On the opposite side of the room was a heavy looking wooden door, "Do you think, they'll attack us if we try to cross the room?" Ron asked.
Lucifer didn't wait for an answer from the other two and casually walked across to the door.
He made it no problem and the other three hurried behind him, "Are you insane?!" Hermione asked him.
"A little," he smirked at her, causing her to frown at him, but it quickly turned to a small smirk of her own.
Harry tried to open the door, and when it didn't budge, Hermione tried the Unlocking Spell, but still nothing, "These birds... they can't just be here for show," Harry said, looking at them. Upon closer inspection, he saw that they weren't birds, "They're keys!"
"What?" Hermione asked, looking up at them.
"Of course, we have to try and catch one for the door I bet. Look over there, broomsticks!" Harry ran over to them and grabbed one.
"But how do we know which one to get, there must be hundreds of them," Hermione said, not really wanting to fly.
"We are probably looking for a big old-fashioned one that's probably silver like the door handle," Ron said in his observation.
"Potter, you're the only one of us experienced on a broomstick at being a Seeker, this is all you," Lucifer told him as Harry mounted the broom.
He looked around and saw one of the keys that looked like it had a broken wing.
Harry flew right for it, but the moment he grabbed the key, all of the others, started to suddenly chase him around.
He dropped the key towards them and Hermione grabbed it, running over and unlocking the door.
She opened it with Lucifer's help, while Harry flew through the door and they quickly closed it, the sound of several dozen keys colliding with the door could be heard.
The next room was rather dark and they couldn't see very far. When they got closer to the center, the lights suddenly came on, revealing, much to Ron's not-so-hidden delight, a giant chessboard.
Lucifer ignored the board and walked towards the other side, not wanting to really waste time.
All the White Pawns suddenly drew their swords and blocked the way through.
But, it didn't make Lucifer stop at all, instead he just turned his neck creepily, and glanced at the White Pawns one by one, "It's my job, let me do something useful for once!"
It was Ron who shouted from beside Harry, after realising it's his moment to shine, "Harry, you should take the place of a Bishop. Hermione will take the Queen's spot, and Lucifer, take the place of a Cas-"
"Shut up Weasely, I don't have time for your silly games.....Und fam na..."
"What are you talking about?!" Harry was really getting confused by Lucifer's actions, "It's obvious that Ron's better at chess, let him do th-"
"Harry, just take a look!"
"Huh...What the hell?!"
The White pieces that just drew their swords, to block the intruder's way, have now directly transformed into ash.....
"What just happened? Aaahhh Look, over at the Black King!" Ron's eyeballs seemed to burst out of his socket, his real shock came when the Black Pieces were also demolished....no, it's just like they vanished in thin air.
"Checkmate...." Lucifer's voice reached all of their ears, it made Ron's mouth open like a dead fish, which is going to turn into so much hate against Lucifer, for taking his glorious moment away from him.
"....." Harry, "L-Lucifer, what did you do?!" he asked while being panicked, feeling a little scared.
"Devil's Snare was Sprout's protection....Flitwick must've charmed those Keys.....And, these Chess Pieces must've been Transfigured by McGonagall... that only leaves Quirrell and Sn- "
"Lucifer, wait for us!" Hermione yelled at the boy's disappearing figure, when she saw Lucifer pushing open the door into the next room, instead of answering Harry or either of their questions, "Come on, let's just follow him!"
That room turned out to be massive, and there was a repugnant smell wafting from somewhere to their right.
Harry, who also hurriedly ran over, and saw another Troll on the floor, "Glad.... we didn't have to fight that one," he said, while gasping for breath lightly.
Hermione ignored it, wanting to get away from this smell, but a sound came.... behind them.
She figured it to be the Troll, but when they looked, something had come from the darkness and began feasting on the Troll, which they now knew to have been dead.
Hermione recognized the creature, "That's a Manticore!" Then, she ushered them to hide behind something, "Why's a Manticore here?!"
"That's a damn good question..." Lucifer peered around the corner of their hiding spot and saw it still feasting, "this creature's skin is resistant to most spells, and its Scorpion tail will kill a person instantly in one strike...." He came to sit back around the hiding spot.
"Daddy, you are scaring me even mo-"
Hermione stopped right there, when she suddenly heard the most horrific sound.
It was like a person was screaming, but very muffled and fragmented.
Harry peeked around the corner and saw it looking right over at them. His blood ran cold, he'd never been more afraid than, that moment.
It suddenly trotted in their direction and Lucifer had them run towards the door.
He knew what would save them, but he didn't know if he could just make it happen like that.
Lucifer looked over and the Manticore didn't move immediately, but when it did, it was fast.
It wasn't running towards him, though, he was going for Harry and Hermione as they were ahead of him.
"STAY BACK!" Lucifer yelled and the Manticore, just moments from pouncing on them, was flung back and hit the wall.
Hermione looked back to him and saw, those eyes which made her feel safe.
Lucifer's eyes were glowing red. She knew about those, with unimaginable destructive power for a First Year.
"Go... I'll take care of this," his voice sounded very ominous.
"Hermione, let's go!" Harry ushered, the bushy-haired girl, who seemed to have just been staring at Lucifer in a daze.
"But, Daddy, he-"
"Lucifer will be fine. He killed that Troll back on Halloween when his eyes glowed red, didn't he?!" Harry tried to see this crazy girl, some kind of reason, as the Manticore was getting to back up.
Hermione reluctantly nodded, and they both ran into the next room, while Lucifer was alone to deal with the Manticore.
When the creature recovered, instead of roaring like earlier, it started to talk with Lucifer, in Hermione's voice. "Don't hurt me, please," it said, slowly approaching him.
Lucifer's red eyes vanished at that moment, not recognising the voice to be coming from the Manticore, so he looked around, but saw Hermione nowhere.
When he faced back to the Manticore, it pounced on him, roaring into his face.
He saw the Scorpion Tail flying towards him. His eyes dangerously became red once again, sending it flying off of him, and into the wall again.
Lucifer also stood up at the same time the Manticore did and raised his hand.
The Manticore suddenly felt a stinging, piercing feeling through its back and out its chest.
Lucifer had forced the Scorpion tail of the Manticore down through itself, causing it to collapse.
It died seconds later.
Even though, he felt himself change back to normal.... there's also a feeling of extremely tired, and collapsing to his knees.
Lucifer heard the door open to his left and was unable to feel Hermione embracing him as she sobbed for his well-being.
She was talking, but his head was pounding and wasn't able to make out any of her words.
She tried to help stand him up, but Lucifer was just dead weight at that moment, "Hermione... go...get out of here...I'll be fine..."
"Daddy, please don't leave me, not again!"
"I am not going.... anywhere...find Dumbledore... or Owl him... let him know what happened..." Lucifer said, finding it hard to breathe for some reason, not knowing about this much negative impact, would be on his body, while using celestial magic.
"But... f-fine..." Hermione stood up reluctantly, leaving him where he knelt.
"Wha- YOU! How could you just sta-"
Lucifer didn't see anything happen for a while, but it didn't feel too long, when Dumbledore arrived.
"My word..." he saw the dead creature, on the far end of the room, "Lucifer, can you stand?"
The boy lightly shook his head, while glancing downwards, feeling really miserable.....to become powerless like this.
"Alright, once I retrieve Harry, I'll collect you as well, okay?" Dumbledore asked, while making sure he heard him.
Lucifer just nodded without a single emotion on his face, and Dumbledore was off, but he didn't see the Headmaster coming back, already lost...