A new layer of ice covered the vault. James and Regulus noticed the difference. This ice was a bit duller in color and gave off more cold. Luckily, they had taken the potions. Otherwise, they would have been turned into blocks of ice like Allan.
'It's real,' thought Snape, who didn't trust in the face of the information James had given him.
"Why is there a room with such a powerful curse in Hogwarts?" asked Lupin. Everyone had the same question on their minds. Hogwarts was supposed to be a safe educational facility for the students.
"Let's start looking. We need to find a lock so we can put the key in," said James, and they all split up. They knew their time was limited.
James went to one of the sides of the hexagon where the ice knights had been before they activated.
The niches were now empty. Looking around, he noticed a strange symbol at the top of the wall. He looked to his left and noticed Regulus, who was also looking at one of the sides of the hexagon.
"Hey Regulus, is there a symbol there too?" asked James, raising his voice for me to hear.
"Yes. This symbol appeared on the old parchment that Eustace gave Allan," said Regulus, moving closer to James so he could look at the other symbol.
"Are they the same?" asked James.
"No. There are slight differences. Here and here," said Regulus, pointing his finger at the slight differences. When his finger touched, the symbol it sank in as if he was pressing a button.
A soft magical glow emanated from the symbol and above it a lock appeared out of nowhere.
James and Regulus looked at each other in surprise, "It was unintentional..." said Regulus, who didn't think this would happen.
"It was easier than I imagined," said Sirius, who was in the back with the others looking at the lock.
"I doubt it's that easy. It could be a trap," snorted Snape, annoyed at Sirius's nonchalant attitude.
"It could be. Each symbol has slight differences. Each could be linked to a specific lock," Regulus said, examining the symbol more carefully.
"Wait for me. I'll go check another symbol," said James. He quickly reached another side of the hexagon and touched the symbol. However, nothing happened. It was hard. He couldn't press it like a button.
"Strange..." said Regulus when James told him this information.
"Maybe we have no choice but to use this lock anymore. Since the button was pushed," Lupin commented, and they all nodded in agreement.
"So. Let's find out what's behind this door," said James, placing the key and turning it.
A clattering of old gears began to be heard for some reason. Underneath the symbol, the ice wall shifted and revealed a room on the other side.
James wanted to pull the key out of the symbol, but he couldn't. It was locked. It was locked. No matter how hard he tried he could not retrieve the key.
"Looks like there's no choice but to go in. Is everyone ready?" asked James, and everyone nodded. Nervous faces could be seen despite everything from the excitement of an adventure.
Before entering, he tried to look around the room on the other side, but for some reason, he couldn't see anything. It was a strange feeling. He knew he could walk and get to the room, but he couldn't see inside.
'Well, let's hope it's the right one,' thought James walking. As he passed through the door the others saw James disappear and could no longer see him no matter how hard they looked through the door.
The first to follow James was Gwen, followed by Sirius, Lupin, and Regulus. Snape was the last.
As expected when Snape reached the room the door closed again. A wall of ice shifted. It looked as if there had never been a door there.
"If we die here no one will ever find us," commented Sirius.
"Don't say such things," said Lupin with a grimace.
The room was huge. It wasn't made of ice. It resembled the classrooms in the dungeons. Where they studied Potions classes, only much bigger. It was wide and long.
James could tell that at the other end of the room was a row of five normal knights. Each one held a sword. They weren't ice. They were normal like the ones you meet in the halls of Hogwarts.
"There's something behind those knights," Regulus said, adjusting his sight.
James saw a sort of pulpit similar to the ones churches use to prop up and read the bible. Only on this one was leaning the same symbol as the door. The symbol was made of stone and was the size of a hand.
"I guess we should grab that thing so we can get out," said Sirius, and just then the five knights started walking towards them at a moderate pace.
'They are slower compared to the ice knights,' thought James, watching the knights. The ice knights had incredible speed. They would have reached them by now and started attacking them.
Instead, these knights were marching at a steady pace.
When the knights were at a closer distance the first to act was Sirius. He threw a Diffindo at the head of a knight.
The knight's head was cut clean off, and he fell to the ground. Within seconds his entire body went still, and he collapsed to the ground.
"That was easier than expected..." said Sirius with a strange expression.
Before anyone could agree with Sirius, the headless knight on the floor vanished. He turned to ashes. Near the pulpit, two more knights emerged out of nowhere and began marching towards them.
"Shit," Sirius muttered.
"They will multiply if we kill it. We must get to the symbol and destroy it" Regulus said as they had destroyed the symbol earlier with James when they shot ice bolts at it.
They all nodded and started heading towards the pulpit. It didn't seem like a very complicated task. Since there were six people the knights didn't seem to be very strong.
The knights did not cut spells with their weapons, their speed was average, and their intelligence seemed lower than the ice knights. They just had to get them out of their way and not kill them. That way, they would not multiply.
However, life was not that easy. Lupin cast a Flipendo on a knight to get him away from them and open the way. When his spell hit the knight, it turned to dust, and three more knights appeared near the symbol.
Snape seeing this used a Depulso charm to push the knight away with more control, but it didn't work. As soon as the knight was pushed it shattered, and this time four knights emerged.
For every knight destroyed, one more arose. First, there were two, then three, and so on. This was not good news. There were now eleven knights heading their way. They were outnumbered in a matter of seconds.
"Damn knights. Why are their defenses so weak?" said Sirius with an ugly expression. If they kept this up the room would fill up with knights, and they would be like ants.
"At this rate, we'll be crushed," said Lupin, not knowing how to attack the knights.
"Shall we try a spell that just stops their movements?" asked Gwen.
"It might work, or it will self-destruct, and five more knights will emerge," said Snape with a grimace.
"Try it. Just with one," said James, and Gwen threw an Immobulus at a knight. At first, his movement stopped, and then he started shaking and shattering. Five more knights emerged.
"This is not good... It seems that with the slightest magic reaching them they will be destroyed, and more and more will be summoned," Regulus said.
They tried just to go around them to get to the pulpit, but the knights besides wanting to kill them were protecting the symbol with all their being. It seemed that they did have intelligence when it came to protecting the symbol.
In an oversight, a knight attacked Sirius, who defended himself with Aeromanteo. The attack speed of these knights was not great. He was used to dealing with James' fast spells.
However, when the Aeromanteo touched the knight's sword it caused it to shatter, and now six extra knights emerged.
"What now!?" asked Sirius as he backed up with the others. There were twenty knights, and they could only run away. If they decided to send a spell at them no matter how weak it was they would double up more and more.
They couldn't run forever. Their endurance would be exhausted. They were wizards, not fighters. Also, they were between eleven to thirteen years old, so they had less stamina than an adult.
James was trying to think as fast as possible to find a solution. If he used his telekinesis when his magic touched the knights they would be destroyed since it was still magic. So he dismissed that idea.
'So... We just have to fight like a knight would,' James thought as he took advantage of the fact that the knights were a good distance away and from his wallet he pulled out several swords.
Thanks to training his telekinetic ability, he always had several swords on him. He gave one to each member of the group, who looked at the weapons with confused expressions.
"Yes, magic destroys them as soon as it touches them. We have to fight with physical objects," James explained.
"I guess there's no other choice," Regulus muttered, holding up the sword in disgust. He considered it a muggle activity to fight with swords.
"Don't make that face. I've always wanted to have a duel to the death with swords," Sirius said with a slight smile, raising his sword and standing incorrectly on guard.
Snape, Lupin, and Gwen understood James' point and accepted the swords. They had no choice but to try this.
'It's heavy,' thought Gwen as she adjusted to the weight of the sword.
"Gwen takes this too," said James, passing a shield to the blonde. Higher on his list of priorities was her safety.
"Why just me?" asked Gwen, grabbing the shield.
"It's the only one I have," replied James.
"It's heavy," said Gwen, noticing the shield was heavy.
"You can give me the sword and just use the shield to defend yourself. All we have to do is fight our way through," suggested James.
"I can attack too, James," said Gwen, though she was happy to note James' concern.
"Hey, stop talking! They're coming!" shouted Sirius as he took cover with his sword.
A knight arrived and struck towards him. Somehow, he managed to defend himself, but he felt his arms turn to mush. He couldn't take many more blows.
Thanks to the slowness of the knights, Snape, who was next to Sirius, swung his sword at the arm of the knight who had attacked. The sword shattered the arm, which was not very resistant.
Lupin took the opportunity and gave a thrust in the chest of the knight destroying him completely. Luckily for everyone, the knight did not regenerate and stopped multiplying.
"Well done! That's the way!" said Sirius with a smile. Snape made a barely visible grimace, and Lupin smiled. He had enjoyed smashing the knight to smithereens. It was relaxing.
They didn't have time for further conversation because four more knights jumped on them. Gwen and James stopped talking and fought amongst themselves.
There were six of them, and they had to make their way through twenty knights. However, they were not idiots. They were trying to lure a group of four or five towards them, destroy them run away, and then do the same. Thanks to the fact that they were not very fast and the room was big, they could do it and not be surrounded.
James after destroying a knight with Regulus' help, noticed that another knight had hit Gwen's shield, and she was barely standing.
In a few seconds, he reached her side and cleaved with a diagonal cut the hand of the knight holding the sword. Gwen let go of the shield and with her sword cut off his head.
"Phew... Thanks," said Gwen, wiping the sweat from her forehead. She had never done so much physical exercise. Besides, even though they weren't very dangerous the slightest mistake and the knight's sword could give you a fatal wound.
"Are you okay?" asked James, worriedly approaching Gwen.
"Yes. Just tired. It's hard to take the blows. Maybe I should do more physical exercise," said Gwen, who was having difficulty keeping her arms up.
James with his wand cast a resistance charm on Gwen. A spell within healing magic that restores an individual's stamina to some extent.
"Better?" asked James.
"Yes. Thanks. Your healing magic is very useful," replied Gwen with a smile. She generally doesn't like others to worry about her, as she knows how to take care of herself, but with James it's different. She likes it when he shows her concern.
'It's addictive. Maybe I should act more tired. That way he'll show more concern and be by my side,' Gwen thought seriously.
"Look at them. They look like they're having fun," said James, looking towards the group of four people surrounding two gentlemen as if they were criminals about to rob a poor victim.
"While they are having fun let's destroy that symbol," said Gwen.
"That's fun. Should we use magic to summon more?" asked Sirius with a slight smile as he dodged a sword.
"Your hands are shaking, Black. You don't look like you'll last much longer," said Snape with a slight smirk.
"Shut up. You're the same way. I'm surprised those skinny arms can hold a sword," Sirius said with a slight smirk.
"I've defeated more knights than you. Five to be exact," said Snape beginning to argue with Sirius as to who defeated more knights.
Lupin gestured to Regulus, and between the two of them, they smashed a knight's legs apart, then smashed his head with both their swords. While Sirius and Snape argued they defeated the last knight between the two of them.
"That's it," Regulus said, sitting down on the ground and breathing heavily. It was only about 15 or 20 minutes, but he couldn't take it anymore. His arms were heavy, and his heart was beating too fast.
Sirius and Snape were in the same condition. Only Lupin seemed to be a little better. As they rested they heard the sound of a wall shifting. They turned their heads and could see that where they came in was open again.
"Come on. We've already wasted time here. We need to find the door that helps us close the vault," said James.
"Did you destroy the symbol?" asked Regulus, standing up, and James nodded. It was as easy as that.
Before they left the room, they made a quick inspection and found nothing. No treasures, no hidden messages.