Harry Potter: I am the Legend

Half an hour later.

Hoffa's sluggish thought process finally crossed the desert of mental blankness and returned to reality. His entire body was drenched in cold sweat. He had once again fallen into that terrifying state of mindlessness—and at such a critical moment! It was nothing short of a death sentence.

Darkness surrounded him, and all he could hear was the heavy thumping of his own heartbeat.

He tried to get up and take a look around but found his legs wouldn't move. He tried moving his arms, only to realize they were pinned beneath chunks of stone.

As he struggled slightly, he felt something soft pressing against the top of his head. It felt... odd.

He nudged it again, twice.

Smack!

A hand wrapped tightly around his neck.

A low, furious voice hissed from above:

"Move one more time, and I'll strangle you!"

Facing the terrifying prospect of being choked to death, Hoffa finally understood his current predicament. He and Ossivia were crammed into a space about the size of a washing machine drum. His head was nestled just under her chest, and his legs were awkwardly trapped against her waist and thighs. The position was far too suggestive.

He could clearly hear her heartbeat.

Hoffa dared not move a muscle and obediently lay still against Ossivia's abdomen.

Gradually, a burning sensation crept over his face—not just from embarrassment, but from pain. Excruciating pain.

"Did you hit me?" he asked quietly.

Ossivia let out a mocking laugh.

"Oh, I wish I could kill you! What the hell is wrong with you? Do you have to pick the worst possible moments to mess up?"

"I can't control it!" Hoffa protested.

"Then why did you even use it?" she growled back.

"You're the one who taught me body transformation. Now you're blaming me for using it?" Hoffa snapped.

Before he could finish, her grip on his neck tightened again. Through gritted teeth, she said,

"You've had days to fix this problem, haven't you? Do I have to teach you everything?"

"The school confiscated all my belongings and locked them in the Ravenclaw dorm. How was I supposed to look anything up?"

"Always making excuses. Can't you go to the library?"

"Oh, so it's all my fault, huh? You're always right about everything!"

"I'm just stating facts. You refuse to admit your mistakes, let alone take responsibility for them."

"Damn it!"

Hoffa, thoroughly irritated, twisted his body, trying to free one of his hands, but it was no use.

"Don't move!" Ossivia barked.

But Hoffa only struggled harder.

"It's always me helping you, me finding clues, me running with you. And now, when things go wrong, it's suddenly all my fault?!"

"Move! Go on, I dare you!"

With her one free hand, Ossivia grabbed a fistful of Hoffa's hair.

"Let go!"

"Don't move!"

"Let go of me!"

"I said, don't move!"

Ossivia tightened her grip.

"You're as stubborn as a rock! A disgusting, smelly, useless rock from a latrine!" Hoffa finally lost his temper and launched into a verbal tirade.

"No, I'm not," Ossivia replied coolly, but the increasing force of her hand betrayed her growing anger.

"You're strange, rigid, inflexible—and you don't even know how to dress properly!" Hoffa spat. For every word he uttered, he lost several strands of hair, but that didn't stop him from continuing.

"Have you heard of Minerva McGonagall? Oh, probably not. Let me tell you—she's a seventy-year-old lady. And the way you dress? Exactly like her. Exactly like a seventy-year-old granny!"

"None of your business," Ossivia retorted. Her words grew fewer as her fury increased, but she spoke volumes through her actions—by tugging even harder on Hoffa's hair.

"Oh, sure, not my business," Hoffa sneered. "Why would anything be my business? I'm just air. After I kill the Half-King, I'll dig a hole and bury myself. How did I get stuck with a mentor like you? This is the worst luck of my life! Let me tell you, no one will ever like you!"

"Ha."

Ossivia let out a short, enigmatic laugh, her knuckles audibly cracking.

Hoffa turned his head and glared at her. "I regret ever agreeing to Dippet's plan to come to this stupid place in France!"

"Hmm," she responded flatly, but she yanked him so hard that part of his body was freed from the rubble.

"Is brute strength the only thing you're good at?"

Tears welled up in Hoffa's eyes from the pain, but he refused to stop talking. Instead, he gave a cold laugh and pressed on,

"Is this how you treated your brother? Always yelling and hitting whenever he didn't listen? And now you're left regretting it after he's dead?"

"You bastard! Say one more word—just one more!"

"One more word," Hoffa taunted.

As soon as the words left his mouth, Hoffa felt as if his scalp was about to separate from his skull.

"I told you, don't move!"

Ossivia's muscles tensed, her voice cold as ice.

"You—"

Rustle.

At that moment, the sound of scales sliding across rubble came from above. Both Hoffa and Ossivia froze in alarm.

Hoffa immediately stopped his verbal assault, and Ossivia's grip on his hair loosened slightly.

A guttural voice spoke in the language of the lake monsters:

"ghaH naDev?"

Another replied:

"legh 'oH SuD ghaH."

The faint sounds of their conversation were accompanied by the crunch of stones being moved.

Thud!

A piece of rock was lifted away, and dust cascaded down in a thin stream.

A faint flicker of light broke through the crevice.

In that dim light, Hoffa could make out the dust smeared across Ossivia's face and the fine sheen of sweat on her forehead.

Neither dared to move. Sweat began to bead on Hoffa's own brow as Ossivia's tense fingers relaxed into a looser grip. Both could feel the quickening rhythm of each other's heartbeats, a reaction triggered entirely by the changed circumstances outside.

The voices of the lake monsters continued:

"rut jIjangnIS 'e' vIHar.""legh jatlhqa'."

As they spoke, they removed another rock.

More dust fell, and the narrow crevice was bathed in slightly brighter light.

Then—ah… ah…

Ossivia's chest began to rise and fall as a faint wheezing sound escaped her.

At that moment, Hoffa's worst fear came true.

Because Ossivia was lying on her back, the falling dust from the stones disturbed by the lake monsters had drifted into her nostrils. She wrinkled her nose, and it was clear she was about to sneeze.

Ossivia reacted quickly. Releasing Hoffa, she raised her only movable arm and pinched her nose tightly.

But this created another problem.

When the urge to sneeze hits, pinching your nose only makes it stronger.

Sure enough, her body instinctively arched, lifting Hoffa slightly. Her eyes shut reflexively, and her mouth opened wide.

Hoffa's foot twitched involuntarily. His heart felt as though it had leaped into his throat.

The lake monsters were right above them, and so close that using magic—or even activating a mental force field—could risk immediate detection.

In a split second, Hoffa made a desperate decision. With all his strength, he craned his neck forward and opened his mouth.

Before Ossivia could sneeze, Hoffa clamped his teeth down on her lips.

Yes, he bit her.

Like a clothespin clamping onto a torn piece of fabric, Hoffa forcefully latched onto Ossivia's upper and lower lips with his teeth.

He effectively sealed off the impending sneeze, transforming himself into some kind of mythic figure—like Da Yu taming the floods or Nuwa patching the heavens.

Hoffa tilted his head upward and remained perfectly still, firmly biting her lips.

Not a single movement.

Ossivia, mid-sneeze, froze. Her arched back went rigid. Her cheeks puffed out, then deflated, then puffed out again. The sneeze was forcibly aborted, snuffed out before it could be born.

Her green eyes snapped open, filled with shock, horror, confusion, disbelief, and utter bewilderment.

The two stared at each other, their faces so close that their images blurred. In Hoffa's view, her green eyes seemed to overlap due to a visual distortion, making them appear unnervingly surreal.

For a moment, they were locked in this bizarre and awkward posture.

Ossivia pinched her nose and arched her back.

Hoffa craned his neck, baring his teeth as he bit her lips, like someone gnawing on a strip of dried pork.

And less than twenty centimeters above their heads, the two lake monsters moved back and forth, continuing to clear away stones.

This was far from a pleasant experience.

Dust kept falling, settling on their faces. Face to face, the two were now covered in dirt.

The lake monsters muttered more words:

"Qo'."

"Ha'."

Then, with a jab of their spears against the stones, the sound of scales scraping against the rubble resumed. After some grumbling, the creatures left.

The light gradually faded, and Ossivia's face disappeared into the darkness.

For what felt like three tense seconds, neither of them moved.

Then, trembling, Ossivia's fingers brushed against Hoffa's hair.

Hoffa flinched, releasing her lips.

Ossivia gasped for breath in silence, her chest heaving violently.

In that split second of chaos, she had held her breath for nearly a full minute.

The taste of blood lingered in her mouth.

Hoffa, too tense in the moment, had bitten her lips hard enough to draw blood.

"I… I'm sorry," he stammered after a moment, finally finding the only words he could muster.

Ossivia didn't respond.

Hoffa shrank back, withdrawing his head as far as possible to put distance between them, not daring to move.

By now, his chest and back were drenched in sweat, despite the freezing winter air.

Ossivia wasn't much better off. Her sweat-soaked black hair clung to her dust-streaked face. This was undoubtedly one of the most humiliating days of her life.

For a while, the two of them simply lay there, panting.

Hoffa muttered again, "Sorry."

To his surprise, Ossivia recovered more quickly than he expected. She spoke calmly and softly, "It's fine, I just got a little carried away."

"It was my fault," Hoffa grumbled. "If I'd acted sooner, we'd already be at Hogwarts by now."

The two fell into silence for a moment. Ossivia seemed to have exhausted all her English vocabulary.

She simply said, "Oh."

"What's the situation exactly?" Hoffa asked.

"We can't get out."

In the darkness, Ossivia's quiet voice explained, "The whole chapel has collapsed."

"Can't you use magic to move these rocks?"

"I can't."

Ossivia lowered her voice further, "Even if I could, in your current state, trying to get you out would be a death sentence."

"Can you notify the Aurors?"

Hoffa turned his head to ask.

This movement crossed another unspoken boundary, and Ossivia lightly pressed his head back down.

"How are you holding up?" she countered.

"Still fine, I can manage magic," Hoffa assured her.

"Still feeling drained?"

"As long as there's no human transfiguration involved, I'm fine."

"Alright. We're probably in a secret passage right now. The entrance is blocked by stones. If you can clear them before those lake monsters find us, we should be able to escape through the passage."

Hoffa activated his mental field and scanned the area.

Sure enough, beyond the rubble beneath them was a narrow passageway leading in an unknown direction.

Gritting his teeth, Hoffa shifted backward slightly.

"Hiss—"

"Sorry, bear with it for a moment," he said.

Leaning against Ossivia's heaving chest, he clasped his hands together.

"Fracturing Grip."

Immediately, the surroundings began to tremble gently, and rubble started to dislodge and fall.

Outside, loud shouts from the lake monsters echoed—they were alerted.

With no other choice, Hoffa intensified his magical output.

The rubble below them swirled and split apart like a kaleidoscope, revealing a narrow passage.

Under the force of gravity, the two of them tumbled down into it.

The moment they hit the ground, Ossivia pushed Hoffa away, quickly stood up, and brushed the dust off her clothes.

Above them, the sound of scraping scales was relentless. A large group of lake monsters was swiftly converging on the source of the commotion.

Hoffa scrambled to his feet but tripped almost immediately in the pitch-black environment. He stepped on something protruding and barely managed to grab Ossivia's arm to keep himself from falling.

"Lumos."

He whispered the incantation.

A bright glow floated out of his wand, illuminating their surroundings.

The ground was riddled with thick roots breaking through the stone tiles, one of which had tripped him. Overhead, droplets of water had frozen into icicle-like stalactites, densely hanging from the stone ceiling.

The air here was heavy and stale but still breathable. Above them, faint footsteps and the sound of blasts could be heard—the lake monsters were still moving about.

"Hurry," Ossivia urged.

"This is such an ancient passage," Hoffa whispered. "It must have been unused for centuries."

"Forget the passage. Hurry up and get out of here."

"Where do you think this leads?" Hoffa asked softly.

"No idea."

Ossivia warned, "Watch out for traps."

Looking at the densely packed plant roots along the sides of the passage, Hoffa thought that even if there were traps here, they must have been destroyed long ago.

Sure enough, as they walked through, nothing happened.

Eventually, they reached a small hidden chamber. The chamber was empty, but at the far end, Hoffa saw a faint glimmer of light.

Peering out, he realized they had passed through the mountain from the abandoned chapel on the slope, emerging at the lakeshore at the base of the hill. Here, Hoffa could see enormous, intertwined roots frozen along the lake's edge.

Through a person-sized gap between the roots, he could glimpse the white expanse of the frozen lake and, in the far distance, the tiny silhouette of Hogwarts Castle.

"Fantastic," Hoffa exclaimed, turning around excitedly. "We've found a way out!"

But as he turned, he noticed Ossivia standing still, staring intently at the chamber wall.

"What's wrong?" Hoffa asked softly.

"Look."

Ossivia raised her wand, and the glow illuminated the wall.

Under the light, Hoffa saw a large, intricate design carved into the root-pierced wall. It depicted three concentric rings: an outer large ring, a middle smaller ring, and, at the center, a peculiar eye-like symbol.

A deep groove cut through the center of the three rings, with an inscription:

"Wealth, power, fame, in exchange for infinite knowledge."

Hoffa was stunned to find writing in such a place.

Immediately, he lit his wand and turned around for a closer look.

He realized the chamber had probably been an ancient storage room. If it hadn't been abandoned, those in the past might have rowed boats to this entrance and carried coffins up to the chapel through this passage.

The evidence lay in a stone platform in the corner, which likely once held coffins but was now empty.

Above the stone platform, however, four frescoes were intricately carved.

With the flickering glow of his wand, Hoffa stepped closer to examine the ancient, faded murals.

The first depicted a burial scene. Four simply robed figures stood around a black coffin at a funeral.

The coffin bore a carving of a goat's head and the same three-ring design.

At the center of the rings was the eye symbol.

The sight of the coffin struck Hoffa with a strange sense of familiarity, though he couldn't recall where he had seen it before.

Moving to the second fresco, he saw the same four figures standing around the coffin.

This time, one of them—a witch—was placing a crown on top of the coffin.

Ossivia pointed to the mural and said in a suppressed tone:

"That's the key my family was entrusted to keep. My father guarded it until it was taken by the Half-Blood King."

"A crown?"

"Yes."

Hoffa was taken aback. "You're saying the crown worn by the Half-Blood King is one of the library keys?"

"Exactly."

"Why didn't you mention this earlier?"

Ossivia shrugged. "You didn't ask."

"Damn."

Hoffa steadied himself and raised his wand to look further.

In the third fresco, the witch was removing her bracelet and placing it on the coffin.

"A bracelet... another key?"

Hoffa took a few more steps to the final fresco.

There, the witch was pressing a coin into the center of the eye symbol within the three rings.

"A crown, a bracelet, and a coin?"

A chill ran through Hoffa as he rushed back to the inscription on the wall:

"Wealth, power, fame, in exchange for infinite knowledge."

Wealth, power, fame...

Wait.

Hoffa suddenly realized something.

"A commemorative coin... the woman wearing a crown and holding scales... Ravenclaw's commemorative coin."

His whole body went cold as he muttered a curse under his breath.

"Sylby, damn you!"

Without hesitation, he turned and bolted toward the passage's exit, squeezing through the narrow opening.

Ossivia, startled by his rabbit-like reaction, shouted, "What are you doing?"

"The last key is with me!" Hoffa yelled back.

Parting the roots on the wall, he hurried onto the frozen lake, sprinting as fast as he could.

(End of Chapter)

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