Harry Potter: The Invincible Stag
Chapter 147: The White Door

Disclaimer:

Harry Potter and all of its characters belong to J.K. Rowling.

I own nothing but the original characters I make.

"Dialogue"

'Thoughts'

-Author notes-

Chapter 147: The White Door

"Ahhh!" The two girls were screaming at the top of their lungs.

"Would you quit it already? And stop moving so much," James complained. He was trying to focus on levitating while holding each of them in one arm.

"But we are going down!" Andromeda exclaimed.

That part was true, at least. After jumping into the bottomless chasm, James made use of his levitating charm to attempt to reach the other side. However, as the seconds passed, the group was slowly losing height.

At this rate, they would miss the other side of the cave and fall into the hole, just like the round boulder had done moments ago.

"I never tried to carry two people while using this… it is not meant for that…" James said.

"We are not going to make it," Bella said.

They were still moving forward as well, but there were still a good fifteen feet until they could reach the platform ahead of them.

But they had lost so much altitude that they were almost at the point of going beneath the platform.

James had his wand grasped tightly in his right hand. "Bella, use your legs to grab onto me. I need to use my wand now." To do that, he had to let her go.

Bella used her arms and legs to wrap herself around his body, not really concerned with how embarrassing her posture was at the moment.

James was now able to freely move his hand. He pointed the wand downward and pushed as much magic as he could. "Torqueo!"

A powerful gust of wind emerged from beneath them, pushing them upwards with tremendous force.

"Whoa!" Andromeda cried, grabbing James' face and almost pushing it into her breasts.

Thanks to the wind, they were able to regain altitude and made it across the chasm safely, reaching the platform on the other side.

The landing was a bit rough. James' feet touched the ground first, but he could not keep his balance while carrying the two girls in such an awkward position.

They fell onto the floor with a loud thud.

"Ouch!" Bella complained when her elbow hit the ground, and she rolled herself away from them.

She recovered her balance and glanced at her sister and James to make sure they were okay.

"Hey!" Her eyes opened wide with shock.

"Hmmmp!" James had ended up beneath Andromeda, and she was unintentionally crushing his face with her generous meat bags.

"Andy, get off him!" Bella shouted at her sister while a tinge of redness covered her cheeks.

"Oh dear…" Andromeda recovered her senses and pushed herself off the boy. "Sorry about that."

"Hufff… it's okay." James shook his head and stood up. 'They are surprisingly big…' he thought. She always wears loose robes, so one cannot tell.

"They are much bigger than they look, huh?" Andromeda saw the expression James was making and commented with a playful smirk.

"Andy!" Bella huffed.

"Haha, oh Bella, you have nothing to be envious about. You are still growing." Andromeda chuckled.

"S-shut up already!" Bella shouted.

James looked at the girls and sighed. 'I suppose this is better than having them panicking.' After all, this had been a close call.

They were now safely standing on a stable platform, but on the other side of the cave, everything had already collapsed.

He conjured a few more orbs of light to get a better look at where they were.

The platform was formed out of the rock walls of the cave and only had around twenty feet to every side.

Around the middle of the platform, there was a small door made of some pristine white stone. Countless symbols were carved over its surface, and it lacked any obvious way to open it.

"Don't touch it!" James exclaimed when he saw Bella about to touch the door.

She was startled. "Sorry. I wasn't thinking. The surface looks so smooth that I had the urge to feel it."

"You think there is a trap on the door? Shouldn't we be close to the end already? We survived so much to get here…" Andromeda asked.

"I think so too. But we cannot discard the possibility of more traps being present. Until we leave this place behind, don't lower your guard. Be careful where you step, and don't touch anything." James gave them the same warning as when they first entered the tomb.

James then scanned the door, looking for anything that looked dangerous or out of place, but couldn't find anything. "It doesn't appear to be any tricks here, but the door is definitely enchanted."

"I recognize the symbols this time," Andromeda said. "They are Celtic runes. They are the predecessor of the system we use nowadays, but there are still many similarities."

"Can you tell what it does?" Bella asked her sister.

Andromeda had a deep frown on her face. "Some of it…" she pointed at the bottom part. "There is a detection enchantment, and that one on the lower part… is an explosive one."

"What?! That thing can explode?" Bella exclaimed.

"Yes," James confirmed her fears. "Basically, if you cannot figure out how to open it properly and try to force your way in… the door will explode and presumably destroy the platform where we are currently standing."

Their faces went pale. This platform was the only thing preventing them from falling into that bottomless hole and surely dying.

All around them was nothing but darkness waiting for them.

"Can we leave this place in any other way? Like Apparating or a Portkey?" Bella asked.

"I haven't tried it yet, but maybe we should," Andromeda said.

"I am not leaving this place without the prize at the end. But I can understand if you wish to do that," James said. He was not going to have another chance to acquire this item if he left now.

The entrance was now destroyed and unusable. If he didn't succeed, it would become impossible to return here.

"Doesn't that diary you have give you the answer for this?" Bella asked.

James negated in response. "This is where that expedition ended. The man who survived must have escaped after avoiding being killed by the boulder. Although it doesn't explain how he escaped…"

"Do you know how to open the door then?" Bella looked at him.

"I'm sure I can figure it out," James said with confidence.

"Then I'm not leaving," Bella finally said.

"Bella, come on…" Andromeda glanced at her for a moment. She knew Bella better than anyone else, and seeing her current expression, she knew how impossible it would be to convince her to leave James behind.

"Sigh… fine. But I want you close to me at all times. If things get too dangerous again, I'm pulling us out. There's no way I'm letting my little sister die in a place like this." Andromeda had her wand well secured in her hand.

Bella didn't smile often, but this was one of those rare times. "Thanks."

James left the sisters to have their moment and approached the door. "Now… how do I open you?"

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