Chapter 5: The Nevermore Ruins
The night was a vast, cold blanket, and the Forbidden Forest loomed before them, its trees whispering warnings on the wind. It felt like they were stepping into a storybook, but one with a much darker ending than they were used to. Leo pulled his night cloak tighter, the fabric rustling softly as he and the group—Wednesday, Enid, Agnes, and Lila—made their way to the tree line. Pixel, his tiny, brave familiar, scurried ahead, his little body barely a shadow in the moonlight.
"You sure about this?" Enid whispered, her voice a mix of awe and fear.
Leo gave her a confident nod.
"Pixel knows the way. The trees are just being dramatic."
Agnes stumbled over a gnarled root, and Leo's reflexes, honed from a life of playing video games and a new body, kicked in. He caught her by the arm, steadying her.
"Graceful as ever, DeMille," he quipped, and she laughed, a playful illusion of a graceful curtsy shimmering around her.
"Hey," Enid said, her voice teasing. "Are you gonna put a 'Hashtag Outcast Pride' sign on the entrance to the ruins? That's so… modern of you."
Hermione, who had joined them, a determined look on her face, chimed in.
"Actually, that's a brilliant idea! We can adapt it for the rally. A symbol of unity."
The group moved forward, the crunch of leaves under their feet a constant, nervous rhythm. The air grew colder, the fear more palpable. A few Hufflepuffs they passed on the way had whispered, "Dangerous place," their eyes wide with fear, and the warning hung in the air like a ghost.
Pixel returned, a small, scorched hydra scale in his mouth. He dropped it into Leo's palm.
"Accident residue," Wednesday noted, her eyes narrowing. "The curse… it's still here."
The air thickened, a low hum of residual magic filling the night. They had reached the ruins of Nevermore. The castle, or what was left of it, stood like a ghost, its broken towers reaching for the stars.
The chamber's entrance was almost invisible, hidden behind a cascade of thick, ropy vines. Carved into the stone, almost illegible, was a riddle. "I speak without a mouth and hear without ears. I live in two worlds but belong to neither."
Leo stared at the riddle, a sense of familiarity nagging at him. "I know this… I know this from somewhere. The Basilisk. The Chamber of Secrets… it's all here. But the riddle… it's different. It's about the curse. It's about the Beast Echo. It's about me."
The stone began to glow, the words shifting and dancing, morphing into a mix of Hogwarts and Nevermore symbols. Wednesday, her eyes narrowed in concentration, stepped forward.
"An echo," she said, her voice flat, but a hint of excitement in her tone. "It's obviously an echo."
The door groaned, a low, grinding noise that scraped against his nerves, and slowly, it slid open, revealing a gaping black maw.
"Dissect?" Leo said, a nervous laugh escaping his lips. "Your specialty?"
"My specialty," she confirmed.
He took a step forward, his foot catching on a loose stone. He stumbled, and Enid, with a laugh, caught his hand.
"Smooth, Benedict," she teased, her hand warm and solid in his. He squeezed back.
The darkness swallowed them whole, the creaking door closing behind them with a heavy thud. The air was thick, and the silence was absolute. He could hear his own heartbeat, a frantic drum against his ribs.
"The memory… why is it so fuzzy? I know I've been here, or somewhere like this, before. The Basilisk… the Chamber… a sword. It's all there, but the details are a haze. Like looking through a window smeared with mud."
He looked down at his feet, at the ground. There were no footprints. Only the echo of the past.
[ADAPT, KID—ECHOES LIE.]
The chamber was damp, a single, glowing orb of rune-lit magic on a pedestal at the center. On the pedestal, a stone tablet. It was cold to the touch, and ancient. It was a tombstone and a warning. It told the story of the Beast Echo curse. It spoke of a powerful magical accident, a curse born of a botched ritual, and of the Outcasts who were petrified by it. The Nevermore shutdown, he realized, wasn't a Ministry decree. It was a cover-up. The hydra hadn't just attacked the school. It had unleashed a curse.
He reached out, his hand hovering over the stone. He focused his beast-speaking, and a low, guttural rumble vibrated in the walls.
"Curse lives," he whispered.
"Ministry created this?!" Hermione asked, her face a mask of horror. "They used this curse… to justify shutting down Nevermore? It was their fault all along?"
[BAD NEWS: THAT CURSE IS 90% 'TURN YOU TO STONE' AND 10% 'GIVE YOU NIGHTMARES.' GOOD NEWS: YOU'RE ALREADY A NIGHTMARE.]
"Nightmare status: achieved," he quipped, a tense laugh escaping him.
"Stone garden party?" he muttered to himself, trying to lighten the mood.
"Party foul," Enid giggled, her voice a soft, welcome sound in the oppressive silence.
Hermione looked at him, her eyes burning with a righteous fury. "We have to expose them. We have to tell the world. Together."
"Together," he agreed.
The tablet, now that they knew the truth, was no longer just a warning. It was a weapon. The key to ending the curse.
[WELL, THIS JUST GOT DARKER. LITERALLY. BRING A FLASHLIGHT NEXT TIME.]
The resolution hung in the air, a victory and a new burden. The knowledge was theirs now. And with it, a new sense of fear and purpose. They knew the truth. Now they had to survive it. The true test of their alliance wasn't in finding a secret, but in confronting the enemy who had created it.
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