"Snape, here's the play," Sullivan whispered while blasting the mutated monster back again. "I'll set it up—you finish it like this—"
"You sure this'll work?" Snape asked, sounding a little skeptical.
"Not a hundred percent, but we've gotta try something. If it flops, we bail."
"Fine. Watch yourself," Snape said with a quick nod. He knew they couldn't drag this fight out much longer.
The two split up. While still firing at the monster, Snape started slowly circling toward the Hopping Pot.
They'd run the same fake-out a few times already. The Pot had taken a couple of hits, but since Sullivan and Snape couldn't actually hurt it, the cauldron didn't seem too worried.
On Sullivan's side, the second Teemo's Disruptor pulse fired, he raised his wand. "Incendio!"
His wand turned into a flamethrower, spewing a huge fire serpent that swallowed the monster whole. But after eating so many fire spells already, the creature had adapted. It charged straight through the flames and swung a massive fist at Sullivan's head.
Sullivan looked exhausted. He only half-dodged. His protective charm kicked in, wrapping him in a silver shield. Even so, the monster's raw power sent both the shield and Sullivan flying like a pinball. He bounced across the ground a few times before crashing down and lying there, apparently unable to get up.
"Su!" / "Mr. Su!" Snape and Teemo shouted at the same time. Teemo quickly blasted away the Inferi lunging at Sullivan.
"Now!" Sullivan suddenly yelled, pushing himself up onto one knee.
The second he heard the signal, Snape spun around, pointed his wand at the Hopping Pot, and roared, "Levicorpus!"
It was one of the few spells that actually worked on the damn thing—probably because it had legs. The giant one-legged cauldron flipped upside-down and dangled in the air.
"Hahaha! Not this again! Useless! Totally useless against me—" The Hopping Pot laughed wildly, completely unfazed even while hanging.
But this time neither Sullivan nor Teemo followed up. The instant it was dangling, Snape canceled the spell. The Pot's laughter cut off mid-sentence as it slammed into the ground.
The Hopping Pot had no clue what Snape was doing. A simple fall meant nothing to it. What it didn't notice was the black shadow that shot out from Sullivan's robe the moment it started to drop.
Moving almost too fast to see, Coal Ball darted under the falling cauldron, dropped a small square package, and vanished again—all in less than a second.
THUD!
The Hopping Pot landed upside-down with a heavy crash. It still hadn't realized anything was wrong—most of its attention stayed locked on Teemo to make sure he didn't Apparate the group out.
Then a massive wave of danger hit the Pot (if it even had a heart). Before it could figure out where the feeling was coming from—
BOOM!
The explosion launched the Hopping Pot straight into the sky.
The black shadow had been Coal Ball. The package she'd planted was Sullivan's old C4-style magic bomb—one of his early alchemy experiments.
Even though it was made with magical materials, the blast itself was basically a Muggle explosive.
The Hopping Pot looked exactly like a stainless-steel basin kids flip over a firecracker during Chinese New Year—except this one went flying with a deafening bang.
For a split second everyone—Sullivan, Snape, Teemo, Coal Ball, and even the mutated monster—looked up at the soaring cauldron.
The Hopping Pot wasn't completely destroyed, but its body had been ripped wide open. It looked like a giant metal flower had bloomed on its single leg.
Three seconds later the massive brass leg crashed back down, spearing itself into the collapsed dome of the temple like some bizarre piece of modern art.
"You— You actually broke me!" the Hopping Pot screamed. "I am the Hopping Pot! I can grant your wishes, I can—"
Its voice cut off abruptly.
The entire secret realm began to shake violently. Every Inferi collapsed where it stood. The black slime covering the mutated monster started peeling off in thick sheets.
Sullivan rushed forward and stuffed the damaged leg of the Hopping Pot into his undetectable extension bag. "Teemo—time to go!"
Just then a faint blue ghostly figure rose from the disintegrating monster. It stood on top of the creature's body and gave Sullivan's group a deep bow.
"Thank you," the spirit said softly.
Sullivan didn't have time to ask what he was thanking them for—whether it was for freeing him from that monstrous form or for destroying the Hopping Pot. Teemo had already activated Apparition.
The world twisted. When they opened their eyes again, the three of them were back at the stone platform where they had first entered the realm.
The platform was cracking apart and glowing with blinding light. The human-skin book had already caught fire.
Before they could react, the platform exploded with a deafening bang. Stone shards shot out like shrapnel and knocked all three of them flat. Pure physical damage like that barely registered for wizards.
They looked at each other and burst out laughing. Teemo had avenged his old master. Sullivan had the Hopping Pot's remains. Snape had several of its potions to study. All in all, a very successful trip.
But before they could enjoy the victory, a cold voice rang out from above them.
"Who are you people? What have you done?! You've destroyed my homeland!"
The three of them looked up. Floating in the air was a towering figure—easily over three meters tall.
Huge bat-like wings stretched from his back, flapping slowly as he glared down at them with icy fury.
Sullivan recognized him instantly. It was the Vampire Count, Dracula. Only now he looked significantly larger and more powerful than the last time they had fought.
After escaping last time, Dracula had spent a while recovering his strength before returning to Ireland. He wanted revenge on both the damn Hopping Pot and the nosy wizard who had interfered.
But when he arrived, his homeland was gone. He found the ruined stone platform and quickly learned from the remnants that the wizard and the Hopping Pot had dragged the entire town into an alternate dimension.
Without a key to enter the realm himself, Dracula had decided to wait. He found a place nearby to stay.
He never expected the secret realm to collapse so soon.