the dragons said to be guarding vaults in the wizards' bank.
If they met a dragon, a fully-grown dragon — the undead dragon during the Hogwarts Express incident had been bad enough….
There would be no Dumbledore to protect them from a beast of that size, they knew.
"Can you hear something?" Ron whispered.
Harry listened.
It was the sound of something rattling. Heavy.
It was as if many things were trying to escape some kind of chained imprisonment.
They reached the end of the passageway and saw before them a brilliantly lit chamber, its ceiling arching high above them.
It was full of long wardrobes, lined against the left and right walls in two neat rows. All the wardrobes were shaking crazily as if there were beasts within, trying to come out.
On the opposite side of the chamber was a heavy wooden door.
"Do you think…" Ron whispered, gulping, "… one of the wardrobes contains the key?"
The unpleasant thoughts passed through their minds simultaneously.
"Damn it!" Draco cursed, walking toward the huge, locked door. "Why isn't there something for us to just… smash it up?!"
The gloves and the shoes wouldn't matter much if they didn't even get to use them.
The other four followed Draco and saw him using spells on the door. The magic, obviously, didn't work.
They turned around and looked at the shaking wardrobes, a terrifying, funny feeling bubbling in their chests.
It wouldn't be as simple as opening the wardrobes and getting the key, they knew.
Suddenly, Daphne frowned. Why was she remembering that she had seen this sight before? It was a lost memory from when she was but a little girl…
On the other side, Draco had begun frowning as well.
And then, they gasped together.
"What?" Harry asked. "Do you know what's in them? Magical beasts?!"
Hermione was as unknown to these shaking wardrobes as Harry, but Ron, hearing Daphne and Draco's gasps, suddenly put two and two together.
"No… No…" Ron mumbled, backing away.
"What?!" Harry demanded.
Daphne licked her lips. "It's not beasts…"
"… It's something worse," Draco said, completing the sentence.
Then they both looked at each other, knowing what kind of test awaited them and said together.
"Boggarts!"
**************
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