Chapter 247. The Paris Catacombs. Part 3. Surprise.
For the next half hour, the wizards pressed on through the tunnels, covering at least two kilometers. Given the number of turns and descents they had to navigate in such a short time, even Severus felt dizzy. But the bones were endless. They lay scattered in nearly every passage, except for the narrow paths the group walked along.
Besides the bones, Severus also noticed the walls. Some were covered with strange symbols and French words. Elsewhere, he found Muggle cigarette butts, glass and plastic bottles, and even a pair of sturdy gloves. That suggested Muggles had passed through recently: the dates on the bottles were from 1977, as were the batteries.
But those weren't the most interesting finds. Along the way, amid all the refuse, Severus saw many small graves, crosses, and even several deep pits filled with bones. That answered the question of where the rib cages, pelvises, spines, and hand and foot bones had ended up.
Of course, the deeper the group descended, the fewer human remains they encountered, but it still surprised them. Severus was struck once again by the sheer luck of this world.
Besides the fact that the Devils had been sealed away by someone long ago and humanity still existed instead of being wiped out, this place, because of its weak magical background, had never turned into an undead lair, which was especially remarkable given the volume of death energy hanging in the air.
As they walked, the wizards kept talking about various topics. Walking in silence was hardly pleasant, especially in such a gloomy, unpleasant place, with the crunch of bones scattered underfoot. Perenelle took an active part, telling Severus about the history of Beauxbatons and describing those incredible landscapes and views that could only be seen there…
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Another ten minutes later, after descending a long, badly uneven staircase, Flamel stopped.
"From here on, use the Bubble-Head Charm," he said, pointing toward the next turn, where a purple haze drifted. "That's a poison released by Amorphensia. One breath will give you a long and painful death, but you already know that. It's just strange…" The old man frowned. He had been rather quiet for the last few minutes, and so had his wife.
"Is something wrong?" Severus asked, puzzled by Flamel's odd reaction since they'd begun their descent.
"No… nothing. Perhaps I was mistaken." Pressing his lips together, he shook his head, drew his wand, and conjured a bubble "mask" for himself and his wife that covered their faces. Severus opted for a simpler barrier, a sphere around his head.
"This will be more comfortable," Severus replied calmly, catching the couple's glances before turning his attention to the smoke. "The poison's maximum range is only three kilometers, and we're already close… I can't believe it's this simple, especially with my luck."
After that, they went on, but now in silence, slowing their pace a little and stepping more carefully, mindful of where they put their feet.
But they hadn't even made it five hundred meters when, around the next bend, they stopped again. Two withered bodies lay there, tightly embracing each other, dressed in Muggle clothing. From the bags beside them, it wasn't hard to guess who they were.
"How did they get down here?" Perenelle asked, genuinely astonished, the question directed at no one in particular. She had personally cast Muggle-Repelling Charms on this place and was certain no Muggle could get past them.
"Most likely, they were Squibs, or had some artifact that allowed them to negate your charms," Severus said thoughtfully, stroking his chin as he walked toward the bodies.
"I agree," Flamel said with a slight nod, following Severus, who stopped in front of them and began searching through one of the bags. "What are you looking for?"
"Here… this." He took out a small stone engraved with a strange symbol. At the sight of it, understanding dawned in Nicholas's eyes. "They were simply unlucky enough to have it with them… I suppose you could call it an artifact, though barely. It's just a protection rune that canceled out your charms."
"You're right; most likely they were Squibs as well," Flamel agreed. A small flask of transparent liquid appeared in his hand, and under Severus's interested gaze, he poured it over both bodies. At that same moment, right before their eyes, the bodies began to dissolve. Within seconds, no trace of them remained, only the bags a little farther off.
"That's quite an interesting potion…"
"Nothing special about it, just a byproduct of one of my studies." Smiling awkwardly, he slipped the flask back into his sleeve, though it was hard to tell whether he was telling the truth or just being evasive.
"I see. Prepared for everything, are you?" With a slight grin, Severus looked him straight in the eye as he got to his feet. Flamel's expression didn't even flicker; he just kept smiling innocently and carrying on as usual.
Realizing he wouldn't get anywhere that way, Severus decided to change the subject. "Will you share this miracle potion later?"
"Oh-ho-ho, of course, of course, I still have plenty of it."
"Thank you."
Perenelle watched this strange conversation with no particular desire to get involved, though she understood perfectly what Severus was hinting at and knew what her husband was leaving unsaid.
"Let's keep going. You can finish your conversation at home, somewhere calmer," she said wearily, drawing the attention of both wizards. They glanced at each other and smirked at the same time, which made her eyelid twitch.
"All right, dear, let's go…"
The rest of the journey proved calmer, with almost no new discoveries, if you didn't count the latter half of the route, which they had to navigate through caves, following traces of dried blood that formed a path leading in the direction Flamel was taking them.
That, of course, alarmed them, because it meant someone had managed to find the entrance, hidden as it was by illusions and a barrier. How they'd done it was a question they intended to answer soon.
Severus also noted the purple roots spreading throughout the cave. They towered nearly fifteen meters high and stretched almost five times the length of the Great Hall at Hogwarts, surrounded by uneven walls, with water dripping from the ceiling.
The roots themselves had a purple hue with pointed ends, and closed buds a couple of centimeters high ran their entire length.
But alongside the living ones, the wizards saw that a large portion had already dried up. That made Nicholas and Perenelle tense. They remembered this place well and knew exactly how many plants usually died in such a span of time.
The fact that more than half had disappeared was bound to alarm the couple.
Severus was calmer about it. The important thing was that, judging by the roots, some part was still alive, and two would be enough for his potion.
Still, the fact that something like this had happened made him move more cautiously.
Finally, another half hour later, the group reached the right place. But what greeted them as they approached shook the Flamel couple.
The walls around a small passage were completely black. If they hadn't been protected from the poison, they would have immediately smelled the acrid stench of burning, but even without it, the charred roots told them everything.
Severus's gaze, sweeping across the destruction, caught a strange glint reflected in the light of the crystals hovering around them. Curious, he headed toward it, leaving the stunned couple to recover.
"This..." Reaching the object, Severus saw a short, burnt stick with a white crystal at its base. "Now I understand..."
"Mr. Prince, did you find something?" asked Flamel, now recovered, noticing Severus's movements.
"I can tell you this much: it's definitely the work of a wizard." Turning toward them, he held up the remnant. "Most likely, someone used an extremely powerful fire spell and tried to burn all the plants, but in the end, judging by this, lost control and was consumed by the flames." Taking out his wand for effect, he aimed it at the broken magical tool and said, "Virgula Reparo." Right before the astonished eyes of the two wizards, it reassembled itself from ash within a couple of seconds, returning to its original form.
"May I?" the grim old man asked, extending his hand.
"Of course." Severus handed him the wand. Flamel pointed his own wand at it and whispered something. Then, as if his suspicions were confirmed, a disappointed sigh escaped his lips. "Aside from the last spell, Fiendfyre, the previous nine were mostly unlocking, locking, and light charms. But how did he manage to pass through the barrier without even damaging it?"
"New spells are invented every day, and even I have a couple that could slip through your barrier without leaving a trace," Severus said, clapping him on the shoulder to console him. "And isn't it a good thing that the plants survived a spell like that?"
"This is a matter of honor. I built that barrier myself, from scratch. The fact that someone could overcome it so easily only proves my own incompetence and overconfidence."
"And isn't that a good thing?" Severus asked, genuinely puzzled, which rather took the elderly couple aback. "When you have something to strive for, when you don't stand still but keep improving, creating better artifacts or spells? Isn't it good to have a goal? And who said he overcame it easily? You're overthinking it. In the magical world, nothing is impossible and nothing is perfect: every spell can be defended against; every barrier has weak points; any curse can be lifted; the effect of any potion can be weakened or eliminated entirely by taking another one before or after it. There's nothing perfect in the world, and that's a good thing, because otherwise there'd be nothing to strive for. That's my opinion. So if I were in your position, I'd be very glad, because it would mean I could keep improving, keep building and strengthening the barrier, and ultimately try to achieve something close to ideal."
Listening to this speech from a young man not even twenty years old, they were genuinely surprised that these words came from the lips of a boy who was effectively lecturing Nicholas Flamel himself, a man whose name and achievements stood alongside Merlin's.
At the same time, Flamel felt deeply ashamed of his behavior and his words, while Perenelle, seeing her husband's reaction, could barely hold back her laughter. It had been a long time since she'd seen this side of him.
Coughing a couple of times and casting a resentful glance at his wife, whose face now wore a cheerful smile, he said, "Perhaps you're right… Well, let's go in." He decided to change the subject, feeling thoroughly awkward about the whole situation. "And we should put this place back in order…" He started toward the entrance.
"No need. I'll take all these plants with me. I've prepared a suitable artifact for them. As you can see, it's dangerous to leave them here, and if one person found them, others will be able to as well," Severus explained, following him.
"Hmm… perhaps that's for the best…"
Clambering up a small slope, the group froze at the entrance. A colossal cave opened before their eyes, half of it burned to ash by some unknown wizard, the other half covered in vegetation in every shade of purple. The place reminded Severus of that small corner of the Magical Jungle that was blanketed only in poisonous herbs of roughly the same hue. The difference was, here he sensed not a single living creature.
"Apparently… I was a little overconfident when I said I could carry this whole forest with me." Catching Flamel's mocking glance, Severus felt somewhat embarrassed and narrowed his eyes, realizing the alchemist had deliberately neglected to mention the size of this place just to put him in an awkward spot. "One to one," Severus huffed, a trace of displeasure in his voice as he walked past Flamel, who now wore a triumphant grin. Perenelle, watching, only shook his head wearily. "Like little children…"
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