Chapter 2: A heart-stopping experience!

Everything inside Zephyr told him not to follow the instructions of the creepy portrait. This seemed like the beginning of a bad horror movie, so any sane person would have already left. Though most don’t have an immortal maniac after their heads, so Zephyr figured he could allow himself some madness.

“I’m going to die soon anyway. Does it really matter if I do it a bit earlier?” He muttered, trying to stay brave while staring at Barnabas the Barmy, who abandoned his everlasting quest to teach a bunch of trolls ballet, to stare at him in the same creepy manner. Oh… the trolls were also staring at him. Now it’s official. This is the most bizarre thing that happened to him this year.

Barnabas pointed behind him. “Ask for a room that solves your problem.” With that, he fell silent.

Zephyr turned around and looked skeptically at the blank wall. ‘You want to tell me that the solution to my problem was always here?’ He naturally knew about the Room of Requirement. It was the place where he studied Defence Against The Dark Arts under his sister this year, alongside other students. Not that it helped him much. It supposedly gave help to people in need. But he thought that the room had its limits, or his sister would have received way more help than she got.

‘Or maybe she simply didn’t ask?’ Zephyr thought as he walked past the wall for the third time. A large but simple door appeared, and after taking a big breath, he entered.

“Woah…”

The room changed drastically from the last time he was here. A place for learning defence spells became a room the size of a large cathedral with high windows. It was filled with hulking towers made of a wide array of objects. The room now looked like a…

“A treasure vault! I found an honest-to-God magical treasure vault…” He said in an excited whisper, past desires flaring up. Zephyr remembered the times when he and his sister would hide in the library from Dudley and his gang, back in primary school. Dudley, being barely able to read his own name, let alone a book, made the place a perfect hiding spot. There, he would discover his favourite activity. Reading fantasy books about heroes who went on great and magical journeys.

Zephyr was jealous. He wanted to be a hero as well.

Not because he wanted to save people per se. No, he was more interested in the grand adventures, their newfound powers, the battles against menacing foes, and the fantastical treasures they found. Everything those heroes did, be it good or bad, was exciting. Even their deaths were never dull. It was bewitching for the little, sickly Zephyr, who owned nothing besides Dudley’s old clothes and the scorn of his relatives accompanying it. So one could guess his reaction when he found out that he and his sister were magical…

Though whatever foolish dreams and hopes that revelation sparked, it was ruthlessly squashed by the cold and brutal reality. He found out the true extent of his illness, his incompetence for magic, and the dangerous fate that awaited his sister. From there on, he abandoned any dreams he had, and put all his efforts into helping his sister as long as he could. Sadly, it didn’t work out well until now. Far from it…

To his shame, though, back when he was younger, a tiny part of him was jealous of his sister’s new life, which was shaping up to be quite similar to his book heroes…

Zephyr was brought back from his trip down memory lane by the creaking of an old and dusty walking armour. It motioned for him to follow it.

“Here we go.” Zephyr said, as he went to follow the armour with a spring in his step.

He was no longer fearful as he was excitedly looking around, spying all kinds of things. On his walk he saw countless books, cloaks and hats, corked bottles with unknown contents, jewels, winged catapults, an ominous tome with the title — How to murder your family members and get away with it. Inheritance theft was never easier! —, several rusty old swords, and a heavy, bloodstained axe.

Finally he found himself in front of a golden chest, gleaming from the light of a nearby window. The walking armor next to him seemingly lost all its life and keeled over, indicating that the chest is what he seeked.

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Zephyr kneeled down and inspected the chest, quickly finding a problem. ‘It’s locked.’ Looking at it, he got the strange feeling that, no matter how hard he tries, he could not open the chest with brute force.

Looking around and not seeing any keys, he figured he needed a password. So he laid a hand on it and said,

“Open!”

Nothing. The only thing that Zephyr got was silence.

“Give me what I desire!”

“Reveal your secrets!”

“Open sesame!

Zephyr quickly got frustrated. Nothing seemed to work. Being at his wits’ end, he tried one last thing.

“Please, help me save my sister…”

But the only thing he received was a cold shoulder. He sighed. “I guess this was a dud.” Did someone played an elaborate prank on him? He let his eyes sweep over his surroundings and chuckled. “Well, no matter. I still found something worth my trouble. If I only could use the extension charm… I should ask Hermione. I bet she can cast it. No way I’m letting this stuff go—”

Suddenly, he heard the click of a lock. He took a step back as he looked down at the now open chest. His surrounding was bathed in light from a glowing, rainbow coloured orb, that slowly ascended from the opening. For a moment Zephyr was staring at it fascinated, but he was quickly startled when the orb flew towards him… and entered his chest? “Huh?”

Then there was pain.

Zephyr was not unfamiliar with pain. Thanks to his illness, he experienced it many times. But the agony he was feeling now was unlike any other. It felt like all the bones in his body were slowly being broken and mended afterwards. Repeatedly. As he laid down on the ground, screaming his lungs out, his only thought was how to make the pain stop. But no help would come, and for a while, it would go on.

Zephyr, drenched in sweat, was slowly getting up, the pain finally over. The only thing heard in the room was his shallow breathing. “Ugh… what by Merlin’s old and wrinkly balls was that?!”

But sadly, his problems for the night were not over. His shallow breath did not calm down, in contrary, it was getting shorter. His heart was fluttering, and not in the romantic way. And he started to feel even weaker, which he thought was not possible. He knew these symptoms… His heart was stopping!

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