A Younger Generation of Keepers

Chapter 4: Connected by blood (part 8)

Grayson's pov

Jessica, Mia, Sebastian and I were travelling to Northern France during the wee hours of the morning, hoping to find Nicolette. After using a Floo Flame, we reached the exact coordinates provided by the book, but to our surprise, all we could see was an empty field of many acres. We started scanning the field with the use of Revelio and after casting it a couple of times, I noticed that some traces of Ancient Magic had appeared.

"Look!" I pointed at the traces.

Jessica moved forward and raised her wand revealing a massive castle, it looked almost ancient, definitely pre-medieval. As we entered its enormously large door, we found ourselves in a hallway, the walls were filled with carvings of magical creatures.

"Wait!" Mia whispered and locked the main gate behind us "Just in case anyone's following us"

We started searching every room, but without any luck. After a couple of minutes, we reached a room on the upper floor with a "Library" sign on top of its entrance.

"Let's check it out!" Sebastian suggested. We walked into the library, it was the largest library I had ever observed, and as a Ravenclaw, it was stunning in my eyes. We wandered around it, watching closely every corridor, in case a book could provide us any information about Nicolette.

"Something feels off" I expressed my concern to Mia as I was putting back a book.

"What do you mean?"

"It can't be we're the first ones to discover this castle. Larissa definitely knows about it!" I replied.

"So what are you saying?" Mia looked confused "Are you saying this is a trap?"

"Found it!" Jessica shouted from across the room, interrupting my thoughts. Mia and I made our way towards the end of the corridor, where a few more bookcases, a chandelier with burning candles and a grand lift were located.

"Have a look at it" Jessica handed me a piece of paper.

"Where did you find that?" I questioned, while reading it.

"It was inside this book about magical creatures, looks like a coded message" Sebastian replied.

"Oh great! How are we supposed to..." Mia began complaining, but her sentence was cut short by a sudden loud noise coming from outside the library.

"Hide the book, we're under attack!" Sebastian shouted and we all drew our wands. Jessica put the book with the piece of paper under her cloak.

"We'll hold them off, someone needs to initiate the lift, we need an escape route" Sebastian said as more and more goblins, alongside Ashwinders entered the room.

"I've got this!" Jessica pulled a golden lever, making the lift move slowly downwards.

I froze a goblin and casted Bombarda to explode it. Mia was dealing with three Ashwinders, which she easily pushed back with Depulso, smashing them on one of the bookcases, making them fall one by one like dominoes.

An animagous wolf Ashwinder attacked Jess, scratching her on several parts of her body. She fell down on the moving lift screaming, but she managed to blow him away with Confringo. "Hurry up!" she shouted. She noticed that the book had fallen on top of the lift when she was attacked by the animagous, thus she quickly jumped on it to grab it.

A Loyalist Assassin performed a sudden hasty attack with its knives on Sebastian, which he evaded perfectly, resulting to the Assassin hitting a chain behind Sebastian holding the lift altogether. Once the chain was cut, the lift fell rapidly, while Jessica was still on top of it.

"JESS!" Sebastian screamed. "Avada Kedavra!" he then shouted, instantly killing the Loyalist. Sebastian knelt on the floor and started to cry. I had never seen him so hurt, his face was twisted with pain. Another goblin attempted to attack him from behind, but he was not moving at all! I knew I had to act quickly, hence I used the Transfiguration spell on it, turning it into an explosive barrel. I lifted the barrel up and threw it on an Ashwinder, eliminating them both.

"There's too many of them!" Mia shouted while casting several spells to prevent the Ashwinders and the goblins from reaching us.

"Sebastian we need to go!" I nudged him, but he would not move, it was like he could not hear me at all.

"She's dead, she – she..." Sebastian kept saying.

Mia came closer and created a shield around us, preventing the goblins from attacking. I was trying to aid Sebastian in coming back to his senses, but all my attempts were unsuccessful.

"She's dead!" he was repeating non-stop, unable to realise the danger we are all in.

"Grayson, I can't hold them for much longer!" Mia was struggling to maintain the shield, as more and more goblins were hitting it with their swords, crossbows and knives. I scanned the room and saw a door, right behind the grand lift's gap, where Jessica fell to her death a few minutes ago. I was using all my strength to temporarily supress my emotions, I had to stay strong and find a way out, I could not give up now!

"Grayson!" Mia shouted and her shield got completely destroyed. I drew my wand and casted Diffindo on the ceiling, cutting the chain holding the chandelier. As a result, the chandelier fell onto the ground, creating a burning flame, slowing down the Ashwinders and the goblins. Once Mia unlocked the door behind us, I put my hands around Sebastian's shoulders dragging him inside the room.

"Sebastian get a hold of yourself!" I started shaking him back and forth in an attempt to bring him back to his senses. Mia barricaded the door by moving a bed and multiple other objects in front of it.

"That won't hold them for long" she expressed while looking for any other useful obstacles to block their entrance.

Sebastian was still on his knees, sobbing in denial of what had just happened to Jessica.

"Sebastian, I understand you're in a difficult situation right now, but we can't stay here" Mia comforted him, giving him a friendly hug. A loud bang on the door made us jump, reminding us that we are not alone in there.

"We need to leave now!" Mia helped Sebastian stand up.

"Here!" I pointed at a metal door, it was indescribably heavy, I could barely open it with my bare hands. I used all my strength to keep it open for Sebastian and Mia, but the door automatically closed, locking me inside a hall.

"MIA! SEBASTIAN!" I shouted at the top of my lungs, but no response.

At that moment, an aggressive waterflow started to pour from a few cylinders on the top of the hall, filling the room with water. It was some sort of a trap that somebody had set up. I used Ancient Magic to create a bubble around me, to avoid drowning, but the water kept on coming with an increasing thrust.

I made my way through the water towards the end of the hall, where I spotted a huge circular door. Unfortunately, I could not cast any spells whilst inside the bubble so I tried to break it by kicking it, but the only thing I achieved by doing that was hurting myself. I could feel the bubble cracking, it was about to break down soon. Suddenly, the door began spinning around and opening up, causing the water to leak out of the room, forming a waterfall, sweeping me away.