Chapter 36 - Cursed Vault of Fear (1/2)

On the following week, everyone found Neal's behavior strange as he's spacing out all the time. He was even scolded by Snape for making common mistakes while concocting a simple Sleeping Draught potion which was very rare as he had perfected the potion in his first year.

He kept on thinking about the Mysterious entrance without even having his dinner or lunch properly. After thinking for a long time, Neal decided to enter the hidden room inside the Restricted section as it was disturbing him daily.

At first, he thought of informing Prof. McGonagall but then realized that he doesn't have an answer if they ask what is he doing in the restricted section after the closing hours are ended in the first place. Not to mention, it also might not be as dangerous as he thinks.

On Saturday night, he slowly walked towards the Restricted section while avoiding all ghosts and Filch with Isle's help. After a while, with a suitcase in his hand, he stood before the entrance again and spoke out the spell upon which an entrance is once again revealed.

He walked towards the doorstep by step and opened it with slight nervousness while Isle coiled around his arm like usual. As he entered a normal dim-lit room, all of a sudden, several people appeared before him.

Except that these people look exactly just like him except that they were in dark robes and all have a lot of cruelty and evilness in their hazel eyes. They were like 10-15 in the number who surrounded him and started speaking in a parseltongue which made him shiver in fear without knowing why.

At that moment, Neal remembered the suitcase in his hand and opened it which suċkėd all of them inside of it. After all of them disappeared, he wiped his sweat, ”what was that? Is some sort of spell? I don't understand why am I feeling fear in my heart when I saw myself in that form. Isn't it just a robe change?

Wait a second. Didn't I just read about it last week? Boggarts are amortal shape-shifting, non-beings, that takes on the form of its observer's worst fear. They are Boggarts, right? Who the hell put that many Boggarts in the room?. Thank goodness, I brought the suitcase with me”.

Then, as he looked around, he saw a vault in the corner of the room. Not big. Just the size of a trunk. Neal hesitated to open it with hands as he feared there might be traps. So, he used the wand to open it. Inside of it, there's nothing but a huge parchment folded.

Neal picked it up and as he unfolded it, he was taken back in a surprise. He looked at it again carefully, ”wow, this is a complete detailed map of the Forbidden forest. With this map around, it becomes very easy to collect various potion ingredients.

Neal smiled and switched the suitcase to muggle worthy. He put the folded map inside it and returned to his room without being spotted by anyone.

He laid on the bed feeling with ease, ”well, I gained something after all”. Then suddenly he woke up as he remembered something important, ”Oh, no, I forgot that they are sent to Zora's habitat. I have to hurry and save her”.

He immediately opened his suitcase and stepped inside it. As he entered Zora's forest habitat, he saw the basilisk was running away while several roosters are chasing it”.

He pulled out his Basilisk wand and spoke in parseltongue, ”Awake my wand”. As he felt that his wand was activated, then he looked at the Basilisk and shouted in parseltongue, ”Zora, come to your master”.

Hearing his voice, the basilisk started to rush towards him in a hurry, trying to escape from the Roosters, while hissing, ”master, help me”. Just as some of them found him, they changed into himself wearing black robes.

He fired a spell, ”Riddikulus” at them one by one turning them into clown toys temporarily. Then, he concentrated on all the Boggwarts which were transformed into clown toys and threw them into a different habitat which is the smallest habitat.

It is his first creation after working for so long. It was just a barren land around the size of a bedroom with nothing else added. He threw all 15 of them especially here and separated them because amortals like them can't die and he also wants to research them in the future.

After returning to his room, he slept until morning in peace.