Vulnerability

Chapter 20

I was sitting in the Bell Tower when I saw Freya walk in, she was still pretty mad at me for the whole fight thing. Not my fault. I noticed as she hurriedly walked towards the North Hall, she kept looking over her shoulder. Where is she going? I shut my book and shove it into my bag, I start down the stairs to follow her.

I've been hearing rumors that Sebastian was hurting Freya, I know he's messing with the Dark Arts... But he's too much of an idiot to not let it control him. I follow far behind so she doesn't hear or see me, we're going so far down into the basement... why? What could she be hiding? After long hallways and an insane amount of stairs, she slips into a doorway. I cast the Disillusionment Charm and follow her as we enter this long hallway and spiral staircase... She walks hurriedly down to this grand door with a strange symbol, what is going on here?

"I hope Professor Fig received my owl... I need to alert them that Ranrok knows where the last repository is," Freya mumbles. Ranrok? I knew there was more to her than I thought.

As she enters the chamber, I'm close behind. When I walk inside my eyes widen, the place is huge... it's crazy– is that Professor Fig? What is he doing here? There are four charmed portraits against the wall and I take this time to hide under the main staircase. Oh Freya, what have you gotten involved with?

"According to the owl I received, Ranrok is moving faster than we anticipated," Fig explains to the portrait.

"This is grave news indeed, we were hoping to have more time to discuss the best path forward," an old man with a long beard said.

"Let us hear what the student has to say," the portrait next to him says.

"Professor you received my owl!! Ranrok got the last of the journals... He knows where the final repository is," Freya explains.

I'll be honest, I didn't pay much attention it was a lot of nonsense to me. Even though it did seem important, I just had no clue who Lodgok is or who those portraits are. I was more interested in who else knows about Freya's extracurriculars, perhaps this has something to do with what I saw in the Forbidden Forest the other day. The magic she was wielding wasn't like anything I have seen before and that was a first– even for me.

"The final trial will involve an exceptional level of magical skill– and a nuanced ability to interact with any sort of beast," The old guy from before says.

Wait. Trials? I counted the portraits– is this why Freya comes back half-dead all of the time? Freya was interesting before but this is a new type of interesting.

"You must find a face of stone and tendrils... and again you must do this alone," the old guy says to Freya... This has to be it– she has to do it alone? They didn't tell her anything! This sounds dangerous and a bit off if I do say so myself. "Professor Bakar will meet you in his Pensieve room," Professors?

Freya turns to Fig and they say things that I do not understand... I wait for Fig to apparate away and then I cast the Disillusionment Charm and follow her out. Before we can get very far, I see Freya pause... what is she doing? Then she turns around suddenly,

"Depulso!" She shouts, pointing her wand at me. As I hit the wall, I go to grab for my wand but she already has me pinned, her wand pressing into my throat... "Who are you?!" the Charm flows off of my body, revealing myself to her and her eyes widen with anger, "Atticus!? What the hell are you doing here!?"

"What are the trials? What are you up to?" I ask, completely ignoring her question.

Her face drains of color and her eyes widen, "You followed me in there!?"

"You really should be more aware of your surroundings," I smirk down at her, probably not the best choice of words considering her wand was digging into my skin...