The group stood with bated breath as the merqueen inspected each of the items.
She finally looked up at the four humans before her, still holding the lyre. "Kye. Kyah-kyee!"
"We're glad you like our tributes, Your Majesty."
"Now can you take us to the cursed vault?"
"Kye. Kyee-kyah!" The merqueen thrust the lyre into Dani's arms.
"What is she going on about now?! We don't have any more time to waste before R gets to the treasure!" Merula pouted.
"Maybe she wants us to sing a song," Alex suggested. "You guys did lure them out with a concert, after all."
"Kye! Kye!" the merqueen exclaimed.
"So now we'll be entertaining fish while R hands You-Know-Who all the gold he needs to get someone to resurrect him?!" Merula continued to protest.
"Aren't you in the frog choir?" Ben asked. "I'm sure they'll do what we want once they hear your mellifluous voice, Merula."
Dani shoved the lyre at Merula. "Did Flitwick teach you to play this?"
Merula groaned. "No, but Quirrell gave us a muggle guitar one time. Can't be that different..." She awkwardly strummed a few random notes. "...yeah, I'm hopeless with this."
"So what song should we do, the school song?" asked Alex.
"NO. I'd rather we jinx ourselves with Odo the Hero than do that," said Ben.
Merula strummed an angry-sounding chord. "Haven't sang THAT one since before my folks went to jail. My professional opinion is we go with tried and true, since I'm sure bagpipes aren't compatible with gills anyway, and I'm useless with this thing."
"Fair enough. Lead us off, Merula."
Merula strummed another (awfully random) chord. "Can you dance like a hippogriff?"
"FlYiN' oFf FrOm A cLiFf!"
"SwOoPiN' dOwN tO tHe GrOuNd!"
Merula cringed at yet another bad chord the lyre produced. "Wheel around and around and around and around!"
And Alex did the nonsense background vocals.
The merqueen looked around at the subordinates, who were happily dancing to the (to the humans) atrocious noise.
************************************
"Kyee-kya!" The merqueen stopped in front of a large stack of rocks.
"This must be where the cursed vault is. Thank you for everything, Your Majesty."
"Kye. Kyah-kyee!" And with that, the merqueen swam back to the village.
"DEFODIO!"
The rocks smashed, revealing a spiral staircase.
Ben turned to the group. "Are we ready?"
"Since Rakepick betrayed us," replied Merula.
************************************
The group soon found themselves stepping onto the elaborate marble floor of a massive temple of some sort. Carved stone pillars supported a weathered dome above their heads, save for a couple that had fallen in front of a waterfall.
"That looks suspicious," said Ben, walking towards the fallen pillars. "BOMBARDA!"
The pillars disintegrated, revealing a passageway behind the waterfall. And at the end of it, there it was, clear as day-the final vault.
Moving further into the stone passage, the group stopped in front of the now-familiar column. "So... Who wants to do the honours?" asked Ben.
Dani looked at her brother. "Want to finish what you started?"
Alex hesitated, then nodded and stepped forward. The moment he made contact with the glowing column, the world went black.
CITEȘTI
Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery Year 6
AventurăWARNING: THIS BOOK CONTAINS DEATH, STRONG LANGUAGE, AND MENTIONS OF TORTURE AND VIOLENCE. WHO WOULD WIN: dark wizard cabal vs. a group of 16-year-olds! Our heroes return for their sixth year, a divided front and pressed for time as corrupted hands i...
