The caretaker stretched out his free arm and caught the Invisibility Cloak mid-air. His other hand was still clamped around Ron's neck, and his ghastly grin didn't waver one iota as he secured the relic.
But before he could honor his deal and release the choking redhead, a flash of red light cut through the darkness of the hallway. A powerful curse exploded squarely into the creature's deformed face.
The impact made the caretaker let out a shriek. His grip slipped, and he flung Ron through the air as if he were a mere rag doll. Ron's body slammed hard against the stone wall, falling to the floor as he coughed and gasped desperately for air.
The creature staggered and slowly turned its head—its bones creaking—to see who had dared to attack it.
At the end of the corridor, wands raised high, stood Hestia and Flora Carrow. Upon recognizing them, the caretaker's grin widened even further, nearly splitting his face in half.
"Ah," hissed the monster, its voice rumbling like an echo, "Thank you for showing up so soon… you two were exactly my next target."
Hestia and Flora stared at the deformed creature with pure disgust. There was no fear on their faces, only the cold, calculating focus of two witches preparing for the slaughter. They positioned themselves in perfect sync, ready for battle.
Without taking her eyes off the monster for even a fraction of a second, Hestia turned her head slightly toward Hermione, who stood frozen with terror a few steps away.
"Granger," Hestia ordered, her voice sounding authoritative, "Go to the infirmary and bring Aurelian. Now!"
Hermione hesitated. She looked at Harry, whose wand was trembling in his hand, and at Ron, who could barely sit on the floor. The idea of leaving her best friends at the mercy of that monster turned her stomach. But Flora turned her cold eyes toward her, giving her a look so furious that it left no room for argument. Hermione turned on her heel, stifled a sob, and began running with all her might toward the infirmary.
In the castle infirmary, the atmosphere was radically different.
Aurelian Gaunt was crouched beside the last stretcher, finishing drawing the intricate Arcane Pattern on the floor. The lines lit up and began to absorb the magic in the air, channeling it to sustain the weak core of the first-year boy who lay fast asleep on the white sheets.
When the pattern stabilized completely, Madame Pomfrey, who had deep dark circles under her eyes, let out a sigh of relief and approached him.
"I don't know what we'd do without your help, boy. Thank you so much," the nurse thanked him sincerely.
Aurelian stood up, brushing the dust off his knees, and gave her a calm smile.
"No problem at all, Madame Pomfrey. It's my duty to help whenever I can," he replied.
At that very moment, the infirmary doors burst open violently. Hermione Granger stormed into the room, pale as a ghost, exhausted and gasping desperately as she leaned against the doorframe.
"Aurelian!" Hermione managed to say between gasps, pointing toward the hallways. "Hestia and Flora… they're fighting a monster… near the Great Hall."
Aurelian's smile vanished instantly.
He asked no questions. In the blink of an eye, in a single blink, Aurelian Gaunt vanished from the infirmary.
By the time he managed to locate them by following the girls' magical signature, the battle was already at its peak.
Hestia and Flora were proving why they were the most feared witches at Hogwarts. They were holding back the elongated aberration with impeccable and fierce teamwork. They cast piercing curses and fire spells in perfect coordination, forcing the caretaker to retreat and defend himself with his long shadow arms. A few meters away, taking advantage of the barrage of spells as a distraction, Harry Potter dragged a semi-conscious Ron Weasley away from the line of fire.
Aurelian wasted no time. He raised his right hand and fired a dense, immense black beam. The attack struck the caretaker directly in the chest, sending him flying several meters backward with a loud crash until he slammed into a stone pillar.
Immediately, Aurelian stepped between the beast, which was getting back to its feet, and his two fiancées.
"Go get Headmaster Dumbledore," Aurelian ordered the girls, without taking his eyes off the enemy.
Hestia and Flora, breathing heavily and still holding their wands aloft, flatly refused at once.
"Absolutely not!" Flora snapped. "We're not going to let you fight that thing alone!"
"Our place is here, with you!" Hestia chimed in, clinging to Aurelian's left arm.
Aurelian let out a deep sigh, frustrated by his girlfriends' loyalty and stubbornness, but he knew he didn't have time to argue with them.
He turned his head sharply toward Harry Potter, who was still trying to help Ron to his feet a few meters away.
"Potter!" Aurelian shouted in a commanding voice, the authority he exuded resonating in every syllable. "Take Weasley and go find Headmaster Dumbledore! There's no time!"
Harry frowned, clenching his jaw. He felt rage and pride swirling inside him at receiving such direct orders from the arrogant Gaunt, especially after the monster had snatched his Invisibility Cloak. But, seeing the hideous creature getting back to its feet with that ghastly grin, and knowing that Ron needed urgent medical attention, Harry swallowed his pride.
Reluctantly obeying, Harry slung Ron's arm over his shoulders and, with great effort, broke into a run down the hallways toward the headmaster's office, leaving the three Slytherins preparing to wage the real battle against the caretaker.
With a crack, the creature's monstrously elongated limbs began to contract. In a matter of seconds, the abomination returned to its "normal" appearance, once again taking the form of the expressionless caretaker, the Invisibility Cloak clenched in his fist.
Aurelian, with his magic swirling around him, stepped forward.
"What is your true purpose for infiltrating this school?" Aurelian demanded.
The janitor tilted his head. Almost mockingly, he gave a stiff, theatrical bow.
"My master... sent me to find the Peverell relics," the creature replied in its raspy voice.
Aurelian's mind made the connections. The Peverells. Now he understood everything. The cloak and the ring… of course the monster wasn't attacking at random; it was specifically hunting him and that Gryffindor idiot. Grindelwald certainly moved fast when it came to his targets.
The caretaker opened his mouth, ready to speak further, but Aurelian didn't give him the chance.
With a flick of his wrist, Aurelian conjured a blue orb and hurled it straight at the creature's chest. The projectile struck squarely and exploded in a great flash. However, when the smoke cleared, the creature was still standing. Aurelian's destructive magic had simply been absorbed by the janitor's body as if it were a sponge.
The man frowned.
"I expected Lord Gaunt to be a little more… civilized in conversation," the creature muttered, feigning disappointment.
Aurelian closed the distance between them with terrifying speed.
"I have absolutely nothing to discuss with someone who is already dead," Aurelian declared, mere feet from his face.
The janitor widened his ghastly grin and nodded slowly.
"You're absolutely right."
From behind, the unmistakable roar of flames broke the silence. Hestia and Flora conjured a torrent of Demonic Fire. The lethal cursed flames, shaped like chimeras and serpents, devoured the hallway and surged toward the janitor to incinerate him.
But the creature did not burn. The janitor opened his arms and literally absorbed the cursed fire into his body. His humanoid form became completely destabilized, losing its shape until it collapsed and transformed into a gigantic, viscous-looking black sphere.
Aurelian opened his eyes, recognizing the energy pulsing before him.
He spun on his heels and extended both hands, deploying a shield just in time to cover Hestia and Flora before the dark mass unleashed a first shockwave that cracked the walls.
From the safety of his shield, watching the black mass writhe, Aurelian whispered a single word.
"So it's an Obscurial."
Flora, holding her wand aloft behind the barrier, stared at the aberration with wide eyes.
"How on earth does an Obscurial end up like that?" Flora wondered aloud, knowing that children with that curse died young and didn't possess that level of control.
"Transformed into a monster," Hestia added, finishing her sister's thought.
Flora nodded slightly, her gaze fixed on the sphere that was contracting and pulsing aggressively in front of them, shooting out tendrils that struck Aurelian's shield, trying to break it.
"Are you all right, kids?" a voice asked from behind them.
Albus Dumbledore had just appeared behind them. The air around him vibrated with the immense power of an Archmage ready for battle. The three Slytherins nodded without taking their eyes off the threat.
"I'll take it from here. Step back," said Albus, stepping forward and raising the Elder Wand.
Faced with Dumbledore's overwhelming presence, the Obscurial stopped pounding the shield and shrank back into itself until it returned to normal, once again taking the form of the caretaker.
They began to fight. Dumbledore held nothing back. He cast several chains of light, Transfigured the ground into spikes, and compressed the air around the monster. The battle was a spectacle, and Albus quickly began to gain the upper hand, cornering the Obscurial and overwhelming its ability to absorb magic.
Seeing that he could do absolutely nothing against the legendary headmaster, the caretaker picked up the Invisibility Cloak from the ground in a desperate attempt to flee with at least one of the relics.
Dumbledore wouldn't let him. With a sweep of his wand, he conjured golden bonds that wrapped around the creature, restraining it completely and forcing it to fall to its knees.
Albus walked toward him, lowering his wand to begin questioning him about his master. But the Obscurial began to move frantically, writhing within the bonds. His body swelled, and a black, viscous mass began to escape from his eyes and mouth.
"I don't want to die… I don't want to die… give me another chance… I still have so much to give… master," the caretaker began to whisper repeatedly, his voice distorted by panic. The magic inside him had triggered a chain reaction.
Albus opened his eyes as he sensed the impending explosion.
At the very last possible second, Dumbledore turned toward Aurelian, Hestia, and Flora. Throwing himself in front of his students, he conjured an impenetrable silver dome around them.
The detonation was cataclysmic.
A deafening silence preceded the shockwave. The entire hallway was completely destroyed. The walls, the ceiling, and the portraits around them were literally vaporized, leaving a gigantic crater exposed to the cold evening air.
When the light faded and the dust began to settle, Aurelian, Hestia, and Flora opened their eyes. The dome that had protected them flickered until it vanished.
Standing before them was Dumbledore. The headmaster was visibly badly injured; his face was covered in blood, and his right arm hung at an unnatural angle, burned and nearly useless from having absorbed the brunt of the impact.
Even in that critical state, the headmaster turned halfway toward the three young people. He smiled weakly at them.
"I'm glad… you're all right," Albus whispered.
Unable to hold on any longer, Dumbledore closed his eyes and fainted, collapsing heavily onto what remained of the floor.
Just a few seconds later, Minerva McGonagall and Severus Snape appeared at the edge of the crater, wands raised and horror etched on their faces as they took in the magnitude of the destruction and the headmaster lying on the ground. They immediately rushed to Albus's aid.
Aurelian, rising up amid the ruins, looked at the Transfiguration professor.
"Professor McGonagall," Aurelian said seriously, "contact the Ministry of Magic immediately."
Minerva swallowed loudly, turning even paler at the mention of the Dark Lord. She knew what it meant to invite that man and his forces into Hogwarts at a time of such vulnerability, but she also knew that, with Dumbledore down and an enemy capable of this level of destruction, the Minister would find out on his own anyway.
Snape, who was still staring in shock at the Headmaster's condition and the creature's ashes being carried away by the wind, was the only one who managed to respond. He nodded gravely at his student's words. Everything had just changed drastically.
Lord Voldemort would enter the fray.
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