The room leading to the entrance of the vault of fear was empty. Not a single person was present. However, James, Gwen, Sirius, and Lupin were camouflaged in the walls with the disillusioning charm.
This spell caused them to take on the exact color and texture of the stone walls. Turning them into a chameleon. The dim lighting of the place helped to camouflage them better.
They did not use the invisibility cloak as Eustace pulled them off Lupin and Sirius. When they rushed out to attack the professor they didn't have time to put it away.
Xeno was gone from the vault. James quickly explained the situation to him. He showed him and handed over the evidence Sirius and Lupin got. Their mission was to find McGonagall to come to the vault as soon as possible.
James decided to stay and wait for Eustace to come out for two reasons. The main one is Snape. He had saved Lupin and Sirius and jumped without thinking into the vault. He couldn't leave him and wait for the other professors to arrive, as they would be late. Eustace could come out at any moment.
The second reason was his invisibility cloak. It was a family heirloom, and Eustace had taken it from Sirius and Lupin. He couldn't let his family heirloom be confiscated by the school, as they would realize he had an illegal item.
James didn't know if he could beat a Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, although Eustace taught useless things he didn't seem weak from what Sirius and Lupin told him.
He had the element of surprise in his favor, but Eustace coming out of the vault would know that someone might be waiting for him, so he would come out with his guard up.
Everyone waited in silence. Each one was guarding a different place. Their wands were ready. Minutes passed until at one point the large stone door began to shake and slowly opened.
This time a little of the inside of the other's vault could be seen. However, no one came out. James instantly knew something was wrong. First of all, the place was dead silent and faint, but audible footsteps could be heard thanks to the atmosphere.
'My invisibility cloak!' thought James. Footsteps could be heard closer and closer to the exit. This was not a good sign. For some reason, Eustace wanted to run away.
However, James had already prepared himself for this possible situation. Near the entrance, two swords began to float. Once they took a height a little less than that of an average person they began to advance at a great speed forward.
Eustace, who was under the invisibility cloak was surprised by this. His surprise did not last long. He quickly removed the cloak and waved his wand.
'Reducto,' thought Eustace, and a flash shot out of his wand. It hit a sword that went up in ashes. All this happened in seconds.
Then he threw another Redoubt at the other sword and continued his march towards the exit. He could not waste any time.
What he did not expect was that his spell was cut off by the sword as if it were nothing, and the sword continued its march towards him.
'What the hell!?' thought Eustace, trying to dodge the sword, but it was too late.
The sword stuck in his left shoulder. A great pain invaded his whole body and he gritted his teeth to keep from screaming.
'It worked,' thought James. He had raised a normal sword and one with the ancient runes that allow cutting spells. This way when the bald guy saw that he could destroy the sword easily he would trust it and let his guard down.
The bad thing is that he hit his left shoulder, and the professor was wielding his wand with his right arm.
"Expelliarmus!" shouted James quickly. He didn't want to give his enemy time to think. A flash of red light shot out from a dark corner of the room.
Eustace saw the red flash out of the corner of his eye and nimbly flicked his wand. A barrier protected him. Although James' throw was fast he had to shout to cast it which made it easier to detect.
'Non-verbal magic...' thought James with a grimace.
"Finally you showed up James Potter," said Eustace with a devious grin looking towards James who was no longer camouflaged in the wall.
"I don't know what you're talking about," said James with his senses on full blast. The sword was still stuck in Eustace's shoulder.
"Don't play dumb. I know all about it. You and your little friends looted the ice vault and created this stupid plan to trap me," said Eustace with anger hidden in his tone.
Although he called the plan stupid he was very surprised by the plan that some sophomores had created. They had turned the school upside down and he had fallen into their trap.
"What did you do to Snape?" asked James with a dangerous gleam in his eye. The only way the bald man could have found out about all this was to have interrogated Snape.
"How odd. A Gryffindor worrying about a Slytherin. Your friend was tough. Getting into his mind was hard. He has a natural talent for being an Occlumens. However, it was easy after throwing a Crucio at him," Eustace replied with an evil grin.
Crucio. The curse of torture. One of the three unforgivable curses.
'Stupid sword,' thought Eustace, throwing the bloody sword on the ground. He could see some ancient runes. Now he knew why his spell was cut off.
'Bloody bastard, take this!' thought Sirius furiously, throwing a large number of brown spheres. They were stink bombs. Lupin also did the same.
They had their backs to the bald man, and since they didn't have to shout to launch this attack, the stink bombs hit Eustace and exploded in a putrid-smelling brown cloud.
'Tsch already came out the other hidden rats,' thought Eustace angrily, and cast a non-verbal Ventus. The cloud of smoke was easily removed, but James had already acted and cast a powerful Lumos Solem.
Eustace had no way to defend against this. A blinding flash illuminated the entire room. The effect was more powerful as thanks to the dim lighting, the eyes were used to less light. To suddenly have a large flash appear caused maximum damage to the eyes.
"How annoying. Everything is useless," thought Eustace, opening his eyes with difficulty after a few seconds. However, he noticed something strange. His right hand was gone.
His arm was no longer whole. Eustace roared in pain and surprise. His fist was now reduced to a rough, disfigured stump. A torrent of blood began to pour from the stump, as the bald man held his arm and struggled to maintain his composure in the face of the searing pain.
'What happened...' thought Eustace in confusion, looking up and staring at James.
James in his left hand held his wand which was still pointed at the ground. The creepy thing was that in his right hand, he was holding a hand with a wand.
Eustace noticed that the sword he had thrown away was gone, 'How did he do that, non-verbal magic?' thought Eustace in disbelief. He saw the sword near James.
It made no sense to him as James had cast a Lumos Solem earlier. The time interval was too short for him to have cast a non-verbal Wingardium Leviosa.
Also, how did he protect himself from the Lumos Solem? He had a lot of questions in his head.
"Nice wand," James commented as he played with Eustace's severed hand as if it were a baseball.
Lupin and Sirius looked at each other in shock at the scene of James playing with the bloody hand of his enemy.
'Damn I couldn't do anything,' thought Gwen pissed off as she cast a spell towards Eustace.
"Atabraquium!" exclaimed Gwen, and the spell hit the bald man with no trouble.
Eustace's arms and legs were bound by an invisible rope. His defeat was a fact.
"What did you do?" growled Eustace without taking his eyes off James.
Eustace had learned of James and the others' plan to trap him. When he came out of the vault of fear he wasn't worried about these kids. He didn't see them as dangerous enemies.
He wanted to run away because more professors were likely to arrive and he would not be able to defeat them. He had decided to leave Hogwarts this very night.
"I ask the questions here," James said as he tossed the wand to Gwen and Eustace's severed hand near him to watch his old hand.
Since Eustace dropped the sword near his feet James' victory was certain. He only needed a few seconds to distract Eustace and use the sword to attack him. He could have even cut off his head if he had wanted to.
James' telekinesis was key. Eustace would never in his wildest dreams have imagined that a second-year student could use such advanced wandless magic. Just by looking at the sword, he could move it at great speed and from far away.
As the sword was planted so close to Eustace, he could not defend himself no matter how much non-verbal magic he could use. In addition, James used Lumos Solem which did not affect him thanks to his contact lenses.
If it had been a proper fight on equal terms James could not have defeated Eustace. His offensive charms could not hit them, as Eustace knows non-verbal magic and can defend himself without much trouble.
"Go get Snape," James said looking at Sirius and Lupin, who nodded and quickly headed for the vault.
The sword he used earlier to cut off the professor's hand flew smoothly toward James' right hand.
"Wandless magic..." muttered Eustace with wide eyes. He couldn't believe this.
'Let's start with the interrogation,' thought James. He didn't have much time. Xeno could arrive with the professors at any moment. Luckily the fight had ended quicker than he had first calculated.